Las Vegas, NV, November 28 - The City of Las Vegas continued its assault on the homeless by closing “indefinitely” Circle Park, citing “safety concerns.” Around 3:00PM that day in response, four local residents entered Circle Park and were arrested after allegedly refusing to leave.

Quickly after the arrests the City stated that the Circle Park closure would be “temporary,” though no date for reopening the park was given. The City has also refused to indicate how they expect closing the park, without any other changes, will eliminate “safety concerns,” after the park is reopened.

It is widely suspected that the City’s move to close the park was spurred not by safety concerns, but from food sharing, which the City sees as aiding and abetting those suspected of being homeless or otherwise indigent.

All four protesters are currently out of jail, some having been detained for over four days. Three of the four have plead not guilty and will fight the charges; court dates are set for January and March. The ACLU has expressed interest in the case.

The City of Las Vegas is growing increasingly desperate as their attempts to harass and criminalize the homeless have met with stern opposition. Late last month, the discriminatory city ordinance that prohibited sharing food with those that a “reasonable person” would deem to be indigent was struck down in federal court as unconstitutional.

From : Charles Imboden <cimboden@thenuclearsummer.com>
Sent : Saturday, December 9, 2006 10:26 PM
To : Saab Lofton <saablofton@hotmail.com>
Subject : Hey - read this

Hey Saab,

How are things going? I don't know if you've heard, but myself and a few
others were arrested after they closed Circle Park. What follows are a
few links. Please read especially the Indymedia stories and let me know
what you think...

* * * *

There's only one word for what those pigs have done. EViL. Evil as a cartoon/comic book supervillain, evil as any character in literary history. EViL. Fuck the Libertarians. Fuck FOX News. Fuck those who're going to claim that this STILL somehow ain't as bad as what Castro would do to a dissident.

I have Never advocated folks sitting on their asses collecting welfare. I have ALWAYS advocated HIRING the homeless--with living wage jobs, of course, which means that McDonald's doesn't count. Clearly, the city of Las Vegas would prefer to act exactly like the very motherfuckers they've spent a fortune in taxes fighting rather than to actually HIRE the homeless. There is no, as in zero, harm in feeding the homeless, and anyone who's dumb enough to think so needs to suck my dick. Twice.

I've had it. Up to here. Wasn't it Rage Against the Machine who said to "arm the homeless"? I'm tired of white leftists being paralyzed because they're soooooooooooooooooo worried about what the suburbs are going to think of fill-in-the-blank. If I was given the airtime the Corporate Owned Media wasted on Britney Spears' every move, I'd be able to AFFORD to hire/feed the homeless myself with but one of my stories. Unfortunately, since I've been DENIED my rightful fame, I'm powerless.

Therefore, I implore anyone who's not powerless to fight this horror. Fight and die like a samurai defending the honor of the homeless, the powerless. I don't give a three legged rat's ass if this is being read by the authorities, ARM THE HOMELESS!! FIGHT THE REVOLUTION, NOW--NOT WHEN IT'S CONVIENENT ... NOW!!!

There is no "other side to the story", fuck the pigs. Remove their asses if they get in your way. It's either that, or spend the rest of eternity letting the bullies walk all over the nerds. ENOUGH! Feed the homeless and let God sort the rest of it out!

http://coanews.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=1479

Like the title says, thanks, Potemkin, for posting this story about the 28th November demo at Circle Park, and the arrests made there.

Also, thanks for the pics from the demo.

Keep up the good work.

I hope y'all now see just how angry those goddamn pigs can make a niggah--there's a reason why black men don't smile ...

I'm glad my boy Charles kept me posted insofar as what happened, but I'm not glad that my Incredible Hulk temper got the best of me and made my ass cross a line I always said I never would. I'm against the death penalty, so to call for an armed incerection against the pigs who shut down Circle Park is a violation of my own code of honor ...

