Protesters Sleeping On Berkeley Streets To Show Support For Better Treatment Of Homeless
BERKELEY (CBS SF) -- Protesters from a number of faith groups pulled out blankets and pillows to spend the night on Berkeley's streets Thursday night as a way to show support for better treatment of the city's homeless population.
"We are laying our bodies down because we are standing up for justice," organizer Sally Hindman told KPIX 5.
Hindman says video that recently surfaced showing a Berkeley Ambassador beating two homeless men was an ugly wake up call.
"It really got people to think in a fresh way about how homeless people are being treated in our community," Hindman said.
Some are calling for an end to the Ambassador program, but Thursday night's protesters are fighting a slew of new proposals in Berkeley that they say would criminalize the homeless rather than helping them.
"It's actually shameful to me that the city has not been able to come to grips and really solve this homeless problem," Reverend Kurt A. Kuhwald of the Faith Alliance for a Moral Economy said.
"We can solve these problems, and we need to now. It's not a republican problem. It's not a democrat problem. It's an American problem."
