Dear Starchild and All Other Ships At Sea;
Fiona Ma introduced the assembly bill to go after recycling poachers
who are described as organized raiders with trucks who raid garbage
cans for cans and bottles and newspaper racks for newspapers.
It's not about the momma poppa garbage pickers. The threshold for
asking for an ID and record keeping and writing a check instead of
cash is 50 lbs or about 1,000 cans. Currently In San Francisco,
poachers can be fined up to $500 and get six months' jail time.
According to the bill this is what it is about:
Assembly Bill 1778, narrowly cleared the Assembly Floor with
bipartisan support on Thursday. The bill requires recyclers to obtain
identifying information of individuals who bring in large quantities
($50 or more) of CRV recyclables and newspapers. The bill will also
require that payments of $50 or more be made by check.
Although AB 1778 was opposed by certain recycling companies that
fought recordkeeping requirements, representatives from local
recycler Norcal joined Assemblywoman Ma to support the bill. During
the discussion on the floor, there was some confusion about the
quantity of materials that would have to be recycled. The $50
threshold is equal to 34 pounds of aluminumthe equivalent of 1,000
cans.
Purportedly the garbage rates we pay for pick up have calcualted into
them the recycled cans and bottles and newspapers. When massive
amounts of those items are taken out of the calculations the cost to
everyone rate wise goes up.
Yes more competition for Sunset Scavengers would be nice like from
Golden Gate Garbage. You only have to look at what happened a few
months ago when a contract was authorized to a low bidder for some
specialized sewage pick up but wait it wasn't Sunset or NorCal. The
supervisors immediately over-ruled the bid okay and now the bid is in
court because a judge said it should go to the original authorized
bidder. Need I mention the garbage workers union was involved?
Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Morte ai Tiranni
mesha,
Imposing a fee on homeless and poor people for bringing too
many
cans and bottles to the recycling centers? What a load of bull----
!
Just another attempt to pick the pockets of the taxpayers. In this
case, presumably not only to increase government revenue and give
the
politicians more money to play with, but also to eliminate
competition for the Sunset Scavenger Company, the business granted
a
local monopoly on recycling by SF government officials. I wonder
if
there's any area of city government where they *haven't* tried to
jack up fees in the past few years? I make a point of setting
aside
my more valuable recyclables (cash-redeemable cans and bottles)
and
putting them out on the street, rather than giving them to the
government-favored monopoly.
The info about how the term "Terrorist threats" is being
increasingly used by police to refer to people in domestic
violence
situations as well as protesters and people "resisting arrest" is
appreciated. No doubt cops felt encouraged to abuse the word
"terrorist" by former attorney general Ashcroft, who infamously
accused drug users of "supporting terrorism." I think you're also
correct in surmising that they deliberately choose to apply the
label
to unpopular groups like people accused of battery. Unpopular
groups
are typically the first to be affected by new fascist controls,
because the public is less likely to object to these things being
done to people they don't like -- failing to understand, a la
Pastor
Niemoller's "First they came for the ___" poem, that they could
easily be the next victims of government oppression themselves.
Thanks also for listing the police accountability groups in
the Bay
Area. Please do send me contact info for them, and I'll pass it
along
to various Bay Area Libertarians.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
>> "What we need is more of th
> ose "recyclable only" cages on top of the city's public trash
cans"
>
> I like the idea. L........... !
>
> In our neighborhood (Bayview) most "freelance recyclers" come in
> trucks with the wooden fence on the bed pick up large metal
scraps
> and carton, not bottles and cans.
> They are also Latino, not African American, and do not feud with
> ndividual recyclers.
>
> The funny part of selective police hunting of the poachers is
that
> it does not target the Chinese Seniors who come and "poach" with
> plastic gloves and pinchy things in trash bins all over the hood
> and Candlestick.
> They come out in mass on Game Day, and are not disquieted or
come
> out at dawn not to interface with our local homeless "poachers".
> They generally avoid all contact with locals, including home
owners
> and renters. I have tried to engage with some of them several
> times, as we take pride in my neighborhood in being congenial
and
> friendly, and it was obvious that they sought no local
contact,
> (I got never got anything beyond a mumble or furtive waving of
the
> hand, cultural differences or some kind of apprehension that I
> would attempt to snatch the recycling, I guess ?)
>
> It is like Katrina Factor:
> Black People "loot",
> white people "find"
>
> Here Black People and the Homeless "trash" and "steal", Chinese
> Seniors "clean up", and "supplement their income" ?
>
> The city is trying to suggest to recycling centers that
recyclers
> may incur a fee (lesser proceedings after surrendering
recyclables)
> when they bring over 50 pounds of bottles and cans.
