This paper will be concerned with the treatment of the homeless by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The homeless are often treated with fairness and respect by the Los Angeles police. However, there have been many highly publicized cases of police brutality against the homeless. The LAPD frequently conducts "sweeps" of homeless encampments in order to force transients out of an area where they have been sleeping. In some cases, these evictions have resulted in the violation of homeless rights. These violations have ranged from the confiscation of homeless property to the use of deadly force.
Mild interactions between police and the homeless often occur at the 24-hour Greyhound Bus Terminal on 6th street in downtown Los Angeles. Many homeless people congregate there, hoping to earn tips by helping travelers carry their luggage. Some of these self-appointed valets are street hustlers or drug addicts. However, many are simply trying to earn a bit of money in order to survive. For this second group of homeless people, police crackdowns in the area are seen as being unfair. In the words of one homeless man: "I come out here to work, to get food. The police harass us, run us off." (Ferrell, 1991, p. B5).
A more extreme interaction between police and homeless occurred in 1990 in Santa Ana, a community to the south of Los Angeles. A police crackdown there resulted in over 60 homeless people being arrested "on charges ranging from jaywalking to littering" (Martinez, 1991, p. A21). The homeless people were detained for hours in a stadium, and many claimed that they had been humiliated. Some even claimed that they had been roughed up by the police. As a result of this incident, the Santa Ana City Council was forced to pay $400,000 in damages to 28 of the homeless people (Martinez, 1991, p. A21).
A very extreme case of police brutality against the homeless can be seen in the 1989 death of Raymond Diaz Triana...