About 50 people urged the Sacramento City Council Thursday to help efforts to reserve land for the homeless. The people who addressed the City Council were supporters of the “Safe Ground” campaign, which opposes the city’s anti-camping ordinance and advocates for a living space for the city’s homeless. The recent stabbing death of 68-year-old Bernice Nickson, a homeless resident, was mentioned in the comments of some of the Safe Ground advocates. The Safe Ground supporters spoke during the part of the meeting reserved for public comments on subjects that are not covered in the agenda. Council members do not respond to citizens during that part of each City Council meeting. Comments from

Sacramento City Police once again have raided the small SafeGround camp site in downtown. This time they weren’t just looking for illegal tents and sleeping bags, instead they came looking for people. They arrived around 7:30 am, with a warrant, and quickly proceeded to handcuff and line up most all the campers still on site. With over half a dozen squad cars, seventeen officers, the police van, and the CSI unit, they were able to arrest and move downtown seventeen campers including retired Methodist Minister Rev. David Moss. As of this writing, the campers are being processed and released with a citation and court date for October. Six of the campers along with Sister Libby of Loaves

Early this morning Sacramento City Police descended upon the small SafeGround campsite in downtown Sacramento. They came with half a dozen squad cars, a dozen officers, the paddy wagon, and a search warrant. They announced the site was a crime scene forced everyone to leave and taped off the site while they searched the premises for evidence of illegal camping. They then proceeded to take down and bag all the tents and sleeping bags as evidence of the crime, dumping peoples personal belongings in the dirt. After 3 hours of bagging and even the CSI unit taking pictures they hauled off the “evidence” and let the residents back in to gather their stuff out of the dirt. The SafeGround residen