"WOMEN OF COLOUR, UNDER ATTACK, WHAT DO WE DO?"
"STAND UP, FIGHT BACK!"
I was super confused, as it was 8am on a Thursday morning. At first I thought Ryley was watching a movie or something, but then I peeked out my window and saw that there was a big, noisy picket going on at the corner of my block. Metro Housing Coalition, I think. They stayed noisy for several hours, then marched down to the legislature. I guess maybe they didn't get what they want yet because now they're picketing and chanting again and there are a lot of honking horns and stuff.
Well, it's spring, and with spring time comes evictions. Our upstairs neighbors are being informally evicted (they're not really putting up much of a fuss), and our friends across the commons are also getting the boot. After an unofficial notice of eviction showed up at their house (dated April 8th, telling them to be gone by the 30th, with a "thorough inspection" happening on the 14th), they decided to rally support on hold a tea party today to greet the landlord.
At first it didn't seem so bad, there was the aforementioned tea, and a lot of people came out and most dressed up. The landlord and his lackey moved through the apartment taking pictures and writing stuff down. They didn't really engage too much with the guests, but asked if anyone actually lived there a couple times.
Once they left (and slammed the door behind them) we thought we were home free and started to relax a bit...and then the cops showed up.
Long story short, landlords and cops are scummy, neither of them obey their own laws, and bureaucracy is a fucking headache. Incidentally, I stopped attending cop watch meetings and was removed from the mailing list, but I filmed the entire interaction with the police. Heh.
No one got arrested, but it was threatened. Thankfully we were able to keep them from coming inside the house, they're going to "investigate", and try to get an "emergency eviction". Not much has changed, but our friends might just have less time to figure their shit out. As much as I would love to see the land lord get dragged around and embarrassed at a hearing, it's not my house and I can totally understand that people wouldn't want to put that kind of energy into a place they aren't going to live anymore.
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