------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Free $5 Love Reading Risk Free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/NsdPZD/PfREAA/Ey.GAA/tOsolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: CPPH_Info-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are 3 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Press conference in Seattle Friday From: Grant 2. police harassment in St. Louis housing projects From: Grant 3. Police Attack Tenants of Robert Taylor Homes From: Grant ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 06:29:12 -0700 (PDT) From: Grant Subject: Press conference in Seattle Friday --- Wayne Sherwood wrote: > July 18, 2002 Press Conference Called Friday 11:00AM Lawsuit filed tomorrow against SHA, HUD and the City over Rainier Vista HOPE VI Project Public Housing Residents, Seattle Displacement Coalition and Friends of Rainier Vista to Take Legal Action to Block SHA's Demolition of 481 Public Housing Units at Rainier Vista. Groups will charge SHA, HUD and City with violations of the Fair Housing Act, failure to do proper environmental review, failure to provide proper levels of assistance to displaced residents and failure to ensure 1 for 1 replacement of all public housing units to be destroyed. Parties available for interviews and details released tomorrow Friday at Press Conference, 11:00 AM at Rainier Vista Public Housing Project (location listed below) When and Where: 11:00AM Friday, July 19th, at 4123 Tamarack Drive South at home of public housing resident Susan Bossert. (Where MLK intersects Rainier, go S. 3/4 mile on MLK, then go left or E. on Tamarack about 50 yards - on your right is the home of Susan Bossert. Press Conference in her backyard). Contact: Friends of Rainier Vista: Carolee Colter 723-4040 Seattle Displacement Coalition: John Fox 632-0668 Public Housing Tenants Contact: Steve Fredrickson 464-5933 More details: This Friday morning attorneys from Northwest Justice Project, Columbia Legal Services, National Housing Law Project, and Smith and Lowney will file suit in federal district court on behalf of the groups identified above representing Rainier Vista residents, neighbors and citywide housing activists. The suit will be filed against HUD, the City of Seattle and Seattle Housing Authority, claiming violations of the Fair Housing Act and National Environmental Policy Act. The plaintiffs will be seeking an injunction to prevent the imminent demolition of the public housing units at SHA's Rainier Vista garden community until HUD and the city have provided adequate assessment of and mitigation for the impacts of this planned redevelopment on the diverse low-income community in the Rainier Valley. By failing to fully consider the indirect, cumulative and short and long term impacts, particularly on the predominantly racial and ethnic minority community at Rainier Vista, and by failing to address the fair housing implications of the loss of 171 units of low-income family housing, and by failing to provide required levels of assistance to displaced residents, the city and HUD have failed to carry out their duty under the Fair Housing Act and NEPA, according to the plaintiffs' complaint. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 13:20:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Grant Subject: police harassment in St. Louis housing projects --- Mike Schaefer wrote: Public housing residents accuse police of verbal abuse and improper arrests This story was published in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Metro section on Sunday, July 21, 2002. By Peter Shinkle Public housing residents charged Saturday that police have used abusive language and improper arrests as they have cracked down on drug dealing and street crime in the four largest public housing developments in St. Louis. Police Chief Joe Mokwa promised to look into the allegations, but he also said the crackdown has led to a reduction in crime in the developments, a fact that even the residents making the complaints acknowledged. Mokwa brought the commanders in charge of patrolling the developments to a meeting Saturday at the Friends Meeting House, 1001 Park Avenue, near the Clinton-Peabody housing development. But members of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression, which organized the meeting, said the officers' presence intimidated some people and asked Mokwa to send them out of the meeting room. Mokwa said he wanted the officers to hear what the participants had to say firsthand, but he agreed to the demand and sent the officers out. Pamela Emrick, a Clinton-Peabody resident, said police have repeatedly harassed or arrested acquaintances of residents for trespassing. "We can't have visitors because they get locked up for trespassing," she said. "It's unfair." Stanley Waller, who lives with his girlfriend and their baby in Clinton-Peabody, said police arrested him Friday for trespassing when he took the trash out of his apartment. He had to spend six hours in police custody before he was released on his own recognizance, he said. Sentoria Goudeau, who lives in the King Louis Square housing development, said one officer called her "ghetto-livin'," and has repeatedly used racial slurs in speaking with residents of the area. Bob Hansman, an artist and Washington University professor who has a studio in the Clinton-Peabody area, said officers used foul language when they stopped him and his son, and then threatened him with planting incriminating evidence. He said an officer told him to shut up "and if you don't, we can find something in your car that will put you away for a long time." He added: "I'm almost afraid to let the kids go down there to visit their friends because I'm concerned they won't come home at night," he said. Residents have long faced danger in the area from drug dealers and people shooting guns in the streets. Cheryl Lovell, executive director of the St. Louis Housing Authority, said that as recently as six months ago, there was an "open drug market" on Chouteau Avenue, on one side of Clinton-Peabody, and on Park, on the other side. There were numerous reports of criminal activity every day at the four housing developments, Clinton-Peabody, LaSalle Park Village, Cochran Gardens and Blumeyer Village, Lovell said. The developments have about 1,600 residents in all. Habitat Realty Management Co., which manages the developments, had failed to provide adequate security under its contract, she said. In February, the city police took over the security portion of the contract, worth $2 million per year. Now, 35 officers are assigned to the four developments. Mokwa said police are strictly enforcing trespassing laws in the developments - which are property of the federal government - for one key reason: Most of the people who deal drugs in the developments do not live there, but come from outside. He said no one who is making a legitimate visit to a family member or an acquaintance should face arrest. However, if a person makes a visit to an acquaintance, then drifts around to other areas of the development, that person is trespassing, the chief said. Lee Blount Jr., a member of the coalition that hosted the meeting, voiced concern about allegations that police used racial epithets. He told the chief that "the daily disrespect of our women and our children is abominable." Mokwa replied: "I'm not going to stand for disrespect for anybody in public housing or anywhere else in St. Louis." Reporter Peter Shinkle:\ E-mail: pshinkle@post-dispatch.com\ Phone: 314-621-5804 Published in the Metro section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Sunday, July 21, 2002. Copyright (C)2002, St. Louis Post-Dispatch __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 14:13:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Grant Subject: Police Attack Tenants of Robert Taylor Homes Press conference Monday, July 29, 2002 4429 S. Federal 3:30 pm Police Attack Tenants of Robert Taylor Homes On the evening of July 25 Police from the nearby, historically white community of Bridgeport beat and arrested a number of residents for 4429 S. Federal -- a Chicago Public Housing Authority building in the Robert Taylor Homes. They also wrote "These are animals" and "Animal Kingdom" on the walls of the building walkways. These slogans, and other racist graffitti have been written in the halways of buildings in this block of Robert Taylor by police in the past. Bridgeport, childhood home of Mayor Richard Daley, has been the site of a number of racist attacks against Black people. It is also one of the locations being given by the Chicago Housing Authority as a re-location site for tenants of Robert Taylor Homes as that development is demolished in CHA's transformation Plan. Especially targeted for beating was Clarence Davis, a young man who has made a point of "observing the police in the performance of their duties" -- the legal term for what has more popularly become know as "cop-watch". This is the second time he has been beaten by the police in 2002 for this activity. Four other young men were also beaten and arrested. Monday, at 3:30 pm these young men, along with Clarence, other community members, and activists in the struggle against police brutality will hold a press conference to spotlight this issue. The press conference will be held at 4429 S. Federal. For more information contact Beauty Turner at 773/580-5461 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/