Invitation to a Party and a Campaign- Jan 15, 2011 « PEOPLE PROJECT

Invitation to a Party and a Campaign- Jan 15, 2011 « PEOPLE PROJECT: "a local Poor People’s Campaign to draw poor people together under a common banner. King’s “one in six” in poverty has increased to “one in five” and will soon be “one in four.”
At the beginning of winter, the Campaign had a second – “Vee Vant to Zee Yur Paperz” – protest on the day after the police “swept” Garberville and Redway. The police practiced crude profiling, stopping and questioning local poor people as suspected “transients.” Incredibly, some were asked to show papers to prove they were local.

From law enforcement’s vantage point, it was all jolly fun: a self-styled TEA Party. This “Transient Enforcement Action” included our recently elected Sheriff who strode Garberville’s main street flanked by several armed minions. “Transient Enforcement” meanwhile suggested a Building Code parallel where poor persons go out of compliance with – the what? – the Dollar Code? - if they are homeless. Individuals are then ticketed or arrested as appropriate

Unfortunately this kind of profiling is not appropriate for American people! One of the projects of the local Poor People’s Campaign is the formation of a Nomads Union to spread the word that poor people have civil rights. The Nomad’s Union hopes to go on to support people who assert these rights. As King was aware, if it was okay for Black people to have civil rights, it was okay for poor people in general to have them. Not an insurrection, but in King’s spirit, a resurrection. You don’t have to be poor to sign up, just one of the people.."