JFC, my blogs are depressing this morning, no more time for laying on the couch and being sick – its all out war on those without homes and low-income people when it comes to housing and homelessness – anyone else want to pile on . . . you’re not going to believe this one. I guess they are turning up the heat due to all this activism and support . . .
Stolen from Ed Kuharski . . . thanks Ed!
Dear Chief Wray,
I stopped by your office earlier this afternoon in hopes of having a brief word with you, but I understand you are tied up in meetings all day. I wanted to let you know that sometime between 2:30 pm & 11pm yesterday two of our street residents had their sleeping gear and possibly more removed from where they had placed it behind the bike racks at the cul-de-sac on Carroll Street adjacent to Veteran’s Plaza.
An officer was called about 11 last night to the scene and spoke to several volunteers doing street outreach. He spoke with the volunteers but I don’t think he opened a case. He didn’t check with the Property Room, but assured the volunteers that the MPD had not been involved.
One of the volunteers is a Streets Dept. employee and was able to confirm that Streets was not involved.
This morning the Mall Concourse staff of Parks Dept. were contacted. Laura Bauer returned our call. She reported that she called the lead from last night’s shift. That person’s response: “We don’t have your stuff, we did not remove your stuff and we do not know who removed your stuff.” Laura told me that Mall Concourse is refusing to remove personal belongings and they have told Police that if they want belongings removed, Police need to do it and put it in Police Property. She was unhappy that Officer Nottingham told us last night it wasn’t police without thoroughly checking and does not understand why police sent us to MC.
I contacted Mark Packard at the Property Room about 11am this morning. He checked the records system and confirmed that nothing meeting the description had been checked in or reported since yesterday afternoon.
You should know that one of the two gentlemen, Duane, was among the seven people whose personal belongings were seized and destroyed on October 10th and whom you offered your personal apology at Bethel Lutheran later in October.
We are at an impasse. No one has any knowledge or claims responsibility yet two people have been robbed of their basic survival gear. I am requesting that the surveillance camera recording from the above referenced time period be saved and reviewed for evidence of the responsible party or parties. I understand that D—- and M—- are planning to file reports; that may have already been done.
I am asking you to do what you can to help solve the mystery of these peoples’ possessions being taken.
Further, I am asking you to issue some sort of interim policy & procedure directive to all MPD employees. In my conversations with several staff, both civilian and officers, I can find no one who is aware of any such communication subsequent to the unfortunate events in October. I believe it is generally understood that based on what you assured people of in your apology, you were intending to have a moratorium on further seizures until a new ordinance was passed and policies & procedures were implemented. It would appear that MPD employees have not been given a directive on this topic.
I would be happy to speak with you further regarding this matter. As you know from last week’s Homeless Services Consortium meeting, this is not the only instance of ongoing improper taking & disposal of personal property. Those of us who have come together to try to close the gaps in our environment of care for our street residents are more than willing to participate in a solution to these ongoing harmful practices and lack of proper protection for our most vulnerable citizens.
I can be reached anytime at xxx-xxx-xxxx or at this email address: xxxxxxxxx
Thanks for your time and attention in helping us improve our community.
Ed
Yeah . . . I got nothing else to say . . . just stunned because I know several people who have recently lost their belongings and nothing seems to be changing.
