{"id":560874,"date":"2022-03-17T13:38:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T13:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=16161e623ca9ea59a1a7b70c450a84f3"},"modified":"2022-03-17T13:38:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T13:38:49","slug":"occupy-style-protest-in-boise-highlights-brutal-conditions-faced-by-the-unhoused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/03\/17\/occupy-style-protest-in-boise-highlights-brutal-conditions-faced-by-the-unhoused\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupy-Style Protest in Boise Highlights Brutal Conditions Faced by the Unhoused"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Night<\/a>

The injustice of homelessness \u2014 a human rights crisis of immense proportions in the United States \u2014 is on stark display in Idaho\u2019s modestly sized capital of Boise, just as it is across the nation. While the city might not come to mind when one envisions the sprawling atrocity of homelessness, it is a 2018 court battle originating in Boise that has had a defining influence on homelessness policy far beyond the Idaho border.<\/p>\n

After passing ordinances that targeted the city\u2019s population of people experiencing homelessness, the City of Boise faced a court challenge from six unhoused plaintiffs. The outcome was Martin v. City of Boise<\/em><\/a>, a landmark 2018 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that barred the criminalization of conducting life-sustaining activities on the street, in the absence of alternative shelter. Although advocates had reason to cheer this apparent progress, the decision has ultimately served more as a reiteration of their moral claims than as a practical guarantor of the rights of the unhoused.<\/p>\n

Evasion of Martin v. Boise\u2019s<\/em> mandate has been the norm in cities within the court\u2019s broad remit. This is just as much the case in Boise itself, where the city has found numerous ways to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the Ninth Circuit decision \u2014 perpetuating the kinds of criminalization, displacement and harassment that are the favored responses of power to the plight of marginalized people.<\/p>\n

In this frigid winter, the mistreatment of Boise\u2019s thousands of unhoused people<\/a> has only intensified, according to activists. Housing remains scarce and unaffordable<\/a>, while overcrowding and restrictions<\/a> in shelters have kept many on the street, and in acute hardship. Local advocates, organizers with Boise Mutual Aid and members of the unhoused have responded by joining together in coalition, spearheading an Occupy-style protest<\/a> on the grounds of the Idaho State Capitol Mall. Now, over a month in, they\u2019ve dealt with dismal conditions and repeated provocations from police and the far right alike.<\/p>\n

A Cycle of Impoverishment<\/h2>\n

Bella Bounty, an organizer with Boise Mutual Aid, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym to avoid attention from the state and the far right, told Truthout <\/em>that in the last couple of years, activists \u201cobserved something which has really escalated since Martin v. Boise<\/em>: constant police harassment.\u201d Tickets for minuscule offenses are handed out freely. Those unable to challenge their citations are often later arrested, held on failure-to-appear warrants. It\u2019s a punishing cycle that ensures their impoverishment. Police also profile and target people living in cars and order their vehicles to be ticketed and towed; unable to pay the lot fees, many people lose their only shelter as a result.<\/p>\n

Jon Rogers, who has been on the streets in Boise since arriving from Louisiana in 2016, alleges systematic persecution in the legal system. \u201cThey\u2019d come arrest you, trump the charges up, make you pay an exorbitant amount of bail to get out. But when you go to court, guess what: They drop it. Or they drop it to a lesser offense \u2014 much lesser. So, you\u2019re not gonna contest it. You\u2019re gonna take your lick,\u201d Rogers told Truthout<\/em>. \u201cYou can\u2019t do anything about it, because now it\u2019s on your record.\u2026 They\u2019re just stealing our money. It\u2019s extortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the unhoused community in Boise are all too familiar with these kinds of torments. Teddy B. is a veteran and one-time homeowner from Missouri who asked to be identified by his surname\u2019s initial. He has been unhoused in Boise for two and a half years, and has faced longer stints on the street in his past. \u201cMy experience with [the police] has been pure harassment,\u201d he said bitterly. \u201cAlmost daily, they come down and confiscate sleeping bags, propane heaters, blankets, pillows\u2026. They\u2019ve taken my dog\u2019s service vest; they\u2019ve taken multiple sleeping bags. They took a whole backpack of my dog\u2019s stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were to act the way the Boise troopers and the State Police of Idaho act when I was in the Marine Corps overseas, I would still be in the brig for it,\u201d he said, suggesting that he believed such behavior would have landed him in military prison.<\/p>\n