The first post below is from Robert who contacted Unity and was told Unity is not to blame.   I am putting most of that post below a cut.   Tonight.  Jay responded in a clear succinct way which Jay is very good at.

        When I read that the honchos at Unity were upset an on the verge of tears, I have to wonder if the upsetment arises from

a) Middle Management at Unity really fucked up and have exposed Unity to the possibility of being fined millions of dollars, or

b) The leadership of Unity is scared that their little illegal ethnic cleansing of homeless is now out in the open and the leadership may well be fired by Unity for exposing them to the possibility of massive Federal Lawsuits.

==============================

Jay,
I called the number you gave, and the person who answered (not Martha Kegel herself) said that she was upset at being attacked and, in her view, misunderstood.

As she judged the situation, the staff of Unity was in no way attempting to suppress anyone’s rights or seize anyone’s possessions.  She was nearly in tears at being labeled a destroyer of people’s tents and a dumper of their belongings.  ( Read more... )

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Setting the Record Straight on Unity and the Attack on the Homeless
at the Canal/Claiborne Encampment

Dear Robert,
Hope you are doing well in Vermont and thanks for staying abreast of the continuing social justice struggles in New Orleans.

I am responding to your analysis of  C3/Hands Off Iberville’s work in bringing to light the attacks now occurring on the homeless in New Orleans, particularly the homeless encampment at Canal and Claiborne.

A key problem C3 worked to highlight is this: the tents, furniture and personal belongings of the homeless at Canal and Claiborne are being regularly dumped and destroyed. Who is the culprit identified by many homeless people, and allies that spend a considerable amount of time with the homeless?: Unity of New Orleans.

This indictment has come from not one, but several of the homeless.  Below is a link from the coverage by Channel 26 news, where Louis Coleman, a homeless person who lives at Canal and Claiborne, testifies to having his personal belongings taken away by Unity. Others we spoke with gave similar accounts, including a musician who had his drums thrown in the garbage while he was away from the encampment. An advocate Tom Ahl, who also works with peoples from St Bernard parish, has also testified to similar destruction at the hands of Unity.
http://abc26.trb.com/
(scroll down to July 3rd homeless story)

Thus, this destruction of homeless people’s property (which even federal courts have ruled ILLEGAL, see article below from Kathy Chandler) do not seem to be isolated ‘mistakes’, but rather patterned, intentional behavior. This dumping of people’s property also has to be seen in the context of the planned shrinkage and corralling of the homeless into a small section on the uptown side of Canal and Claiborne overpass.

C3/Hands Off Iberville were requested by the homeless to help organize an event to shed light on what is happening, and Unity’s role. We helped organize the rally and press conference, and are proud of our role. Our primary concern was to highlight and stop these attacks irregardless of whether some non-profit executives and employees would take offense. Again, these attacks are not fabricated, are not wild cliams, rather their veracity are substantiated by the victims themselves.
 

The attacks and the larger picture

The destruction of peoples property and the police effort to further corral the homeless (witness the police barricades placed at Canal and Claiborne on the uptown side) raises a larger issue: Why, with over 12,000 homeless in the city, is so much emphasis placed on removing the homeless from Canal and Claiborne, and before that, the other ‘problem’ of the Duncan plaza encampment?

The reason for the ‘urgency’ of addressing these ‘problems’  by the city, and yes , Unity, is that these settlements , while on one level practically addressing the needs for shelter and security in a context where affordable housing is not available, are also a collective protest by the homeless. The homeless encampment exposes, makes manifest, the deep contradiction of a city---and national-- leadership that says we are recovering, and a homeless crisis that continues to deepen; the encampments  expose the contradiction of the government destroying viable public housing, while blocks away people are homeless. Living in a collective facilitates collective action by the homeless to demand attention to their demands—which are not addressed by being pushed into a shelter or a run down motel where the homeless say they feel like prisoners.   

Thus, the problem of people’s property being destroyed are not the result of 'mistakes', but rather the inevitable result of non-profits—with Unity being one of only many examples—that are ‘reasonable’ and go into partnership with the state.  This partnership inevitably leads to the non-profits agenda being set by the state and the powerful corporate interests  behind them. The destruction of people's property and the corralling of the Homeless by the NOPD and Unity is the inevitable result of this 'realistic' thinking and  strategy

Yes, Robert, you are right the government is not doing its job with regard to taking care of the homeless. The same is happening with health care, with education, with the infrastructure, and numerous others areas. But the solution to this state abdication is not ‘being realistic’ and seeking out a neoliberal solution by setting up a non-profit to help address human need. Rather we need to build a movement that FORCES the state, the only institution that really has the resources to adequately address our housing, health an education and others needs and demands. 

