The month of August was San Fransisco Mayor Frank Jordan's target date to initiate the city's war on the homeless, better known to SFPD as Operation Matrix -- a concentrated effort by SFPD to criminalize homelessness with a crackdown of arrests and harassment.
Operation Matrix involves a new policy of harassing people who are sleeping on the street or in the parks, as part of a program of what is called "Quality of Life" enforcement. Homeless people's belongings have been taken from Civic Center Plaza, and along Market St. and the Mission, and thrown in a special police garbage truck. At the same time, the SF Transbay Terminal, which had sheltered up to 300 people a night, started locking its doors at 7 pm.
Members of Copwatch witnessed first-hand some of the crackdown. The first week of August we spotted a motorcycle officer kicking awake a Vietnam veteran who was lying down with a blanket in Civic Center Plaza. After the vet responded he was cited for "camping." We asked the officer why he gave the vet a ticket. His response was, "He was in the position," and didn't respond when he drove up on his motorcycle.
Thursday, September 2 - After an injunction had been served to prevent Food Not Bombs from serving free food in public, supporters came to the 6 pm serving in Civic Center Plaza. The supporters were met by at least 15 police cars and paddy wagons. The cops arrested more than a dozen people and prevented Food Not Bombs from serving food to hungry and homeless people. Those arrested were charged with "conspiracy to serve food," a felony offense!In response, a rally was held Friday, September 3 at Civic Center, where five people were arrested, and the food was dumped on the ground by officers.
September 8 - Food Not Bombs held a large demonstration in front of San Fransisco City Hall where members of the National Lawyers Guild and over 250 supporters attended. As members of the city's elite, dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns, entered City Hall to celebrate the start of the opera season, Food Not Bombs served food and marched around the City Hall building, despite the presence of many riot police.
September 9 - Six people were arrested at noon at the lunch serving in front of City Hall, where officers also confiscated a vehicle used to help transport food belonging to Ayuda, a Latino homeless organization who also assist homeless and hungry people in S.F.
September 10 - Police swarmed on the lunch serving where two people were arrested. The blundered attempt to arrest a third person was frustrated when that person jumped into a nearby fountain. S.F. police decided against going into the fountain to arrest him. They waited overan hour for him to come out, coaxing him with promises of lessened charges, but he told them he would only come out if they promised full amnesty for all those arrested in the last week.
The arrests and harrassment of Food Not Bombs and the homeless continue, with hundreds of arrests made. With the declaration of San Fransisco as the worlds #1 tourist destination, citizens were faced with the sight of City Hall draped with a banner reading "San Fransisco -- #1 Destination" with a line of riot police in front arresting people giving out food.
For more information or to help, contact San Fransisco Food Not Bombs at (415) 330 - 5030, or write to 3145 Geary Boulevard #12, San Fransisco, CA, 94118.
[Thanks to FNB's Andy Ross and the Berkeley Info-Shop for contributing to this report.]
Note: In recent months, the UC Berkeley administration has twice confiscated East Bay Food Not Bombs's tables from where they were stored in People's Park. UC's PR man, Milton Fujii, said that they were acting in the interests of "the community" by doing so.