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27 September 2020

Hawthorne Park volunteers deny city allegations

Volunteers counter that Tent City was always clean not a mess

By Brad Smith

MEDFORD, Ore. – While both the city and Medford Police Dept. claim that the few acres of Hawthorne Park occupied by over 100 homeless individuals created a mess – it appears to be a lie.

And the MPD staged photos of a trashed-out park.

Since the MPD’s Sept. 22 sweep through the park – which resulted in a few reporters and a number of volunteers arrested – local media has played up the city’s narrative that the Tent City occupants made a mess at Hawthorne Park. However, according to Randi Vigil, who was one of the Hawthorne Park Mutual Aid group’s media representatives, that wasn’t true.

The MPD Livability Team asserted that human waste and needles were everywhere. Vigil denied that allegation.

“Between the community staying and the community helping, the park was cleaned every day,” they said. “There were people that would come to help in the morning and evening, that would spend time cleaning up, and many days where people staying in the camp would pick up around the community and personal areas. Every single night a houseless member, Mike, would separate all the trash and make sure everything was bagged and prepared nicely for whoever was to pick it up.”

Vigil said there was a chunk of time where the City of Medford had lessened their trash pickup schedule in the area and many members of the community pulled together to do dump runs for Hawthorne Park Mutual Aid. The Way Medford Family Church was a great help in this matter.

The park’s bathrooms and the trash bins were a mess before Tent City opened up, Vigil said.

“Before people started arriving at Hawthorne Park Mutual Aid, the bathroom doors were broken and one of the bathrooms – the one facing the parking lot of Hawthorne Park – was clogged for multiple days before a volunteer fixed it themselves,” Vigil said. “The trash bins were very sparse and thinly dispersed at the beginning. As Hawthorne Park Mutual Aid grew, trash increased but was manageable; there were donations of garbage cans which helped immensely with organization and presentation. The presence of trash should not be an excuse to degrade or trample on human rights.”

According to crime mapping reports, there were little or no incidents reported. Vigil said both volunteers and Tent City inhabitants were able to mitigate incidents as a community through problem solving, de-escalation, and group accountability. Having volunteers awake and available at all times helped provide a sense of security to the camp. The community continuously self-regulated and residents were committed to the longevity of the camp, they added.

“Hawthorne Park Mutual Aid received donations, services, and volunteers from partnering groups, local nonprofits and churches daily,” Vigil said. “However, Officer Mike Wulff and the MPD Livability Team were not helpful.”

The Rogue Free Press was at Tent City the day before the forced evictions happened. The park area was devoid of trash, hypodermic needles and human waste. In fact, Tent City residents were seen cleaning and keeping the area clean.

In short, there was no problem with trash or human waste.

Hours after the MPD made its sweep, sources contacted The Rogue Free Press and reported that MPD officers used confiscated tents and other items to stage photo ops for the press – who were out of sight at a staging area.

“Why do you think that JPR reporter and those volunteers were treated like shit and arrested,” the source said. “(The cops) were afraid they would have caught them in the act. That’s why they went after all of those people. The people at that park worked hard to keep it clean. Sure, who knows what happened in the tents but none of that shit happened in public. The city and the cops wanted to make these people look bad.”

It should be noted that The Rogue Free Press attempted to contact the source for more comments but there was no response.

 

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