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Roussan Joshua Collins, who spends all his time (along with our friend Lou Noble) advocating for Anaheim’s homeless, wrote this and asked us to print it:
BOYCOTT DISNEY, LET’S MAKE HISTORY!!
Despite a Federal Court Ruling forbidding police from seizing property of the homeless that is momentarily left unattended (see this LA Times article) it seems to me that Disney and various police in Anaheim care much more about Mickey Mouse’s comfort (I heard the CEO makes over 56 million a year), than the rights of those living on the streets.
The corruption in Anaheim PD runs deep, so much so that even a 59 year old homeless woman is not safe in an open public park from threat of property confiscation by the likes of corrupt men such as Anaheim Police officer Edgar Hampton.
This poor 59 year old homeless woman begged to have her property,(including blankets and MEDICATION) given back to her from this officer, but Officer Edgar Hampton refused to do so, stating this poor woman must call him first to get her property back (even though she asked him to his face before he left the scene). She had temporarily left her property at Maxwell Park near some friends, and came back before this officer left the park.
Various people at the park told Officer Edgar M. Hampton (badge #577 – phone # 714-765-1900) that this property was hers, and even though he knew this woman, he took her property anyway. I then let this poor violated woman use my phone to call this heartless officer as you will see in this video, and Officer Edgar Hampton was nowhere to be found. Her property, blankets and medication were not returned to her.
Of course there are many other officers involved in taking from the poorest in our community, including Officers Beck, Sergeant Louzeau, Officer Bob Conklin, Jacque Laffoon, Srgt. Adrian, and Officer Piscopo. These police officers routinely seize (and, according to some of the La Palma Park homeless) destroy homeless people’s property as the homeless struggle to survive on the streets and alleyways of our not so kind city of Anaheim.
The homeless are often run out of various alleys and sidewalk locations as they seek to find rest…
…and though those sleeping in vehicles now have the right to rest with the passing of AB718, it seems this right still has not reached to those most in need…
[Vern here.] Then Roussan proceeds to call for a boycott of Disney in protest of this treatment of Anaheim’s homeless. I feel this is worth discussion: Not only about the practicality of boycotting such a world-popular attraction (which admittedly SHOULD have lost a lot of goodwill at least LOCALLY with their recent hijacking of the political process to prevent a gate tax for decades to come) but:
- Can we make a credible connection between Disney and this apparently illegal and unconstitutional treatment of Anaheim’s homeless? Maybe we can.
- In what way would a boycott of Disney HELP the homeless attain their natural rights?
- Is there a reasonable DEMAND we could make of Disney, that would help Anaheim’s homeless?
Roussan’s outrage is righteous and justified, and we hope to get continued reports from him on the Anaheim & OC homelessness front. Let’s discuss here at the Orange Juice whether a Disney boycott is something we could do about it.
*We bring to your attention a place called Ala Moana Park in Waikiki, Hawaii. This area is very close to the tourist driven Ala Moana Shopping Center. The Homeless in Hawaii occupied the Park for more than a year. Finally, the Mayor of Honolulu, at the time, demanded that the Homeless be moved out of Ala Moana Park, because they were upsetting the tourist businesses in Ala Moana Shopping Center. The Homeless wound up moving up to various beaches north of Pearl Harbor – and where virtually every beach was covered with make shift tents, dug up holes for their feces and dirty cooking water. Old cars, dogs and children everywhere and It soon became an ecological nightmare. The Governor of Hawaii at the time determined that some sort of housing was in order for the Homeless and under employed who occupied these prestine beach areas. Then the bill came due and people grasped the cost of such a program and the Governor was thrown out and a more economy and budget driven Governor came in to stop the Homeless program. Today, the Homeless are back at Ala Moana Park and Honolulu is suffering the pangs of not dealing wtih the homeless issue. This should be a cautionary tale for our Board of Supervisors who come to work every day and have to walk around the Homeless that occupy the County, State and Federal Government grounds in Santa Ana.
It’s not much of a boycott if you can’t afford it in the first place. (I’m referring not solely to the homeless, but probably to most people in OC.)
I don’t see much point in a boycott. The Disney properties are packed to the gills; they keep raising prices to find the price point that will try to keep people out, but to no avail.
