October Arrests that Typically Affect Those in Poverty and Homelessness
This data is collected from the public release of arrests made within each 24-hour interval by the Knox County, (Tennessee) Sheriff’s Office, and the University of Tennessee, (Knoxville, TN) Police Department’s 60-day arrest log. The accuracy of this data relies upon the accuracy of the source. I should emphasize that these are counts of arrests, and not convictions.
There’s no guarantee of course, that the individuals represented in this data are experiencing poverty and/or homelessness. There are, however, a number of the infractions that are fairly obvious – Criminal Trespassing, Aggressive Panhandling, or Panhandling in a restricted space, Obstruction of a Passageway, Indecent Exposure, (no access to an indoor restroom) Shoplifting, Public Intox, (often accompanied by Disorderly Conduct) and Resisting Stop and Search.
A person with no home is only doing what most of us would do
These are infractions that are either committed by people with little to no money, or with nowhere to conceal their activity, like Public Intox. A person with no home is only doing what most of us do after a long day at the office, or out to have fun on the weekend. Rarely would someone be tempted to take something that they need off the shelf of a store if they could afford to buy it. Criminal Trespass and Panhandling need no commentary. And it’s not difficult for me to conclude that one is stopped for a search because they are carrying their belongings in a backpack, or they don’t look like the suburbanite strolling through Market Square.
I should also clarify that this review is not intended to demonize law officers, but the laws that they are charged with enforcing and systemic conditions that put people in a position of having to break a law just in order to survive that day. There are, however, some infractions that I would think could be handled without an arrest – an arrest that only helps to crystalize a person’s poverty. Could an individual maybe be asked to move if they’re obstructing a passageway, rather than be taken to jail? Does someone really need to be put in handcuffs because they crossed a street but didn’t use the crosswalk?
I’ll not get started on Criminal Trespassing, but only to say that I think I’d just leave someone alone if I knew they had no where to go, or to ask them to move if someone had voiced a complaint. The state of Tennessee has just recently passed a bill that makes sleeping or ‘camping’ on public property a felony. The mayor of Knoxville, however, has committed to decline enforcement of it.
I’ve included the data on arrests of individuals who are to be detained for transfer to immigration services. There’s little doubt that these people are living in poverty and their condition was likely a determining factor in risking their freedom to attempt a better life here.
A felon for life
I’ve also included the number of people who have, or who are at risk of losing their right to vote. These are people who have been charged with felonies, and the figures are low. Many of the reports released do not indicate whether the charge is a misdemeanor or a felony, and I leave those as not specified rather than making an educated guess. These numbers are striking, and each month they accumulate. Unless one can or decides to go through the strict process of having their felony expunged, they will be a felon for life. In the month of October, 273 people, if convicted, will have lost their right to vote. If that number is typical, each year Knox County will have taken the right to vote away from over 3,000 people. And remember, these don’t go away on their own. In a ten-year span, Knox County, whose population is 486,677, would have silenced over 30,000, or 6% of its citizens. How many elections are won or lost by 3,000 votes, or less?
And finally, the arrests for Simple Possession and/or Possession of Unlawful Drug Paraphernalia. This number exceeds all other charges by far. Speaking from 15 years of past personal experience, drug use, even the use of marijuana and its mild effects, are more often than not, used to cope with feelings of pain, despair, hopelessness, misery, loneliness, and depression. And the experience of poverty and homelessness can certainly promote these feelings and cause one to reach for, what to them, is at least a temporary remedy.
So many of these causes, results, and arrests are intersectional. It’s a broken and tragic cycle of reality that many, often by way of simply being born into a family of means, are spared. The human condition is complex, but not always immune to reform. The power to bring about this change lies dormant without the willingness to engage. And if it takes the experience of life in this state of poverty and homelessness to awaken the will in you, your access to the power for change will most likely have been taken away.
