CIVILITY

WRITTEN BY TIM HARRIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

REAL CHANGE 

A Pioneer Square business owner angrily compares homeless people in a nearby park to pigeons and demands in a public meeting that they be cleared away immediately.  Yakima considers new anti-panhandling legislation, and sheriffs in Snohomish County are ticketing freeway on-ramp beggars for pedestrian interference.

While all of this is recent, none of it is new.  Over the past two decades, as the numbers of homeless people have steadily risen, visible poverty has been criminalized across the United States, with a battery of legislation to prohibit sitting or lying on public sidewalks, camping on public property, overnight parking, panhandling, feeding people in public, and even the possession of a shopping cart or a blanket.

After many twists and turns, the farm worker rights case Perez-Farias v. Global Horizons resulted in court decisions resoundingly supporting protection for the workers, and ended happily with substantial payments to affected farm workers at a special celebration in Granger. On July 25th, the great Delores Huerta, who started United Farm Workers along with Cesar Chavez, celebrated the victory with clients and the legal team. Huerta, a veteran of many battles over more than 50 years, remains full of energy and urged everyone to keep fighting for their rights.  

WRITTEN BY CESAR TORRES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 

NORTHWEST JUSTICE PROJECT

Our Alliance for Equal Justice exists to overcome the many barriers to justice confronted daily by vulnerable low-income people across Washington State.  The age of mass incarceration has resulted in untold numbers of already socially vulnerable persons, disproportionately people of color, also being burdened with the stigma of incarceration and the obstacles this poses to successfully reintegrating into society.  Formerly incarcerated mothers face even greater obstacles.