Having Disney and their properties here is great — IF they are a good corporate citizen. (And I don’t mean dolign out a little well-aimed charity to offset the huge heists.) I don’t think that a boycott encourages them to be a good corporate citizen. I think that telling the truth about what they’re actually doing here — Puumba-sized warts and all — has more of a chance of doing that.
Dan Chipmunkski says most families in OC can “swing” a day at Disneyland. I don’t know if that’s true but I certainly hope that “most” families in OC with four or five hundred bucks of disposable income can find something a lot better to do with it.
If they can pay $102 for a ticket (as we’d expect them to do next year) then they can pay $105 without blinking. If they can’t pay $105, then they likely can’t pay $102.
A boycott to Disney is a fly on the back of a hippo, simply inconsequential. And honestly, the average citizen finds it hard, if not impossible, to make the connection between Disney and homelessness. What we need is a credible, academic and unbiased study on the possible connections between tourism and poverty, so that once and for all we can either address the problems at their root or back down if it is proven that Disney is indeed the “economic engine” that powers our regional economy.
There is no question Disney generates money, and yet Anaheim has one of the highest poverty levels in the State, and one good look around Anaheim tells you the money is not making it out of the Resort into neighborhoods. I made that claim over at Cunningham’s fever swamp and Chumley challenged me to post photos of just ONE pot hole in my part of town. Matt does not permit us mere peons to post photos (and sometimes not even comments) but one half block west of my own home is one of the bigger potholes, ironically in front of the late Carl and Margaret Karcher’s longtime Anaheim home. Equidistant to the east, are weeds in the gutter at least a foot tall.
If the economic engine is running, the transmission seems busted. We now know (thanks to disclosures provided FOR THE FIRST TIME that only 25% of Anaheim’s General Fund comes from tourism, meaning for YEARS City Hall has based their spending plans and subsidy programs on erroneous claims of 50% of the City’s coffers being filled by Mickey. Yeah, if I spend based on an over estimation of income I get in trouble too. My husband would yank me up short pretty fast, so how is it that from 2007 when the Chamber/SOAR report by CBRE came out (and even THAT did not really try to say “half” of revenues come from tourism) nobody bothered to do the math?
That is not DIsney’s fault, that is the fault of staff and the Council who fails to call them to account for lazy or self dealing work and failure to fact check the reports provided by those benefitting from decisions based on the reports!
How about if we stop looking for someone to yell at and find the tools we need to get the homeless off the streets? We start with a raw unvarnished look at the causes of homelessness and whether the poverty we know comes hand in hand with low wage industries leads to homelessness or merely lifelong servitude. Then we need to find a mechanism for providing the tools to let people pull themselves out of homelessness if they are able, give the boost they need short term if viable, and for those who are incapable of long term self reliance we step up with compassionate aid. Yes a fiscal conservative can say that, because it costs us a Helluva lot MORE to send cops out to hassle 59 year old women out of their medication.
And when we know cops are in the area and have a history of taking property, maybe we need to remind our unhoused neighbors that if they are leaving their property for even a short period, take irreplaceable items like meds and photos with them. No cops should not act like jerks but if we know they do then it is on us to protect ourselves from known harm, it goes both ways, and time to wise up. Stay safe out there and pray that we come up with a solution fast, I believe that solution comes faster when we all work on it instead of finding someone to punish.
There is a responsibility in purchase power. Just as a vegetarian doesn’t buy meat, so anyone who believes Anaheim is using cruel tactics to push homeless people out of its city should boycott Disney. It is an act based on principle not popularity. Everyone who lives in a barrio knows there are corrupt practices with politicians, Code Enforcement, organizations claiming to use funds to “help” and Police in connection with major corporations in their principality. When it comes to Anaheim, that spells Disney.
It is very telling that Disney purchased the 11-acre RV Park on Midway behind Guinida with the intent to turn that into a parking lot for employees. Around the same time this purchase was gearing up to take place, all of the barrio private apartment complex owners were hit with a barrage of Code Enforcement crackdowns. Private owners would rather sell at a low price to a Corporate Real Estate company than deal with the expense of fixing the properties.
As these properties were bought up at a rapid rate, out of state Real Estate moguls hired overnight upstart management companies to “manage” the properties resulting in a huge rash of aggressive evictions. During a closed meeting with Kris Murray, Sandra Seaton (Manager Code Enforcement) and a few others, it was revealed that Code Enforcement publicizes properties that are being excessively tagged and fined by Code Enforcement with the intent of Corporations taking the defunct properties housing low income families “off the hands of” the stressed private property owners. It was also revealed during that meeting that those Corporate owners share a private blacklist of residents that are deemed unsavory by police forcing those families into eviction and homelessness.
