“We are first to take the “Survival Ban” to court,” say Denver’s homeless

 
Editor’s note:  This article was compiled from news reports and transcriptions from a video produced by Unicorn Riot.
DENVER, CO – On April 4, Jerry Burdon, Terese Howard and Randy Russell pled not guilty to charges of violating Denver’s Unauthorized Camping Ordinance, also known as the “survival ban.” “We are the first to take these tickets to court,” says Terese. This ‘survival ban’ criminalizes anyone who is resting or sleeping in a public place with anything protecting them besides their clothing! The cops tore blankets off of the homeless in freezing weather to be used as evidence against them when taken to trial, charged with violation of this mean law.
Potential jury members who had relatives who were homeless, who thought the law was unjust, or who said that they couldn’t be ‘impartial were dismissed; but a man who called the homeless ‘vagrants’ was allowed to sit on the jury. That is the way the deck is stacked and these absurd laws perpetuated.
All three defendants were found guilty of violating the ‘survival ban’ and sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation. They may appeal this unjust and inhumane ruling.
Terese Howard says, “Many people don’t realize there’s a law on the books making illegal any form of protection from the elements. This means if you’re sitting on cardboard, if you’re protecting yourself, you are considered a criminal. The law is used to try to move people out of sight, out of mind. We have been facing this for years now here in Denver. It’s getting worse and worse. It’s gotten to a point where they’ve swept everyone from everywhere they were trying to survive. They came in and gave us tickets for surviving.”