Yesterday, the Sacramento Bee reporter, Ed Fletcher, described the forced eviction of a number of homeless people who were living in tents they called home along the American River: "Homeless forced out along river." There were 150 people living there before Sacramento police removed them under threat of arrest. The camp had been supported by the advocacy group Safe Ground Sacramento, http://www.safegroundsac.org/. Sacramento city officials said that the removal was necessary in order to protect the environment along the American River Bike Trail as well as to appease property owners. Moreover, the decampment served to enforce, evenly, the City of Sacramento's strict anti-camping ordinance. One homeless person who identified himself as "Brother Eli", was arrested when he refused to leave compliantly. He reported that God had told him to live in the camp and added that he did not know where he was going to go. He had been a carpenter. He lost his house several years ago, and since then, has had no space or place of his own. Brother Eli's dispossession highlights the thin line that separates the category "property owner" from "homeless person."
Three things are clear from the Sacramento Bee narrative. First, homeless people are viewed as a threat to the environment. Secondly, property rights trump human rights. And finally, law is instituted to protect the propertied from the property-less. A corollary to this is: The police are there to prevent the homeless from becoming a visible reminder of one of the many contradictions inherent within the mode of capitalist accumulation. Thus, the police are assigned the task of removing this visible impediment to our ability to believe that the market economy is democratic and just.
Why are there homeless people in our State capital? The capitalist narrative informs us that we will always have the homeless with us and, of course, it will always be their fault. Marx called the unemployed, "the industrial reserve army." They are there to remind those who have applied successfully to a job creator for the privilege of selling their labor power that they too can become homeless. However, this year the suffering has become even worse. For the first time in memory, the City of Sacramento eliminated the funding of $700,000 or more that had been slated for winter shelters. The trickle-down economics from the Wall Street melt down is now reaching the most vulnerable people. While profits are up, the homeless are down and out in the cold. Presumably this is their contribution to the "recovery." But even more sinister is the ruling ideology of personal responsibility. Or, as summarized by former Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain, "If you don't have a job and you are not rich, it's your fault." Blame the victim and remove them from sight.
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