Musician Couple Facing Jail Time for ... Sleeping!

by SlumJack Homeless · 2010-03-17 07:15:00 UTC
Topics:

A pair of homeless musicians in Santa Cruz, CA, Miguel DeLeon and Anna Richardson, face possible jail time for breaking the city's ban on sleeping outdoors after 11 p.m.

The couple has taken a stand against laws aimed at controlling "transients." Now they face punishment of 15 days in jail, 240 hours of community service and thousands of dollars in fines.

The duo apparently are being singled out and made an example of, since few actual citations for such infractions have ever gone to trial in the past. A full courtroom trial was scheduled for June, but City Attorney John Barisone has added a special "contempt of court" hearing for March 19.

Santa Cruz is one of this nation's cities that has increasingly criminalized people for being homeless, with codes outlawing sleeping in public places (or even lying down) despite its inability to provide legal sleeping places for a reported 90 percent of the area's homeless.

Attorneys Jonathan Gettleman and Mark Briscoe are representing DeLeon and Richardson pro bono.

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) supports the right of homeless people to sleep legally in Santa Cruz -- not anywhere and everywhere, but somewhere. It continues to organize protests on behalf of the couple.

Supportive emails protesting the prosecution (persecution?) of these homeless musicians should go to Mayor Mike Rotkin or City Attorney John Barisone. Letters speaking out on this issue can also go to the local newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Photo credit: mattwi1s0n

SlumJack Homeless has a background in media, business and property management but has been homeless since the summer of 2008.
PREVIOUS STORY:
The Drunken Poor: A Conservative Lie
NEXT STORY:
Sallie Mae Blinks!

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.