Judge denies Cal Anderson Park resident s suit to block city s plan to remove encampment KOMO News Staff
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SEATTLE On a day that Seattle crews had been scheduled to remove a sprawling homeless encampment that has taken root at Cal Anderson Park, officials announced that they had postponed the clean-up action which preceded a lawsuit aiming to block the city from carrying out the move.
According to the filing in U.S. District Court, plaintiff Ada Yaeger told the court that she had been living in a protest encampment in the park since the summer and have been subjected to repeated harassment from the City of Seattle by way of sweeps a coordinated destruction and taking of personal property of unhoused citizens by Seattle Parks and Recreation and Seattle Police, two departments controlled and funded by Defendant City of Seattle.
by Chase Burns and Nathalie Graham • Dec 17, 2020 at 5:48 pm
The CDC offered no explanation. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
The TRO is denied: U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Jones definitively denied the request for a temporary restraining order to stop the city from sweeping Cal Anderson Park. In his ruling, Jones focused on the weakness of the plaintiff Ada Yaeger s arguments. Yaeger, a homeless woman, argued that past sweeps violated her First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Jones did not see enough evidence to back up those claims. On the other hand, he wrote that the city s case was solid that sweeping the park was a matter of public health and safety. However, he did include an aside that the City’s timing is regrettable clearing the park during the winter season during a pandemic.
No Ruling on Temporary Restraining Order Against the City Judge Denies TRO by Nathalie Graham • Dec 17, 2020 at 2:45 pm
Activists and encampment dwellers are still prepared for a sweep. Nathalie Graham
Is the city going to sweep the Cal Anderson Park homeless encampment or not? For now, the answer is still a big question mark. The decision hinges on whether U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Jones decides to go forward with a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed against the city yesterday.
The decision was supposed to come out this morning. It still hasn t. The court is edging us. However, new information provided by the city this afternoon may sway the decision in the city s favor.
by Nathalie Graham • Dec 16, 2020 at 12:40 pm We re not terrible people, one encampment dweller said, We re just desperate. Nathalie Graham
The barricades of overturned dumpsters, upside-down couches, fridges, and one lonely soccer goal encircling the homeless encampment at Cal Anderson Park remained intact Wednesday morning. Sponsored
Protest groups and activists turned out en masse to resist a planned encampment sweep that the city announced on Monday when Seattle Parks and Recreation employees, accompanied by a Seattle Police Department presence, posted notices around the park. The city would clear the encampment at 7:30 a.m. today, the notice read, but the sweep still hadn t happened as of Wednesday afternoon.
Judge denies Cal Anderson Park resident s suit to block city s plan to remove encampment KOMO News Staff
Replay Video UP NEXT
SEATTLE On a day that Seattle crews had been scheduled to remove a sprawling homeless encampment that has taken root at Cal Anderson Park, officials announced that they had postponed the clean-up action which preceded a lawsuit aiming to block the city from carrying out the move.
According to the filing in U.S. District Court, plaintiff Ada Yaeger told the court that she had been living in a protest encampment in the park since the summer and have been subjected to repeated harassment from the City of Seattle by way of sweeps a coordinated destruction and taking of personal property of unhoused citizens by Seattle Parks and Recreation and Seattle Police, two departments controlled and funded by Defendant City of Seattle.