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Lou on the right. (Roussan Joshua Collins on left, not involved in Lou’s suit.)
The Register printed one of their lamest and least informative stories ever a couple weeks ago; I won’t say who wrote it because maybe he had a bad day, and I also know those editors can screw up any story. On the other hand he COULD be a relative of Anaheim’s disgraced ex-city manager.
“Homeless Advocate, who APPARENTLY Video-Recorded Officers, Files Lawsuit Against Anaheim For His Arrest,” puzzles the title quizzically, as though it were a mystery even as to whether Lou Noble was actually filming the cops, and as though it were impossible to get a hold of Lou for the story (which the Register never attempted), and as though all of Lou’s and his companions’ videos were not easily findable on YouTube, and as though this humble blog had not reported on the entire event when it happened two years ago, as a one-second Google search will uncover.
The author DID contact Anaheim City spokesman Mike Lyster, who (to go by the article) spoke not of the actual issue at hand – police arresting peaceful people filming them from a safe distance and seizing their phones as “evidence” unconstitutionally – but of the PERIPHERAL issue of Anaheim police seizing the homeless’ belongings unconstitutionally – which we are happy to discuss. Claims the always-friendly Mike:
…police have clear guidelines on personal property left unattended in city parks. Lyster said police provide “prior notification, storage and details to retrieve property with no questions asked, with the exception of evidence or items that pose a public safety risk.”
Well, here’s the thing: many OC cities have anti-camping ordinances, but Anaheim is the only one that includes allowing its police to seize belongings from the homeless – specifying that the property has to be tagged, only seized if left unattended 24 hours, and taken to a storage facility unless the police find it gross and unhygienic which they usually do. And in reality the police – particularly the Homeless Liaison Team – enforces this ordinance differently from month to month depending on the political winds of the moment – sometimes leaving the stuff alone, sometimes following the ordinance, but all too often waiting nothing like 24 hours at all. Lou and Roussan have caught them doing this: telling a homeless person to leave, and that if they bring their possessions with them they’ll be arrested, and then seizing the possessions as “abandoned.” And we’re talking about necessities: blankets and sleeping bags, medications, ID’s. All too often it is difficult or impossible for the folks to retrieve their possessions. Lou and Roussan have a lot of this behavior on film, and there are OTHER, SERIOUS lawsuits coming down the pike against Anaheim for its unconstitutional ordinance and its over-zealous enforcement.
But in any case this lawsuit is NOT about seizing homeless property, it is about upholding the right of citizens to film the police, and the unconstitutionality of seizing citizens’ phones for “evidence” in such a situation. In this case the police returned Josh’s phone after a day, but kept Lou’s for several days, and it was his work phone. There was no “evidence” on these phones except for the very videos which these two advocates prolifically post on You Tube, some of which you can see here.
Lou and his attorney are asking for $3 million, plus $2 million punitive damages; they feel that this is the only way to teach this and other cities that the fourth amendment still means something, for those who film police activity. The Orange Juice Blog will link to the lawsuit as soon as it is available (Lou had his attorney alter it a little to make it more accurate), and we will apprise our readership of any developments!
Another great article by the legendary Vern Nelson. The problem with a Vern article is he covers the subject so well any commentary is unnecessary. The only thing I can add is that I hold Lou Noble in the highest regard. Aside from his great videos, he is out amongst people experiencing homelessness everyday, helping and protecting them. He is the conscience for this city of kindness.
Lou and other advocates efforts helping people experiencing homelessness are not appreciated by many. A resident close to the riverbed posted the following in the nearby neighborhoods social media :
“It’s very obvious that many of us are fed up, with the how the city is dealing with/not dealing with this issue. So many of us (myself included) vent on this website, but I don’t think it’s doing much. Last week, my wife and I were at the Mike Alvarez meeting (councilman in the city of Orange), at Orange City Hall. There it became very clear that the homeless advocates, show up in force to our city meetings, and they are absolutely vocal about pushing their agenda.
I think that we as neighbors need to do the same (make our feelings on the matter heard) and make sure the city council knows that these homeless advocates DO NOT speak for all of us.
I also think attending these meetings would give many of us the chance to meet in person, and put together some type of neighborhood group so that we can have a louder and more effective collective voice, since WE are the one who are raising our families here, paying taxes here, and having our neighborhood and way of life affected”
Then the neighbor points out the city council video meetings:
“in this video you will get to see just how out of touch some of these “homeless advocates” are, and what many of us are up against…
Here are two of the more prominent “homeless advocates” ( Lou Noble and Tim Houchen) who I have seen at many of the video recordings of City Hall meetings and the Commission to End Homelessness.”
He’s politically ambitious, I presume?
All I can say is thanks to all who have common sense and are quit aware of the homeless problem, the only ones that have no solutions and only bitch and complain and then go against the solutions, I see those people as being out of touch and their ignorance is shameful, I wonder how many homeless people they have talk to or helped like a Veteran,Disabled person or the elderly. All they could think of is the criminal element and themselves, we want to end homelessness too and want our taxes to be used wisely, our solutions are actually less tax expensive,and would be a win win solutions, criminalizing all the homeless and leaving them in the streets will cost millions more as we have seen in the past year $300,000,000 and still the problem only has gotten worse.
Lou, “those people as being out of touch and their ignorance is shameful”, have experiences, knowledge and solutions. A sample of their perspective:
“My wife and I were on the riverbed today for about an hour. Lots of activity out there. The zombies who were exiled from Angel Stadium were moving either north or south, just as predicted.
We really felt bad for all the chained up dogs that we saw considering how warm it was today. Additionally, we spotted one guy placing a paper shredder In front of his tent which we found strange. Who knows… maybe the “homeless by choice” zombies use this paper shredder to get rid of the employment section of the newspaper.”
” The homeless problem will get worse because they are making it an alternate lifestyle! Collect checks, do not pay taxes, get a free pass on everything because you are “homeless”, and now get free waterfront real estate, medical care, welfare/food stamps, portapotties and showers, and petty cash when you ask for it on the street. This is all crazy! More big government gone wild! They are creating this problem. People are starting to choose to be “homeless” because it pays to do nothing!”
“Personally, I think we should sort out who REALLY wants helps getting back on his/her feet and do everything we can as a society to give it to them.
We then take the remaining portion, who doesn’t want help and prefers this nomadic/drug & alcohol / lazy / crime ridden lifestyle, and as society we decide where these people will be located. IMO, the ideal spot would be somewhere in the middle of the Mojave dessert….in July.”
This week, Mayor Tait and Councilmember Faessel are meeting with this people.