Homeless Man Claims Beating by Santa Ana Officer

A 35-year-old homeless city employee has told the Legal Aid Society of Orange County that he was beaten by a Santa Ana policeman late Monday night at the city’s Civic Center as four other officers looked on, legal aid officials said Tuesday.

The man, who identified himself Tuesday only as Larry, has sought help from the Legal Aid Society, which plans to ask the Santa Ana city attorney to investigate. Larry, who works for the city as a gardener, said Tuesday that he fears that the use of his whole name would jeopardize his employment,

Two other homeless men, including Pat Ford, a homeless activist, said they witnessed the incident.

Legal Aid spokesmen also said police are cracking down on homeless in the Civic Center area.

Sgt. Rick Hicks of the Santa Ana Police Department denied that there was a crackdown. He said he could not confirm whether an officer was involved in the alleged incident Monday night and that Police Chief Paul M. Walters had not seen a report on the case. City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said he could not comment without seeing a report.

However, attorney Crystal C. Sims of the Legal Aid Society said that since Oct. 8 the police have been cracking down on the homeless around the Civic Center. She said that a number of homeless people have complained to the society that they have been harassed by police for sleeping at the center.

“The city does not want the homeless in the city of Santa Ana. They (city officials) don’t want to deal with them in any sense, except to get rid of them,” Sims said.

During the summer of 1988, the city began confiscating bedrolls and other belongings of homeless people in an effort to get them out of the civic center area. A protest was filed and a compromise reached--the homeless could reclaim their belongings at a dumpster in Centennial Regional Park. Since then, an uneasy relationship has existed between the city and its homeless.

On Tuesday, police denied that they have been enforcing a crackdown. However, Police Chief Walters has asked that the incident be investigated, Hicks said.

“The homeless are dealt with fairly and appropriately,” Hicks said. “To my knowledge, there has been no concerted effort against the homeless.”

Councilman Richard L. Norton also said he knows of no crackdown. He added that at least two dozen homeless people were sleeping outside the City Council chambers after the council meeting on Monday.

“I have faith in the Police Department. Our guys are too busy to knock the heads of the homeless,” Norton said.

Legal Aid attorneys and homeless activists, however, say that the police have been rousting the homeless in the past week and a half.

In an interview Tuesday, Larry said he was beaten by a police officer near midnight Monday after he and his friend Eugene Williams, 26, were stopped by officers as they were walking on North Ross Street. The two had just finished watching a football game at a bar and were going to settle down for the night at the center.

The officer told the two men to leave the area, Williams said. But Larry, who had been wearing a radio headset, apparently did not hear the officer’s directive and asked him to repeat the statement, according to the two men.

Larry said the officer then punched him in the eye and shoved him onto the sidewalk.

“I kept saying, ‘What did I do? What did I do?’ But he just kept hitting me,” Larry said.

Williams said he saw the officer hit Larry and grab his neck, throwing him to the ground. He said the other officers told Williams to leave his friend.

“I took off. I really had no choice. I didn’t want to get hurt as well,” Williams said.

Pat Ford, an activist who marched on Washington Oct. 7 in the nationwide Housing Now demonstration, said Tuesday that he also saw the officer punch Larry in the face and stomach as Ford stood about 50 feet away. Ford said the police had rousted several people in the Civic Center minutes before the two men came into the area.

“It seemed like they were ready for trouble. They had been cussing at us and telling us to leave,” Ford said.

Larry said he was taken to the police station and given a citation for loitering at the 600 block of North Ross Street.

The Legal Aid Society met with a representative of the Police Department last week to discuss the department’s policies regarding the homeless at the civic center, Sims said. She was told that the police would contact the watch commander in charge of the late shift about her complaints of harassment.