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2003/10/15/scorched_earth/fear_no_evil/fearnoevil.txt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Punisher

Notable differences

The Punisher is different from the majority of comic book protagonists. He is a cold-blooded killer, a contrast that is especially apparent when he finds himself forced to work alongside such heroes as Spider-Man and Daredevil, who try to enforce a no-killing rule on him. Law-enforcement and superheroes have occasionally tried to capture him, sometimes succeeding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rurouni_Kenshin

The series tells the story of an assassin named Himura Kenshin, who was known as the Hitokiri Batt?sai (Translated as Man killer of the sheath. Kenshin later grieves for all the lives he?s taken, and has vowed that he will never kill again).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Ranger

In addition, the Lone Ranger decides to use only silver bullets, as a reminder of his vows to fight for justice, and never to shoot to kill.

... I'm not apologizing, THE PIGS are the ones who ought to apologize! And Lord knows they DESERVE a revolution on their hands, but that can only be decided by THE PEOPLE and not one man--no matter how pissed off he rightfully is ...

The good news is all empires die, without exception, so if you're patient enough (however I can totally understand if you AiN'T) ... case in point, Pinochet is DEAD, woo-hoo!!

http://www.cnn.com/virtual/editions/europe/2000/roof/change.pop/frameset.exclude.html

Chilean General and former President Augusto Pinochet died Sunday at 91, without ever being tried on accusations of ordering the torture and killing of thousands of people during his 1973-1990 regime.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA%20Hits/Chile_CIAHits.html

In 1973, the CIA destroyed the oldest functioning democracy in South America. Twenty years later, the agency is still trying to deny its involvement.
The CIA intervened massively in Chile's 1958 and 1964 elections. In 1970, its fears were realized-the socialist candidate, a physician named Salvador Allende, was elected president.
Horrified, President Nixon ordered the CIA to prevent Allende's inauguration. The agency did its best to promote a military coup, but the Chilean military's long history of respect for the democratic process made this virtually impossible. One of the main impediments was the Chilean army's chief of staff, General Rene Schneider, so the CIA plotted with fanatics in the military to assassinate him. The killing backfired, solidifying support for Allende, who took office as scheduled.
That approach having failed, the CIA was ordered to create a "coup climate." ("Make the economy scream," President Nixon told CIA Director Helms.) CIA-backed acts of sabotage and terror multiplied. The agency trained members of the fascist organization Patria y Libertad (PyL) in guerrilla warfare and bombing, and they were soon waging a campaign of arson.
The CIA also sponsored demonstrations and strikes, funded by ITT and other US corporations with Chilean holdings. CIA-linked media, including the country's largest newspaper, fanned the flames of crisis. The military's patriotism was gradually eroded by endless stories about Marxist "atrocities" like castration and cannibalism, and rumors that the military would be purged or "destroyed" and Soviet bases set up.
When the coup finally came, in September 1973 [IT WAS ACTUALLY SEPTEMBER 11th, 1973--FUNNY, HUH?], it was led by the most extreme fascist members of the military, and it was unrelenting in its ferocity. Allende was assassinated (some CIA apologists maintain he committed suicide-by shooting himself with a machine gun!). Several cabinet ministers were also assassinated, the universities were put under military control, opposition parties were banned and thousands of Chileans were tortured and killed, many fingered as "radicals" by lists provided by the CIA.
Under the military junta headed by General Pinochet, torture of dissidents became routine, particularly at a gruesome prison called Colonia Dignidad. It drew expatriate Nazis from all over South America, one of whom told a victim that the work of the Nazi death camps was being continued there.
No wonder the CIA tries to deny it was involved in the Chilean coup. It turned a democratic, peace loving nation into a slaughterhouse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve

In the fall of 1987, 77 actors in Santiago, Chile were were threatened with execution by the dictator Pinochet. [Christopher] Reeve was asked by Ariel Dorfman to help save their lives. Reeve flew to Chile and helped lead a protest march. A cartoon then ran in a newspaper showing him carrying Pinochet by the collar with the caption, "Where will you take him, Superman?" For his heroics, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Bernardo O?Higgins Order, the highest Chilean distinction for foreigners. He also received the Obie Prize and the Annual Walter Brielh Human Rights Foundation award.

