S.F. Delays Seizing Carts From Homeless
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SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Willie Brown postponed his plan to have police seize shopping carts from street people Tuesday, saying that advocates for the homeless have overreacted and misrepresented his idea.
“There’s no sweep. There’s no confiscation of goods and services of people,” Brown said. “It’s not anything near the hysteria that I have read and heard surrounding this.”
The mayor’s plan, which leaked out last week, would require police and other city workers to seize carts and cite the homeless for possessing stolen property, while directing them to shelters and other services.
“Mayor Brown wants to turn the city into Disneyland, which would be great if we lived in a fairyland, but we don’t,” said Judy Appel, staff attorney for the Coalition on Homelessness.
In exchange for giving up their carts, street people would get a couple of plastic bags and space in a city-run storage unit.
The plan was scheduled to be enforced Tuesday, but after a weekend of complaints and a meeting with police officials, Brown postponed the seizures.
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