> Again here one may wonder if the fee will be enforced
> indiscriminately, or target poor folks pushing a cart.
> I will definitely watch by Foodco to see what "kind" od folks
will
> be asked to pay the fee
> _________________________________________________
>
> You might remember that since the spring we alerted the greater
SF
> Community to the SF Bayview precinct's intended enforcement of
the
> "trash poacher Law" , which is aimed at criminalizing the poor.
We
> alerted SF ANSWER and Richard Becker promised a mass protest by
> City Hall at the first fine and/or arrest and we were able to
fend
> off this enforcement in BVHP at least until now.
>
> Now Gary Jimenez is gearing up to enforcing the "Trash Poacher
Law"
> in the TL.
> Notice the use of the emotionally charged term "Poachers" to
foster
> hate and fear in our community towards people who depend on
> recycling to survive, instead of resorting to illicit activist
and
> violent crimes.
> "Poachers" in people's consciousness is suggestive of the
> slaughtering of wolves and seals, and devastating natural
resources...
>
> In the same fashion, 4 years ago, the term "Terrorist threats"
> started to be introduced in police reports to describe verbal
> yells from perpetrators of domestic violence.
> It immediately raised a flag for us, thinking:
> "hmmmmmmmm, since there is no community sympathy for
batterers,what
> an inocuous area for crime busters where the term will not be
> disputed, surely there is a departmental strategy to extend to
> other areas of law..."
> Sure enough, a year later, the terms "Terrorist Threats" were
> extended to protesters and folks "resisting arrest".
>
> We questionned Captain Chignell about the use in his newletter
of
> the terms"Suspicious cars", or people "acting suspicious".
> he refused to give a definition of "suspicious" and advised us
to
> go to a legal library and find out for ourselves.
>
> Customarily the police "observe" "suspicious individuals" which
> leads to questionning the undocumented, the Black and Brown, the
> Poor, the Homeless, a group of teenagers exceeding 2 in numbers,
> and people who "appear" Mentally Ill.
> While Racially Biased Policing are illegal, personal property
> seizures before detention are illegal, it is common practice by
SFPD.
> Whenever possible and warranted, we proceed a commendation on
> officers who do a good job to Fong, who never fails to
> enthusiastically thank us and assert that commendations are rare.
> It is a necessary part of authentic Community Policing to praise
> such good behavior, in the hope that it in the ling range it may
> streamline proper officers conduct and permeate through the
> department.
> If you log into RateMyCop.com, once you register you will be
> autorized to enter up to two comments on individual SFPD
officers
> performance. We maxed out on our entries...
>
> A lot of entered comments are by cops praising cops, or
disgrunted
> cops ragging on other cops, but the Police Commission and OCC
> investigators do periodic spot checks on the site. so your
ratings
> are valuable to them.
>
> Since the Copley decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in
July
> 07, no civilian can obtain police records in the State of
California.
> Pueblo in Oakland and Idriss Stelley Action and Resource Center
in
> San Francisco are maintaining their own database of Police
> Misconduct based on clients records, so SOME past police records
> are available through us.
> We also maintain Officers involved shootings records in the
Greater
> Bay Area, which used to be compiled by October 22 Coalitiom,
but
> they lost most of their volunteers to the Anti War movement.
> Bay Area Police Watch, that was a component of Ella Baker Center
> for Human Rights in Oakland, has been phased out.
> So the only current police accountability entities in the Bay
area
> are:
> Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA) in San Jose at DBug
> House, managed by Attorney Richard Konda.
> Berkeley Copwatch (we are opening a SF Chapter in October),
managed
> by Andrea Prichett
> PACH (a newly forming Police Complaint Center -NGO- opening in
> Santa Rosa),
> PUEBLO in Oakland managed by Rachidah of Oct 22,
> and ISARC in SF , our agency, who has been providing training
and
> techincal assistance to CJA and PACH. We operate the only 24 HR
law
> enforcement accountability bilingual hotline for the Greater Bay
> Area, at (415) 595-8251. We are non paid volunteers, under
fiscal
> sponsorship by AGAPE foundation, pending 501-c3, and all our
> services are free.
>
> ACLU does not get involved in direct services, but refer to us
as
> well as the Bar Association where Hali, director of volunteer
> services, refer clients to us.
> This morning, Scott, ACLU attorney, called our hotline, asking
for
> assistance to spearhead a rally and protest by Oakland City Hall
> about the OPD shooting in July of Mac Jody Woodfox, (6trh fatal
OPD
> shooting this year) so I have to leave you for now.... and get
busy !
> if you want personal data and contact info on the folks
mentioned