By Paul Larocco
The Press Enterprise
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A tight-knit group of transients who camp in the Santa Ana river bottom said Riverside police officers stormed their makeshift homes last week, crushing cans of food, slashing bicycle tires and throwing clothes and bedding in the river.
Police Chief Sergio Diaz said Friday he has opened an investigation.
The campers said they understand why police are showing up more often. “No trespass” signs are posted in clear view, and someone from the encampment was just investigated for burglarizing a Walgreen’s construction site in the area.
But the weathered men and women say they can’t comprehend why, as they allege, officers destroyed their belongings Wednesday.
“If we don’t move, yes, they have the right to arrest us,” said Wayne Jones, 58, who said he has lived in the river bottom on and off for eight years. “Yes, we understand. But they didn’t have to do all that.”
In the aftermath of Wednesday’s encounter with police, some of the homeless people contacted Ruth Record, an advocate who runs Come As You Are Ministry. Record photographed the damage, including broken stoneware and glass figurines, and began voicing her concerns about the officers’ alleged aggression.
Diaz on Friday said the department has a duty to monitor the homeless and attempt to get them out of off-limits areas.
“But we don’t break the law in order to apply the law,” he said. “We don’t permit the destruction of other people’s property.”
The internal probe is in its early “fact-finding” stages, the chief said, and no one has been disciplined. The first priority is locating witnesses, he said.
In an interview Thursday, river-bottom resident Colleen Sykes said she was hiding in nearby bamboo brush when the officers arrived. She said at least one of the officers was lining up breakable items and swatting at them with his baton in mock baseball stances.
“They were laughing,” Sykes said.
Record said she was most offended by officers who, she said, slashed bicycle tires and tents, and by one who disposed of a man’s toolbox in the river. She said she donated much of the food that was crushed and smashed.
“These people have been here for years,” she said. “They have nowhere to go - the shelters are full and they’re afraid to stay on the streets.”
Like Jones, Record acknowledged the complexities of the city’s homeless issue. She knows the river bottom dwellers are breaking the law and said less-frequent residents sometimes bring alcohol and illegal drugs.
“But to display that kind of rage?” she asked. “I don’t understand that, and pray that I never understand that mentality.”
Rebecca Truver, who stays in the area with her rescue dog, Jill, said that some officers have shown sympathy to the group. During a visit in the previous week, officers warned them they would have to clear their belongings. Based on that warning, they believed they had at least several more hours. But officers destroyed the camp without further warning, she said.
“I was hurt. I was crying,” she said. “Why? I give the police respect every time I see them.”
Copyright 2010 The Press Enterprise, Inc.