A U.S. District Court judge Friday is scheduled to consider keeping in place restrictions on the Chico Police Department’s enforcement of illegal encampment notices issued to unhoused people in the city.
Meanwhile, some residents are writing the judge, voicing their displeasure with a temporary restraining order he previously issued that stopped the removal of a homeless encampment at Comanche Creek Greenway in south Chico.
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Residents in Chico are writing critical letters to the federal judge who issued a temporary restraining order halting the city’s removal of homeless encampments. NSPR’s Andre Byik reports.
ANDRE BYIK, REPORTER
“Your TRO has added to the destruction of my community …,” one letter reads.
“We want the service-resistant homeless to stop destroying the parks …,” goes another.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” went one more.
At least four members of the public sent letters to Senior U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr., who was nominated to the Eastern District of California by President George W. Bush in 2002.
The court in Sacramento added the letters critical of the judge’s temporary order to the case file of a lawsuit brought against the city of Chico. A group of homeless people is suing over the city’s sweeps of homeless encampments.
The letters come before a pivotal hearing in the case. The judge Friday will consider granting a motion for preliminary injunction sought by the unhoused plaintiffs.
Such an injunction could prohibit the city from removing encampments while the lawsuit moves forward.
For NSPR News, I’m Andre Byik.