My letter to the ACLU Alex Libman is a homeless man from Lakewood NJ, he is now in jail for protesting a unfair Anti-homeless ordinance that we believe violates human rights. After he was harassed on multiple occasions by police he took steps to protest the following Anti-homeless ordinance: ******************************************************************************* 3-26 UNAUTHORIZED CAMPING ON PUBLIC OR PRIVATE PROPERTY PROHIBITED. 3-26.1 Definitions. Camp shall mean to reside or dwell temporarily in a place, with shelter. Shelter shall mean and includes, without limitation, any tent, tarpaulin, lean-to, sleeping bag, bedroll, blankets, or any form of cover or protection from the elements other than clothing. Reside or dwell shall mean and includes, without limitation, conducting such activities as eating, sleeping, or the storage of personal possessions. Public property shall mean, by way of illustration, any street, alley, sidewalk, pedestrian mall, bike path, town square, greenway, vacant land, woodland, or any other structure or area encompassed within the public right-of-way; any parkway, parking lot; or any other grounds, buildings, or other facilities owned or leased by the township or by any other public owner, regardless of whether such public property is vacant or occupied and actively used for any public purpose. 3-26.2 Acts Prohibited. It shall be unlawful to: a. Camp upon any private property without the express written consent of the property owner or the owners agent. b. Camp upon any public property except in any park or recreation area where camping has been expressly allowed by the officer or agency having the control, management and supervision of the park or recreational area. ********************************************************************************** (This is not the full text) He decided to protest this law by sleeping in town square (Mentioned specifically in the ordinance) in cots without covers to still be in compliance with the ordinance. On the first day the six police responded to our presence and, under the ordinance, demanded we remove our 3 cots and stop protesting in this way. As we were not violating the ordinance being used to make the demands I feel at this point our right to free speech was already being violated but I (Steve Brigham) decided to comply as I did not want to be arrested. The resolve to this first encounter is seen here: https://youtube/watch?v=QKzyLVIeI9g I am the one speaking in this video and I am nervous, Alex is next to me holding the sign. On the second night he decided to sleep in town square with nothing but a pillow so they could not make the claims about Cots being possible covers that they did on the first night. He decided that if they asked him to stop protesting this time he would refuse and stand up for his rights. At this point I told him that I could not join him as I was not willing to go to jail even for a worthy cause and he understood. This morning, June 28th, Alex was arrested in town square. We have not been able to speak with him as he is being held in observation in Ocean County Jail. Alexs family came to America from the soviet union when he was a child seeking freedom. He is very passionate about American Liberties and I will do everything in my power to protect his. I feel that not only is the Ordinance he was protesting a direct violation of his rights but arresting him for protesting the Ordinance is a clear violation of his right to free speech. Thank you for reading, Steve Brigham
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 04:06:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015