Sweeping Their Bicycles

 About a month and a half ago, Mayor Eric Adams ordered “sweeps” of homeless people’s encampments in my city, New York.  He claims, rightly, that sleeping on park benches or under overpasses is “no way to live.”  His real motive, I think, is to appease moderate and conservative voters who believe that the city is descending into the “chaos” of the 1970s and 1980s.

He’s been telling homeless people that they should go to the shelters.  So far, 39 people—roughly one per day since the program started—have heeded his call. 

Frankly, I’m amazed that many have moved in.  The shelters are seen as dangerous places because mentally ill and violent people are cheek-by-jowl with people whose luck simply ran out.  Also, I can hardly imagine a better incubator for COVID or other transmissible diseases.

Probably the most wrongheaded part of the sweeps is the destruction of tents, partitions or whatever else people might be using to shield themselves—and whatever possessions they may have.  Those possessions sometimes include bicycles.

Something similar is happening in San Diego. A video circulating on Twitter shows police officers confiscating and trashing bicycles owned by homeless residents near Petco Park.

I don’t know whether San Diego’s mayor is following Adams’ lead in trying to coax people into shelters.  It might be more difficult  in the self-proclaimed “America’s Finest City,” with its year-round mild climate.  But, whatever the condition of its shelters, people won’t be enticed into them if the city takes and destroys their perfectly good bicycles.

Hello I don’t know whether San Diego is trying to move people into shelters as Eric Adams is in New York.  Even if the shelters are cleaner and safer, I imagine it might be even more difficult to convince folks in San Diego, with its year-round temperate climate. In any even, confiscating and destroying people’s possessions—especially bicycles—doesn’t seem like much of an incentive, whatever the climate or to move people into shelters as Eric Adams is in New York.  Even if the shelters are cleaner and safer, I imagine it might be even more difficult to convince folks in San Diego, with its year-round temperate climate. In any even, confiscating and destroying people’s possessions—especially bicycles—doesn’t seem like much of an incentive, whatever the climate or conditions in the shelters

The #OpeningDay Homeless Sweeps have begun again this morning. pic.twitter.com/78577GGgZu

— Michael McConnell (@HomelessnessSD) April 14, 2022

I Hope They Have Their Cinco De Mayo Some Day

Today is Cinco de Mayo.  

One day, I hope Ukranians will have a similar holiday:  They are fighting off an invasion attempt, just as the Mexicans did--successfully-- 160 years ago. 

The funny thing about this day, and other Mexican holidays like Dia de Muertos, are more likely to be celebrated by Americans who see it as an excuse to party.

I plan to ride and, yes, eat Mexican food.  I'm told that what they serve  at Los Portales, around the corner from my apartment, is authentic.  I suspect it is:  I see Mexicans eating there.  All I know is that it's good, as I've eaten there, and ordered take-out from them, any number of times.

Intoxicated Driver Runs Her Down, She's Blamed

An old civil-rights activist, now gone, once told me a joke she'd heard about the state in which she grew up:  A couple of sherriff's deputies find the body of a Black man on a river bank.  His hands and feet are tied, and there's a noose around his neck.

"Dang!," one exclaimed. "They've sure got some strange ways of commitin' suicide."

That joke is, of course, a commentary on race relations.  But it also points to something that I've come to believe.  Call me a cynic, but I think too many police officers' first impulse in any situation is to blame the victim.  

Such a reaction, I think, has several sources. An obvious one is that constables tend to be suspicious of everyone.  For some, it might be innate, but for others, I'm sure it comes from dealing with the worst people and worst moments.  Another, I think, is police training:  They are taught to be ready for anything and everything and, because of policing culture, they can't or don't understand why other people aren't prepared for something they couldn't have foreseen. So, they come to believe, if they didn't before they became officers, that if something happens to you, you must have done something wrong.

There is something else that, in some situations, can cause law enforcement officers to blame the victim:  their ignorance of the law.  Such was the case of Obianuju Osuegbo.  In August 2020, when she was 17 years old, she was riding her bicycle home in Barrow County, just east of Atlanta.  A driver struck and killed her.

Obianuju Osuegbo

The Georgia State Patrol's Collision Reconstruction Team blamed Osuegbo for her death.  Their reasons?  Her bike didn't have a light on the rear.  And she wasn't wearing reflective clothing or riding on the right side of the road.

On their face, those reasons could help to establish fault with the teenager, but wouldn't be enough, by themselves, to affix blame. (At least, that's my guess. I'm not a lawyer.)  However, Bruce Hagen, the family's attorney, pointed out that state statutes say only that a bicycle must have a light only if it doesn't have reflectors--which Osuegbo's bike had.  

About riding on the right side of the road: She was turning left, so she couldn't have been on either side of the road. Also, the law states, "vehicles which approach from the rear, any other vehicle or vehicles stopped or slowed to make a lawful turn shall be deemed to be following the purposes of this code section."

Hagen, who conducts bike law training for police officers,  said that the responding officer and GSP team investigated the crash, but were unfamiliar with the Georgia laws. The officer and team, however, surely must have been familiar with another law because, well, pretty much every place in the Western world has it, in one form or another:  the prohibition against Driving Under The Influence.  The motor vehicle operator, Chrissy Rawlins (Is that a Georgia name, or what?) was high on multiple drugs, including methamphetamine and Valium when she ran into Osuegbo.   

She was indeed charged with DUI and for endangering the welfare of her children, who were with her in the car.  Hagen is seeking to have her charged with vehicular manslaughter.  

He and Obanuju's mother, Pauline Osuegbo, say they will not stop until they get justice.