This morning the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 (with 3rd District Supervisor Mark Lovelace opposing) to enact an “urgency ordinance” ostensibly designed to address “health, safety and access concerns” on county courthouse grounds. These concerns (or complaints, if you prefer) have accompanied the Occupy protests that have been taking place there since September.
Among other, seemingly redundant prohibitions, the ordinance outlaws all of the following on courthouse grounds:
- “Using” them between 9:30 p.m. and 6 a.m.
- Camping
- Storing personal property
- Erecting structures or securing items to county property
- Obstructing access or interfering with the passage of others
- Using or interfering with county water and electrical services
- Operating a food facility
You can download the draft ordinance — along with a whole bunch of written complaints compiled by county staff — here. One highlight (lowlight?): A letter-writer addresses defecation in the bushes across the street from the courthouse thusly: “Sorry to say, some of us actually witnessed the commencement of the unmentionable deed this morning (not as entertaining as you would expect).”
Another witness to such an event used more colloquial terms: “There was a scruffy guy squatting and emptying his bowels — and I could see his junk.”
Feel free to, uh, deposit your opinions on the ordinance below.
This article appears in School Lunch 2.0.
all of these things are already illegal. since the jail is there, they could enforce loitering.
Thank goodness for Mark Lovelace. I find this behavior by the rest of the Board of Supervisors to be un-American.
About Freaking Time!!!
Maybe we could name this the “Sorry we are not going to let you make people uncomfortable ordinance.” Or perhaps the “Homeless People Shouldn’t Protest” ordinance. Or how about the “Life Isn’t Perfect Ordinance And I Have More Political Power Than You Because I Have More Money” ordinance. Or “Protests Only Allowed When Regularly Groomed and Beautiful” ordinance. I thought Humboldt was above such fascist acts of suppression. There were better ways to handle it.
I attended the supervisors’ meeting. Sad. I felt like the right hand of an empty sleeve.