Now, I can’t prove that because during that meeting, we did not have a reporter with us. But, I was there. I won’t back down on the truth of what was said. I do believe some strategic FOIA requests would reveal that facts disclosed during that meeting are horrifyingly accurate. FOIA requests have been made since August, 2014 by ACLU for records of interactions between the Anaheim PD and the homeless as well as cell phone data collected by APD Stingray for the lawsuit filed in March, 2015. For some reason, APD has a problem cooperating with FOIA requests lately.
I don’t think we need a “raw unvarnished look at the causes of homelessness” when there is so much national data collected in major city after city. I think it’s fairly obvious what the causes are. There is a desperate need for solutions, of course, but I think the major immediate problem that concerns Homeless Advocate Roussan Joshua Collins is the constant harassment of police – right now! Anaheim could stop enforcing the very anti-homeless legislation being used as a tool by “homeless liaison” Sergeant Lozeau and his posse to perpetrate homeless hate.
Kris Murray posted in writing at the bottom of the proposal for that legislation which was unanimously voted on by Mayor Tait and all four City Council members in October, 2013 (see: http://www.anaheim.net/docs_agend/questys_pub/MG41925/AS41964/AS41967/AI44542/DO44544/DO_44544.PDF) that it would not cost the city any money because police would be out patrolling anyway and this would not put undue stress on regular police routines. Obviously, this was not the case! When there are entire crews of police, Code Enforcement and large vehicles at the ready to confiscate belongings from the homeless on a near daily basis.
Mr. Collins has pointed out on many occasions and in many videos to back up his statements that the targeted homeless (most often women and elderly) are not given the three hour notice and are often with their belongings when the belongings are confiscated. One video even depicts an Anaheim officer heartlessly rifling through a parent and child’s belongings contained within a bike trailer attached to a bicycle shortly after Christmas while they were in the Public Library seeking refuge from cold rainy weather. How is it humane in that situation to say the homeless own responsibility when their property is unconstitutionally seized?
I don’t think “finding someone to punish” is the issue. I think “getting someone to listen” is the issue. If a boycott would call attention to the immediate problems that could have very immediate solutions by twisting a little arm – then yes – that is what advocacy and activism is all about.
Now the question is, when you as a citizen of anywhere, USA looks at a video of an elderly woman losing all of her belongings even when she asked the officer if she could have her things back to his face (and he refused continuing about the nasty process of taking her things – including vital blood pressure medication), knowing this has become the norm in Anaheim, is there outrage enough to say, “No, Disney! We are not going to spend money at your parks or on your products because you are pulling the political puppet strings allowing this to happen!” We stop hemming and hawing because that is what got Anaheim in this predicament of extreme unkindness to begin with.
I also don’t think this is an issue that is going to be up to Anaheim residents exclusively (those who can afford to get into Disney parks and buy Disney products). This is an international issue. People sharing this article live all over the country and are in agreement as they watch and share video evidence of Anaheim’s awful treatment of the mentally ill and homeless peoples – a statement needs to be made to the City of Anaheim. Just as the riots in 2012 followed with the Faultlines documentary series by Al Jazeera and just as well over 100 countries addressed the UN concerning human rights violations in the US (Anaheim is a large city included in those concerns), it will take a national voice to force Disney manipulated Anaheim to treat the homeless with kindness not just give lip service to a nation of tourists and customers that are waking up to the dark reality surrounding Disney park lands.
How does a Disneyland tourist enjoy their vacation entirely when they know on the other side of the wall are impoverished barrios suffering extreme gentrification issues and homeless people being ousted from mere rest just so their trip is prettier. There are callous people out there who want to go to an amusement park with no unsavory human sightings involved, but they aren’t as many as many isolated Anaheim Hills residents would like to believe. As awareness is raised, the cry for a Disney boycott to wake up Anaheim politicians and bourgie NIMBYs only gets louder. Ultimately, boycotting Disney is a decision of Conscience.
Just because you edited this to take out that he called for a boycott of Disney based on his belief that Dusney supports the LGBT community does not change the fact that his Facebook page states that he is anti Disney because of his homophobic views.