Saturday, June 30, 2018

[Humboldt County] Opinion: The high cost of Humboldt County’s punitive pedagogy

Blog note: this opinion piece references a grand jury investigation and report.
An honorary degree in civics can begin on a bike ride through Eureka as I discovered while witnessing two Eureka police vehicles with two officers handcuffing a small, bewildered, overweight child in front of his homeless shelter without a parent, advocate or shelter staff member present. This child’s unforgettable stare called out, “Look what they’re doing to me.” Ongoing incidents like these are symptomatic of numerous crises being inadequately addressed. In response to this incident, Eureka’s former police chief and Eureka Police Department veteran Murl Harpham wrote, “We have had multiple contacts with this young man since he was 10 years old … he was attempting suicide and was out of control.”
In a city where residents dedicate many hours to Neighborhood Watch and attend City Council meetings demanding more enforcement and penalties against crime, addiction and destitution, few are aware that tender-aged children already severely distressed by abuse, poverty, and homelessness are being repeatedly traumatized by public “arrests,” handcuffing, and incarceration. In fact, Humboldt County’s Trends Report reveals local rates of child abuse and youth unemployment over twice state averages, coinciding with high rates of addiction, homelessness, despair, desperation and suicide. Until preventative and compassionate policies recommended by professionals are prioritized over punitive responses, tens of millions of dollars spent expanding juvenile hall and the county jail may soon require further costly expansions.
Harpham found my concerns to be “unfounded” and I filed a complaint with the Citizen’s Law Enforcement Liaison Committee, (formed in lieu of “citizen review boards” that are common where community policing is evolving into paramilitary forces with armored vehicles, automatic weapons, SWAT teams, drones, street cams, extra-judicial property seizures, warrantless surveillance and “wilding” officers. Yet most policing remains unchanged: traffic violations, destitution, mental illness, addiction, domestic violence, petty crime and “out of control” children).
After the CLELC and Humboldt County Human Rights Commission both declined to recommend policy changes, I submitted a complaint to the Humboldt County grand jury and waited seven weeks before I was notified that my complaint was received, a delay reflecting broader community efforts in concealing a regional failure to cope with children in crisis. The grand jury investigation was further delayed by elected and agency officials’ failure to respond to its inquiries, in violation of California Penal Code 933(c) and 933.05; no enforcement action was taken. The grand jury issued recommendations in a 2013-14 report titled, “How Do We Treat Children In Crisis?”
A recent Department of Justice investigation into mishandled cases of child abuse was also delayed many months by Humboldt County’s legal battle against DOJ subpoenas. The settlement reached between Humboldt County and the DOJ was presented as a Power Point at Eureka’s Adorni Center on April 27, moderated by state Sen. Mike McGuire and sponsored by First Five of Humboldt County. Unfortunately, county supervisors were not present to hear from a tearful local mother describing how her special needs child was traumatized from being handcuffed and isolated by police. Apparently, the settlement excluded the following common-sense reforms recommended by professionals and the grand jury:
1) Non-uniformed first responders with police involvement only if necessary. (Communities with Mobile Response Teams of two professionals available 24/7 can resolve most issues involving distressed children, homelessness, mental health and addiction, reducing costs of incarceration while freeing police for quicker responses to serious crimes).
2) Mandatory critical intervention training for law enforcement in handling young children.
For over a generation, unprecedented and underreported divestments in America’s human resources have produced a growing cycle of human fallout and punitive responses. For example, access to the fundamental emancipation services that I required decades ago as a homeless 15-year-old (free college, university, healthcare, food stamps, emancipation counseling, transportation, job training and job placement, wage subsidies, and single room occupancy housing) are greatly diminished or effectively eliminated. Altogether, these essential resources cost a fraction of today’s alternative of mass incarceration: $45,000/year per inmate, plus costs of crime, addiction, courts, attorneys, lost productivity, destitution, mental health wards and school shootings.
Until local officials start listening to professionals, voters can demand an end to blatant government collusion in systemic housing fraud and collapse, each time forcing thousands of local residents into foreclosure, bankruptcy, and broken homes, a nationwide catastrophe since 2008, culminating in the worst economic decline since the Great Depression. Will the supervisors elected last June replace two recently disgraced planning commissioners with more members from the development/realty/insurance industries, or a professional housing advocate willing to demand balanced housing inventories for all classes of Humboldt County’s families?
June 26, 2018
Eureka Times Standard
By George Clark, Eureka


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