{"id":1333,"date":"2011-09-07T16:59:44","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T16:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2011-09-07T16:59:44","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T16:59:44","slug":"elderly-chinese-busted-for-selling-food-at-civic-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluoz.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/07\/elderly-chinese-busted-for-selling-food-at-civic-center\/","title":{"rendered":"elderly chinese busted for selling food at civic center"},"content":{"rendered":"

One possible reason for this is that it’s been mentioned in local blogs and TV<\/p>\n

on TV at KTVU<\/a><\/p>\n

SF Citizen<\/a><\/p>\n

and Curbed<\/a><\/p>\n

and SF Citizen now has this new updated story<\/a><\/p>\n

updated > new top sekret video reveals H brown to be correct!<\/p>\n

\"top.sekret\"<\/a><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

\n

via H brown<\/p>\n

boys and girls,<\/p>\n

Sometimes this shit just pisses me off so
\nbadly that I have to mention it. It happens
\nevery Wednesday and Sunday when the Farmers
\nMarket is at UN Plaza.<\/p>\n

These little ancient Chinese ladies come
\nand line up alongside the BART railing at 7th
\nand Market where there are around 2 heroin
\ndealers and one purchaser of stolen goods for
\nevery square foot of real estate. These women
\nare there to sell the groceries from their
\ncupboards to get the cash to pay for their
\nrent …<\/p>\n

Who do the cops go after?<\/p>\n

The little Chinese ladies! This morning
\nwhen I went by on my way to coffee at just
\nafter 8pm there was only one woman selling
\nher groceries to pay her rent.<\/p>\n

And, 6 of SFPD’s finest had encircled her
\nand one was writing her a citation for, “She
\nhas no permit!!!” (yelled the female API
\ncop doing the writing).<\/p>\n

I noted to the gathering of fully armed
\nofficers that the dealers who normally
\ninhabit all 4 corners of the intersection
\nhad just ducked into the coffee shops and
\nif they wanted to do real police work they
\ncould go after them. Hell, the cops know
\nthis. Selling drugs and buying stolen
\ngoods is a full time job and in the 6 years
\nI’ve lived at this intersection I’ve gotten
\nto recognize the couple of dozen or so regular
\ncriminal ‘staff’. The cops know who they are
\ntoo but they’d rather go after a little old
\nChinese woman and make her life more miserable.<\/p>\n

Greg Suhr, you should be ashamed!!!<\/p>\n

Giants win and pick up a game (6 back with
\n20 to go) and have Cain on hill against Padres
\nat 3pm today).<\/p>\n

h.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"IMG_7313\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_7315\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and further updates via an attorney on H browns email list<\/p>\n

\n

Hi, H —<\/p>\n

Would rather you shared this version, in which case on the record is fine.<\/p>\n

Rgds\/M<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Thank you. I think actually the ladies are selling stuff from donated
\nfood boxes that they don’t happen to need, but the point holds. Cops not
\npicking on someone their own size when a clear choice is presented to them.<\/p>\n

It’s all about denial that we live in a place with income contrasts on a
\nThird World scale, which is why we have Third World phenomena like
\nhomelessness, begging, garbage-picking, and unofficial street vending.
\nDrug dealers are accepted as an inevitability, but little old ladies
\nselling food are evidence of economic facts the city doesn’t want to
\nadmit. They’re punished for being messengers.<\/p>\n

But you knew all that.<\/p>\n

If you ask me they should either take 869MPC off the books or make
\nvendor’s permits easier to get.<\/p>\n

It bugs me that I was doing a bunch of citation defense for COH during
\nthe past year and those vendor ladies didn’t ever seem to turn up in the
\ncourtroom. Seems like they’re afraid to appear in court even though the
\nDA would be likely to dismiss or at least agree to a suspended fine if
\nthey show they’re receiving social services. (Heaven knows why social
\nservices would help people repent from the rational act of selling extra
\nfood, but there you are, DA logic.) Last I heard, the Coalition was
\narranging to help people verify receipt of services although without
\nLawyers’ Committee backup the traffic court representation program is
\ndormant. As you probably know, Bob Offer-Westort is the guy to ask there.<\/p>\n

Rgds,<\/p>\n

Martha Bridegam
\nhttp:\/\/lodginginpublic.blogspot.com<\/p>\n

addendum, also in comments<\/p>\n

Hi all,<\/p>\n

This is Martha Bridegam, author of the comment above about court representation.<\/p>\n

Just to be clear, I didn’t mean to make the unfriendly suggestion that the vendor ladies don’t need their food boxes in general — just to suggest that they might be keeping some items for themselves out of the food boxes while quite reasonably deciding to sell other items that they needed or liked less.<\/p>\n

Also, to be clear, I haven’t approached any of the UN Plaza ladies about representation. It’s just that I can’t remember ever seeing an elderly lady contesting a peddling charge, either on a Coalition on Homelessness traffic court calendar or in traffic court on her own, neither in the past year nor during a period about 10 years ago when I was previously active in citation defense.<\/p>\n

This makes me think the vendor ladies must not be contesting the tickets they get. Perhaps they simply hadn’t heard about the Coalition’s representation program when it was available, and\/or they didn’t\/don’t realize it could be to their advantage to appear in traffic court.<\/p>\n

A pity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

another update. the same group of elderly Chinese ladies at the BART entrance at Civic Center an hour earlier. Notice on the left how there’s another small group who’s checking out prescription pills..Could be perfectly legal, then again, it might not<\/p>\n