JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED (in life and trash cans) by Tom Grode

7/28/2019 JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED (in life and trash cans) by Tom Grode

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JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED (in life and trash cans) by Tom Grode

Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, coined the phrase justice delayed is justice denied in1958 to emphasize the importance of the nation providing people a speedy trial.

In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. adapted the phrase from inside a jail cell in Birmingham Alabama to mean

justice for African Americans, the ending of Jim Crow laws, of segregation, has still not happened afterall this time of people in positions of power saying things must change. It was time to take to the streetsin non-violent protest until justice was birthed and established. This was his premise inLetter From A

Birmingham Jaillater considered one of the foundational documents of the Civil Rights Movement.

From Wiki: TheBirmingham Campaignbegan on April 3, 1963, with coordinated marches and sit-ins

againstracismandracial segregationinBirmingham,Alabama. Thenon-violent campaign was

coordinated byAlabama Christian Movement for Human Rightsand King'sSouthern Christian

Leadership Conference. On April 10, Circuit Judge W. A. Jenkins issued a blanket injunction against

"parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing". Leaders of the campaign announced

they would disobey the ruling.[1]On April 12, King was roughly arrested withRalph Abernathy,Fred

Shuttlesworthand other marcherswhile thousands of African Americans dressed forGoodFridaylooked on.[2] King met with unusually harsh conditions in the Birmingham jail.[3]An ally

smuggled in a newspaper from April 12, which contained "A Call for Unity": a statement made by eight

white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods.[2]

The letter provoked King and he began to

write a response on the newspaper itself. King writes in Why We Can't Wait: Begun on the margins of

the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of

writing paper supplied by a friendly blacktrusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually

permitted to leave me.[4]

The final sentences from the open letterA Call To Unity:

We urge the public to continue to show restraint should the demonstrations continue, and the lawenforcement officials to remain calm and continue to protect our city from violence. We further strongly

urge our own Negro community to withdraw support from these demonstrations, and to unite locally inworking peacefully for a better Birmingham. When rights are consistently denied, a cause should be

pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets. We appeal to both ourwhite and Negro citizenry to observe the principles of law and order and common sense.

The 1963 Birmingham Campaign was not about tearing down the government. It was not aboutabandoning those in positions of influence or calling them failures. It was about demonstrating to theworld that the people themselves must take ownership of the struggle for civil rights.

That was in life. Now and trash cans.

Operation Facelift Skid Row began as a grassroots movement in 2008 by OG Man (original GangsterManuel) and General Jeff Page, Skid Row Resident representative for the Downtown Los Angeles

Neighborhood Council. OG describes Operation Facelift as a spiritual movement with socialimplications. The purpose is to say and do what we want in a positive mannerwe want clean, safe,healthy streets in Skid Row.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Campaignhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Campaignhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Campaignhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham,_Alabamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham,_Alabamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham,_Alabamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_resistancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_resistancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Christian_Movement_for_Human_Rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Christian_Movement_for_Human_Rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Christian_Movement_for_Human_Rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Christian_Leadership_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Christian_Leadership_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Christian_Leadership_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Christian_Leadership_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Abernathyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Abernathyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Abernathyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Shuttlesworthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Shuttlesworthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Shuttlesworthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Shuttlesworthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Fridayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Fridayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Fridayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Fridayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-RiederGalilee-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-RiederGalilee-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-RiederGalilee-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Call_for_Unityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Call_for_Unityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Call_for_Unityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-RiederGalilee-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-RiederGalilee-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-RiederGalilee-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusty_system_(prison)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusty_system_(prison)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusty_system_(prison)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusty_system_(prison)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-RiederGalilee-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Call_for_Unityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-RiederGalilee-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Fridayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Fridayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Shuttlesworthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Shuttlesworthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Abernathyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Christian_Leadership_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Christian_Leadership_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Christian_Movement_for_Human_Rightshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_resistancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham,_Alabamahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Campaign


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The Downtown News is a weekly newspaper covering Downtown Los Angeles. They have an annualBest of Downtown issue and in 2012 here was the award given Operation Facelift for volunteer

community service:

BEST D-I-Y INITIATIVE: OPERATION FACELIFT SKID ROW

For the past year, businesses, property owners and other Downtown stakeholders clamored for cleanerstreets in Skid Row, urging government officials to address the rising filth. As they protested, a group ofvolunteers, most of them residents of Skid Row, picked up the Do It Yourself ethic, and began cleaningthe streets with brooms, filling donated trash cans as they went. The volunteers, who compriseOperation Facelift, were cleaning San Julian Street for months before a county health report spurred thecity into action. They asked for donated equipment, but not for media attention or accolades. - Ryan

Vaillancourt

Part of Operation Facelift is the Skid Row Brigade. Begun in 2007 by OG as a way to challenge the menof Skid Row to take civic pride in their community through acts of service, the men (and now women) of

the Skid Row Brigade can be identified by their green uniforms and caps.

When Sara Hernandez, Downtown Area Director, began the City Council Number Fourteen (CD-14) SkidRow Working Group, she reached out to OG and the Skid Row Brigade in February 2013. Number oneon the list of priorities for the group was trash cans and policy.

For what happened in March and April with the CD-14 Skid Row Working Group read One MansTrash(http://bit.ly/13T9C0a). A trash can in Skid Row is not a trash can. Its a symbol of systems,

of government neglect, social confusion, the need to come together as a community, a way to empowerthe individual who cant seem to make the first step towards a better life.

But then May appeared followed by June and this burst of success, this dramatic forward movement inApril, seemed to become the lyrics of Camelot - Don't let it be forgot/That once there was a spot/For onebrief shining moment that was known/As Camelot.

The verdict was announced. Pilot project did its job. The white wire werebest and the ABTs soondisappeared to be replaced by white wire. But it didnt happen. The disappearance happened but not the

replacement. May days turned into May weeks until the weeks ran out and became June as we headedinto a long hot summer.

In the meantime

Im a fan of strange verses in the Old Testament, like the one about standing in the gap:

The Book of Ezekiel chapter 22:

23 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 24 Son of man, say unto her, Thou artthe land thatis not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in themidst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure

and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. 26 Her priests have violatedmy law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane,neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my

sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in the midst thereofare like wolves ravening theprey, to shed blood, andto destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. 28 And her prophets have daubed themwith untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD,
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when the LORD hath not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery,and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. 30 And I sought

for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land,that I should not destroy it: but I found none.31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation uponthem; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon theirheads, saith the Lord GOD.

In other words, it doesnt take a lot of people for a big impact. It takes resolve.

Its my pleasure to introduce you to the one standing in the gap the Funky Trash Can. Part of OperationFacelift, the Funky Trash Cans are fun and colorful and inspirational. In short, funky. Small and light,these mobile trash cans are carried about by the homeless from tent encampment to tent encampment, not

only in the boundaries of Skid Row but beyond. To be a trash can you must be a curvy piece of plastic ormetal with handles that someone calls a trash can, but to be a Funky Trash Can you must be painted with

bright colors with usually one colorful word like LOVE or JOY or PEACE.

Twenty-four hours a day on the streets of Skid Row the Funky Trash Cans speak their simple colorfulmessage. Quiet but not silent.

Documents

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED (in life and trash cans) by Tom Grode