Jerry Burton was huddled in a tent at 27th and Arapahoe streets on Nov. 28, when police told him he was violating Denver’s outdoor camping ban and ordered him to leave.
“I told him, I cannot move right now, I can’t move,” said Burton, a former Marine who said he has a degenerative bone disease that makes movement difficult, especially in cold weather.
Police left, but returned and ticketed him for unauthorized camping. Before the day was over he had moved with about 20 other homeless people to a spot in front of the Denver City and County Building. Police gave him another ticket and seized his tent and sleeping bag.
Burton and two others who received the citations on that day will be in Denver County Court Tuesday to challenge the tickets.
They will be the first people to fight their citations since the controversial camping ban was put in place in 2012, their lawyer Jason Flores-Williams said. If they lose, they face a fine of $999 and up to a year in jail.
The city views issuing tickets for camping ban violations a last resort, Denver city attorney Kristin Bronson said.
Police and outreach workers typically try to connect the homeless with shelter and other resources, she said. Officers carry resource cards listing services for the homeless, and give that information to them.
“They include a list of services that they go through with them,” Bronson said.
Officers worked with the three to get them to move for hours before finally ticketing them and seizing their belongings, she said. “These folks were offered services on multiple occasions and they refused them each time.”
For the homeless, the trial is an opportunity to focus attention on .
Advocates say the ban criminalized homelessness and call it a “survival ban.”
In all, Burton, Randy Russell and , were issued five tickets that day and had blankets, sleeping bags and tents confiscated.
Flores-Williams called the ban cruel, arbitrary, and unconstitutional. The city actually violated its own ordinance, he added, which requires officers to attempt to determine if someone is in need of medical care or other help before enforce the ordinance.
“If they don’t make an effort to find out if they are doing OK, or in need of treatment, they can’t arrest or enforce,” he said.
The city had conducted a number of sweeps of homeless camps prior to the night the three were ticketed. “We had been swept from everywhere around the whole city of Denver, not only that day but for weeks,” Howard said.
After police seized his tent and other property, Burton was hospitalized for the night.
“I fell down and had to go to the VA. I was given a bed so my body could warm up gradually, so by morning I was able to move around,” he said.
Mayor Michael Hancock in December said that police would no longer confiscate blankets and tents from homeless people during cold weather.
Members of Denver Homeless Out Loudaccusing the city of clearing downtown of the poor and displaced by conducting sweeps of homeless encampments to make way for new housing and economic development. There has been no ruling in that case.
