Interview with Sacramento attorney Mark Merin

Mark Merin is a private civil rights attorney who has faught for homeless groups in Sacramento, winning cases against the county on behalf of the homeless. Most recently, Merin won $500,000 for a case that found Sacramento police guilty of destroying camping material that was confiscated from the homeless. Much of that money has gone towards Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee (SHOC), a group that advocates for homeless rights. Merin was letting members of Safeground, a Sacramento Homeless advocacy group trying to establish a legal and permanent campsite for the homeless, sleep on his private lot in downtown Sacramento. However, those staying there got arrested and had their property confiscated, and Merin was threatened with a lawsuit for allowing illegal camping on his property, so residents decided to leave to save Merin the trouble. According to the law, Merin was violating zoning laws and permitting illegal camping, but the law suit was dropped once the lot was vacated. Merin also champions civil rights and works against laws that discriminate against groups dressing in a certain way with particular colors; these laws are intended to suppress gang organizing but often times end up discriminating against youth and minority groups.

I sat down with Merin for an interview about his work with the homeless, unjust laws in Sacramento, his experience with Sacramento Police and more.

*This interview is pieced together and not in chronological order, and at times, some of what Merin says is paraphrased for clarity and continuity. In other words, the material in this interview is not all direct quotes.

Enjoy!

Copwatch: What is the latest with Safeground Sacramento (homeless group organizing to get a legal, permanent campground)?

Merin: We’re trying to get to a place where the homeless are unharrassed and not forced to leave a site. That is our focus right now. We want City Council to move in that direction, and we’re trying to put pressure on (them). The mayor is lollygagging, though. We have 60 cottages in mind to be built, and there’s money for them, but all we need is a place. We’ve demonstrated its feasibility. Our first job is to convince politicians, but politicians don’t always see the need for this sort of thing. We did recently win a case against the county for $500,000 (for destroying private property of homeless) and we’ll use this money to advance the Safeground concept and use it to get property… There’s a lot of misconceptions about the homeless, that they’re all drug addicts or alcoholics or lazy. One of the nice things about Safeground is that people are coming together. By working for a Safeground, they are showing leadership and working together. They’re not the cause. There’s something bigger involved.

Copwatch: Can you explain the laws that make camping illegal in Sacramento? What are you doing to combat these laws?

Merin: It’s illegal to camp outside in a public place in Sacramento, and it’s also illegal to camp outside on private property for more than one day, even with the consent of the owner. So what we’re trying to do is block the use of camping ordinances against the homeless. These laws are unjust. Just being outside at night is considered camping, so we’re trying to show the law void for vagueness and invalidate it. The law is fundamentally flawed, unconstitutional and unjust because this law is criminalizing status, it’s criminalizing being homeless. It’s sort of like criminalizing being short- at some point it’s out of one’s control, and instead of criminalizing it we need to help. With foreclosures and unemployment, you can’t control homelessness because a lot of what causes homelessness is not in people’s control. They’re punishing homeless people not for conduct but for status. The police give them tickets, which can’t be paid, and that turns into a warrant and then jail. It costs $147 a day for each person in jail! (As a city), you can’t arrest yourself out of homelessness. It’s not a long-term solution. Without a permanent place to stay, the homeless become like turtles, always carrying everything on their backs, since they can’t stay in one place for more than a day.

Copwatch: What do you think about the treatment of the Sacramento homeless by the police? If you are a business person in a suit napping in Capitol Park, you won’t get hassled the way you would if you were a homeless person napping in the park.

Merin: Some officers are compassionate, some aren’t. I see homeless alcoholics and drug addicts that the cops don’t have sympathy for. But I don’t see the cops as the problem. I see the problem as the laws themselves. There’s discrimination based on status. Their rights are violatd, there’s false arrests, destruction of property without due process.

Copwatch: Also, what do you think about the system that punishes and incarcerates them for being homeless?

Merin: There’s something about our economic system that requires that people be loaded up and jailed. It’s an entire industry. If there weren’t prisons, there wouldn’t be jobs. The system necessarily needs to grind up and destroy people. You can’t stop crime versus individuals through law enforcement. Desperate circumstances lead to crime. It always makes sense to spend more money on social programs. For more permanent change, give a person a house and a job and you have a law-abiding citizen.

The police are agents of the state and they serve the powerful in this country. The whole culture of law enforcement is conducive to abuse. Power corrupts. Just officers can’t enforce unjust policies. The police should serve and care for the people instead of protecting the ruling class.

Copwatch: Finally, what do you think about Civilian Review Boards? Does Sacramento need one to more objectively regulate police policy and affairs?

Merin: Without one, there’s no real authority by the people. Civilan Review Boards give more power to investigate citizen complaints. It would be a big deal to get a Board and for it to have subpoena power. But I think the important thing to focus on is the laws themselves, which are the source of the injustice.

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Thanks to Mark Merin for taking the time to let Copwatch interview him. And thanks to you for reading!