Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 23 January 2018

Deputies move to clear big California homeless encampment

By AMY TAXIN A drug addiction crisis and stealing potted plants and
Associated Press need for mental health ser- bikes.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — vices are also factors. Undersheriff Don Barnes
Southern California authori- The decision had many said authorities hope to get
ties on Monday went tent of the roughly 450 people the homeless to move vol-
to tent telling the home- who live on the trail that untarily and avoid arrests.
less living in a 2-mile-long passes by the stadium for He said deputies cleared
(3.2-kilometer-long) en- the Los Angeles Angels another portion of the trail
campment that the large baseball team on edge. previously in about three
riverbed encampment Heather Smith, 42, said weeks without arresting
some have called home for she’s been homeless for a anyone.
years is being closed down. decade after her husband Barnes declined to give a
Orange County sheriff’s left her and she was ad- specific timetable for the
deputies called out to tent dicted to painkillers follow- move, but said he hoped
dwellers on the dusty trail ing surgery. She said she it would be completed “as
designed for biking and An Orange County sheriff’s deputy calls to residents inside a hasn’t used drugs in years, soon as possible.”
jogging, letting them know tent in Anaheim, Calif., Monday, Jan. 22, 2018, to let them know but has no family and The trail that runs through
county workers will haul they’ll need to leave the area and that the county will assist with can’t take her dog or cat the cities of Anaheim and
their trash, store personal the move if they need. with her to a shelter. Orange will be shut to
belongings and provide (AP Photo/Amy Taxin) “There’s no other place for the public for up to three
transportation to area shel- non Parker after speaking Coast cities grapple with me to go,” she said, tears months while the county
ters. with two homeless men a rise in homelessness streaming down her face. cleans the area. Officials
“We’re basically inform- who said they did not know caused in part by soaring “I’ll probably end up in jail.” said they’ll take a harder
ing all these folks, hey, you where they would go. “It’s housing costs, rock-bottom “People think we’re all stance on camping after it
should have been gone a work in progress.” vacancy rates and a roar- bad, and it’s not true,” she reopens.
by now,” said Sgt. Shan- The move comes as West ing economy. said. Officials in nearby cities are
Neighbors have long urged concerned that homeless
the county south of Los residents will wind up living
Angeles to shut down the on the streets once they’re
encampment and restore pushed out of the riverbed.
the trail that leads to the That’s what Brooke
Pacific Ocean for jogging Weitzman, an attorney and
and biking. advocate for the home-
They have complained less, said she expects will
about homeless people happen since there’s only
rattling shopping carts in 100 spaces at shelters that
their otherwise quiet neigh- don’t meet the needs of
borhoods and allegedly many homeless people. q

Dakota Access protester pleads
guilty in 2016 shooting incident

By BLAKE NICHOLSON sentence of no more than
Associated Press seven years in prison.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A Fallis, 38, was accused
Denver woman accused of firing a handgun three
of shooting at law officers times during her October
while being arrested for 2016 arrest. No one was
protesting the Dakota Ac- hurt. She pleaded guilty
cess oil pipeline in North Monday to civil disorder
Dakota pleaded guilty and gun possession by a
Monday to two federal convicted felon.
charges in a deal with She has a 2003 convic-
prosecutors. tion in Colorado for being
The agreement means Red an accessory to a felony
Fawn Fallis won’t stand tri- crime. Court records show
al, where she could have she was accused of driving
faced up to life in prison if a car for a man who shot
convicted. Instead, pros- and wounded another
ecutors will recommend a man.q