In late September, a Louisville Metro Police Department body camera captured a pregnant woman standing near a mattress under a busy overpass and telling officers, “I have to go to the hospital.” Ta. “What am I doing wrong?”
The woman was in labor and told the approaching police that her water had broken, but the police still ticketed her for violating Kentucky’s new law banning all street camping. A number of laws were passed this year that criminalize homelessness.
Lt. Caleb Stewart, who gave the Louisville woman’s name, told her he would call an ambulance, but when she started moving toward the street to wait for paramedics, he yelled at her to stop.
“Am I being detained?” she asked.
“Yes, you are in custody,” he replied. “I’m being detained because I’m illegally camping.”
Stewart can later be heard saying on body camera audio that he couldn’t believe the woman was in labor. The public defender representing her told Kentucky Public Radio that she actually gave birth later that day and that her family was living in a shelter while awaiting a January court date on her subpoena. said.
Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homeless Law Center said the upcoming trial and video “highlight both the absurdity and cruelty of anti-camping laws in Kentucky and across the country.” “This is an extreme incident, but unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. Politicians need to address the causes of homelessness, the fact that more people are struggling to pay their rent. Instead, we have laws that kick people out and make money when they’re depressed. Homelessness gets worse. The solution to homelessness is housing and assistance, not tickets and fines.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July that authorities can ban sleeping and camping in public places. Since then, nearly 150 cities across the country have passed anti-encamping laws, Rabinowitz said.
Rabinowitz said the video was also released days after Republican elected officials celebrated “the person who murdered homeless New Yorker Jordan Neely.” “And[President-elect]Donald Trump and his billionaire cronies are trying to round up homeless people and put them in concentration camps. All of this is making homelessness even worse.”
“This disrespect and disregard for these two lives is a direct result of the so-called ‘Kentucky Safe Act’ that was enacted this year,” said Shameka Parrish Wright, director of the advocacy group VOCAL-KY. .
“People experiencing homelessness are fighting for their lives across the country and here in Louisville. The only way to stop homelessness from happening again is to immediately invest in affordable housing and health care.” It’s not about handing out more tickets to people who can’t live in their homes,” Parrish-Wright said. “The politicians who paved the way for this tragedy should be ashamed.”
“If politicians actually cared about homeless Kentuckians, they would focus on providing them with the housing and support they need,” she added.
