I am concerned about a proposed change regarding City Council meetings. Currently, people wishing to address the Council on items not on the agenda may address the council (for 2 minutes each) at the 6 PM start of the evening’s agenda. The Council has voted to move the open comment period back to the very end of the agenda-which is sometimes very late at night, and discourages people from bringing their issues before the elected body that is supposed to represent them. This action is directly targeted against Safe Ground’s homeless activists who have been speaking before the Council every week about the need for Safe Ground and yet another attempt to disenfranchise Safe Ground’s homeless a

SafeGround advocates rallied at Sacramento City Hall this morning. Over 150 people congregated in support of SafeGround and to rally around the push for a moratorium on the city’s anti-camping ordinance. The rally started at 10am, but was preceded by SafeGround music written and performed by Glen Bailey. The Rev. David Moss started the rally out with a prayer asking city officials for a favor, to have “compassion, justice, and mercy “ and “for something that is a basic human right for most people, but not the homeless – the right to sleep in safety.” Joan Burke, a homeless advocate, read a declaration from the Sacramento Democratic Party announcing it’s support for the SafeGround movemen

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