Editor’s note: News media all over San Francisco are writing about homelessness this week. We though we could offer a very different perspective. You can see our full Homeless Project coverage here.
Recently while Walking on Division St. in San Francisco with laundry and groceries by a tent city, I was approached by a young news reporter from one of the local mainstream news station affiliates. She was accompanied by another reporter and a cameraman.
She excitedly asked me as if she heard good news that I should also be excited about: “Are you moving?”
To which I replied, “am I moving?”
I was, of course, offended not only that I had just been profiled by how I dressed and looked but that I should somehow feel excited about this.
She of course referred to Mayor Ed Lee’s recent vow to shut down local tent cities “and provide the residents of them with needed social services.” For those of you who don’t understand government double talk, what that really means is he intends to have DPW steal their belongings while the cops arrest, kill or beat them.
I should consider myself one of the lucky ones. I was profiled by a naïve if not overzealous news reporter who, in spite of being affiliated with some of the monsters responsible for the suffering of poor folks, was still pretty much harmless.
Ironically, she is the same reporter who was educated on one of Poor Magazines actions outside of 850 Bryant street some time last year in an effort to get the DA to either bring criminal charges against or stop the eviction of elders.
About a quarter mile from where this occurred, a houseless man who was residing in a tent city on Shotwell street and who would otherwise be known as a community activist Luis Gongora was profiled to death. Shot by police, supposedly for waving a knife at police. Not only do residents of the tent city on Shotwell and 19th street dispute this, so do local building residents.
Several nights later the cops returned slashed the tents of the remaining residents, kicked over a makeshift memorial for Luis, and assisted the DPW in stealing the belongings of the people who lived there.
