While asleep in his tent a man living under a freeway in West Oakland was hit and dragged by the city’s heavy-equipment bulldozer (like the bulldozer pictured above). The city said it was “removing garbage” from homeless encampments. If the bulldozer had approached from the other side, the man’s head would have been bulldozed, killing him (East Bay Express). A similar incident occurred in 2015, when a woman sleeping in a San Jose encampment was bulldozed, suffering a broken pelvis. These examples show that the poor have no value to a corporate profit driven economic system. Homelessness is spreading by leaps and bounds—particularly among the working homeless who are living in shelters, tents, or cars. What is in store for them? It is urgent that we demand that the government of the wealthiest country in the world provide housing for everyone as a right, simply because we are human beings.
