The eight plaintiffs say police arrested them after closing a park that was designated for unhoused campers displaced by the Almeda fire
At least eight people, some of whom are homeless, say they plan to sue the city of Medford, the Medford Police Department and Jackson County following last month’s police sweeps of an unofficial mutual-aid site in the city’s Hawthorne Park.
Jayden Becker and their brother Sam were among the residents of the camp. Becker said activists designated the park for displaced people to stay after city-approved camping areas were damaged by the Almeda wildfire in early September.
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Two weeks later, on Sept. 22, police swept the tent sites and closed the park, arresting Becker and the seven others represented by Medford-based attorney Justin Rosas.
“Rather than write them tickets like they do every day with hardened criminals, they took them to jail,” Rosas told Street Roots. Rosas and his clients said they had a right to be in the park and it was unlawful for the police to remove the campers.
Before the Almeda fire raged through surrounding areas, Rosas said, unhoused residents had the city’s approval to camp on the Bear Creek Greenway, a bike trail that snakes 20 miles through several Rogue Valley cities. But when the fire neared the area, campers had to flee.
Becker, who works with a group of local activists to perform homelessness outreach, helped guide further displaced campers to Hawthorne Park, which became a safe place for them and a site for residents to donate food and supplies.
“It was honestly the most incredible, beautiful thing to see so many people, seeing our houseless neighbors and seeing people who have been displaced from the fires and wanting to step up and help them,” Becker said.
But soon after the site was established, local police gave campers notice to vacate, which Medford City Manager Brian Sjothun said in a press release was for “sanitation, cleaning and inspection of city property.”
Police handed out information to the Hawthorne Park campers that detailed when and why they were being asked to vacate. They gave them 24 hours notice and they listed four local shelters as alternatives to the city park.
Rosas said two of the four shelters were already at capacity when police issued the notices, and the third, Gospel Mission, required a commitment to Christianity.
Rogue Retreat, the first shelter listed on police handouts, requires an application process, but it had worked with the city to ensure it had new spaces before police swept Hawthorne Park, said Kristina Johnsen, communications and marketing manager for the city of Medford.
Becker and Rosas characterize the law enforcement clearance of the camp as a “raid.” Rosas said police engaged in “odd, childish behavior” while clearing people out and making arrests.
“My client Sam Becker, they arrested, (and) they said you have five seconds to leave the park, and he starts to back up and they say: ‘Five, four,’ and on three, they reach out and grab him,” Rosas said.
April Ehrlich, a reporter for Jefferson Public Radio, was also arrested on charges of interfering with police, trespassing and resisting arrest. Rosas cites press apprehension as a “denial of (the) fundamental right to the press” in the tort claims he has sent to the city of Medford and Jackson County.
“The targets were the people that were there observing, the people that were there planning (and) the people that were there as media,” Rosas said.
This is also when police arrested Becker, who said an officer shoved them and failed to follow social distancing protocol for COVID-19 while they were in custody.
The lawsuit further alleges that Becker’s bail was posted in the early afternoon, but they were not released until the early hours of the next morning.
This is just one allegation of misconduct brought up by Rosas. The multiple lawsuits he is filing will cite damage occurring throughout the day of Sept. 22 and long-term endangerment of Medford’s unhoused population.
“Hopefully we can have a sober beginning of the conversation about what the city and the county need to do in order to truly provide for the needs of those who are suffering and vulnerable in our community,” Rosas said.
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As the number of people sleeping outside continues to increase across Oregon, Becker asked for compassion. “They are the result of a system that has failed them and let them fall through the cracks,” they said.
Thirty-one unhoused residents from Hawthorne Park ended up staying at Rogue Retreat’s Kelly Shelter and Urban Campground.
Rosas plans to file the lawsuits within the next six to eight weeks.
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