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2003/04/23/books_and_lit/books1ex.txt

One last thing: When I said "Corporate Owned Media" I MEANT to say Corporate Owned News--which of course stands for C.O.N., as in the MAJORITY of the population is being CONNED into "thinking" that Britney Spears is actually important enough to be considered front page news even as atrocities like the one in Circle Park are going on under the public's noses ...

http://www.fair.org/index.php

When you doN'T have a regular column and when every day is a fight for survival, you miss shit. I can't believe I totally missed God's irony--that Pinochet's evil ass died on Human Rights Day of all days!! Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/human-rights-day.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Day

Pinochet may have escaped the judgement of man, but he sure as HELL won't escape the Judgement of GOD.

http://www.mekongantiques.com/images/buddhist_hell1.jpg

It may seem like I'm going off topic (seeing as how this was initially about the homeless), but if y'all would take a break from them damn video games and actually read these links, you'll see it's all connected ...

http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2002/04/18/export768.txt

I hate feeling so damn helpless in the face of Mayor Oscar Goodman's recent rousting of homeless people. I like to delude myself into thinking this column is making a difference, and yet I'm at a loss as to what advice I should give. I mean, at this point, the only thing left is the suggestion rock band Rage Against the Machine once offered: "Arm the homeless." Except as things currently are, an (albeit populist) armed insurrection would only be misinterpreted by the politically ignorant masses, and especially those few who own the mass media, as just another act of terrorism.

Oh, well. Someday. ... In the meantime, I'll pray - in print, that is. It's all I can afford to do (beyond the occasional donation). As I said, "making a difference" as opposed to my worst fear (aside from hell): inadvertently revealing something to an enemy that can somehow hurt the left and, therefore, the people. As if some covert arm of the military-industrial complex (President Eisenhower's coined phrase) was getting more out of my column than the politically apathetic/masochistic.

I bring this up because - well, I just openly advocated an armed insurrection in this era of all barbaric eras! The risk had to be taken, however. You see, I was homeless myself, from June 12, 1991 to July 3, 1992. My best friend, who has a Ph.D. in physics from UC-San Diego, called it "The Year of Hell." So I know what Goodman's victims are going through.

I've been blessed as few others have. I was way overdue for an inheritance I received (as if I was some mythic prince) in time to transfer to San Francisco State University, but most of the homeless obviously ain't that lucky. Your average homeless person has been broken by this evil system, as Winston Smith was in George Orwell's 1984, which explains the state they're usually seen in. Or they're mental patients formerly of asylums that have been strip-mined by Reaganomics.

I tolerate gambling the way I tolerate the horrible smell of tobacco. It's just another vice/civil liberty, but not one I'll ever partake in. Simply getting through life with your integrity intact is enough of a gamble as it is - which should more than sedate any desire to risk so much as a dollar on any game of chance. If it exists, the afterlife must be fair since it'll invariably be customized on a case-by-case basis. The punishment fits the crime, the reward suits the deed, etc.

Life, however, is not fair, but only because the living are constantly gambling that the free will of the rich and the powerful will either go their way or - at the very least - leave them alone. Maybe the popularity of reincarnation lies in that extreme risk factor. More often than not, we the people lose that gamble; and this is evident in the fact that y'all know damn well ain't nobody gonna be able to adequately raise a family on minimum wage after the inevitable expenses!

Unfortunately, just as God didn't mentally command Judas to tell the Pharisees where to stick their 30 pieces of silver, He/She/It won't hypnotize the corporate elite into sharing the world's wealth. Call it a divine version of the Prime Directive from "Star Trek." Convincing people to share rather than forcing them to shows faith in that which the Lord created - humanity.

So that's my prayer. I pray the rich and the powerful will soon choose to share on their own accord (just because it's the right thing to do) without anyone having to resort to force as, say, Castro did. In other words, when it comes to Malcolm X's choice of "the ballot or the bullet," choose the ballot already, before yo' ass winds up like Marie Antoinette.

And if that's not incentive enough, turn to Matthew 25:31 for Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and see what happens to the "goats" who never helped the least amongst us.