Jay

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Fresno Homeless Residents Win Settlement Over City’s Destruction of Personal Property

SF Bayview, 11 June 2008

$2 million judgment for unlawful seizure ‘unprecedented’

Fresno – United States District Judge Oliver W. Wanger gave preliminary approval Friday to a $2.35 million class-action settlement between a class of hundreds of homeless Fresno residents and the City of Fresno and the California Department of Transportation. The court had already determined that Fresno’s practice of immediately seizing and destroying the personal possessions of homeless residents violates the constitutional right of every person to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The homeless plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Kincaid v. Fresno, were represented by a team of attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC), the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) and the law firm of Heller Ehrman LLP.

“The court’s ruling and the settlement should send a strong message to other cities throughout our country that if they violate the rights of their most vulnerable residents, they will be held accountable,” said ACLU-NC staff attorney Michael Risher.

Plaintiff Al Williams suffered the effects of the raids on three occasions. In addition to losing clothes and food, his wife’s wheelchair was destroyed and her medicines confiscated by Fresno police officers. “I felt like everything was taken away from me, but this settlement gives me hope for the future for myself and all the other people who suffered,” said Williams, who now hosts a local radio show in Fresno.

“Many homeless people lost everything they owned to the City’s trash compactors and bulldozers. With this settlement, they can access what has always been the solution to homelessness: a safe, clean place to live,” said Elisa Della-Piana, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee.

Funds from the multi-million dollar settlement, which attorneys called “unprecedented,” will go to individual plaintiffs whose belongings were destroyed in the illegal sweeps, as well as into an account to provide housing and medical care to the approximately 225 class members.

The case was filed in October 2006 on behalf of homeless people whose personal property, including essential medications, family photographs and vital documents had been confiscated by police and City workers. The court issued a temporary restraining order against the City of Fresno two days later; in December 2006, the court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the City from continuing to seize and destroy the property of homeless people.

( Read more... )

“For the homeless in Fresno, this case has been a watershed event,” said Alexander. “They have stopped the destruction of their property. They have caused new rules on dealing with the homeless to be created. They have gained compensation for the losses they suffered. But most importantly of all, they have shown that in this country, the Constitution applies to everyone and that our federal courts are a place where justice can be found, even if you are homeless and down and out.”

"This painting (circa 1872) by John Gast called American Progress, is an allegorical representation of Manifest Destiny. Here Columbia, intended as a personification of the United States, leads civilization westward with American settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she travels; she holds a school book. The different economic activities of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation. The Indians and wild animals flee."

By Matthew Rothschild, July 2, 2008

(In memory of George Carlin.)

It’s July 4th again, a day of near-compulsory flag-waving and nation-worshipping. Count me out.

Spare me the puerile parades.

Don’t play that martial music, white boy.

And don’t befoul nature’s sky with your F-16s.

You see, I don’t believe in patriotism.

It’s not that I’m anti-American, but I am anti-patriotic.

Love of country isn’t natural. It’s not something you’re born with. It’s an inculcated kind of love, something that is foisted upon you in the home, in the school, on TV, at church, during the football game.

Yet most people accept it without inspection.

Why?

For when you stop to think about it, patriotism (especially in its malignant morph, nationalism) has done more to stack the corpses millions high in the last 300 years than any other factor, including the prodigious slayer, religion.

The victims of colonialism, from the Congo to the Philippines, fell at nationalism’s bayonet point.

World War I filled the graves with the most foolish nationalism. And Hitler and Mussolini and Imperial Japan brought nationalism to new nadirs. The flags next to the tombstones are but signed confessions—notes left by the killer after the fact.

The millions of victims of Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot have on their death certificates a dual diagnosis: yes communism, but also that other ism, nationalism.

The whole world almost got destroyed because of nationalism during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

        Seems to me that allopathic medicine, with their vaccines and antibiotics, poison people with "side effects" while causing more and more systemic imbalances.

        So I stay away from doctors and find alternatives to their medicines.

        There are cases in which people had H.pylori in their gut but never came down with problems which are said to arise from H.pylori infection.

        Humans are a vast ecosystem.  The microflora within us outnumber our cells.  When the ecology becomes out of balance, problems arise. Blaming "germs" for our problems seems to be rooted in the idea that if we got rid of all our microflora, we would then achieve health. From my perspective, it is much more efficacious to work to keep one's ecology in balance and working well together.