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An Activist’s Life, by Thomas Leavitt » Blog Archive » Letter to the Editor re: Jimmy Cline’s and Linda Sipos’ death.

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December 15th, 2003
Social Justice

Letter to the Editor re: Jimmy Cline’s and Linda Sipos’ death.

[The Sentinel now limits letters to the editor to 150 words or less - the letter below appears to count as 305 words… the culture of soundbites in our public life appears to have reached the editorial pages of our local newspaper. Very sad. -Thomas]

Editors,

Jimmy Cline and Linda Sipos died because they were poor and outside in brutally cold weather. Any other conclusion is a technicality.

The coroner’s duty is to determine the exact cause of death, which in Jimmy Cline’s case was “respiratory insufficiency, acute and chronic bronchial asthma (and) pulmonary disease.” This is true in much the same way that Nathaniel Jones’s obesity, heart disease and drug consumption contributed to his sudden death… but, just like Nathaniel’s death was ruled a homicide, because he clearly would not have died if he had been left unconfronted by Cincinatti police, Jimmy’s death should be considered homicide by neglect - because he wouldn’t have died if he wasn’t outside in 32 degree weather, covered by nothing but a blanket (which it remains illegal to cover up with between the hours of 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. within Santa Cruz city limits).

Linda Sipos may have died of “fatty metamorphosis of the liver” from long term alcoholism, but the greater cause is the lack of funding for the “assertive” outreach and housing support services mentioned by Karen Gruneisen in Dan White’s article… and, as her partner mentioned, a system of shelter that serves only a limited slice of the homeless population.

The City cannot do it all, of course - certainly the misguided priorities of the state and federal government bear a large portion of responsibility for these folk’s death - but it can avoid making a hard life more difficult by forcing people to hide in the bushes to sleep; and it can explore pro-active alternatives: a safe and legal place for the unhoused to sleep and camp overnight would be a good start. That’s my “crass” and “exploitative” political agenda… what’s Scott Kennedy’s?

Regards,
Thomas Leavitt

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2003 at 12:34 pm, and is filed under Social Justice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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