I hate Jean Stacey. She was there when I met Belle, She allowed Allery Valkyrie and her Beast Buddies to make death threats on her Alley’s Facebook. Please! Someone give me a million buck so I can sue Jeans ass back to Florida
John Presco
Added Jean Stacey, a Eugene social activist, also on Facebook: “This is so against the person we know. Emily Semple fanning (the) flames against homeless people is shocking enough for a health check.”
City councilor Emily Semple apologizes for ‘terrorism’ remark about protest camp
Christian Hill
christian.hill@registerguard.com
Eugene City Councilor Emily Semple publicly apologized Monday for saying a homeless protest camp is engaging in “terrorism.”
Semple made that remark during the Sept. 17 Eugene Human Rights Commission while describing negative impacts the camp, now located along the curb at West 11th Avenue and Lawrence Street, is having on nearby residents and business owners.
“I am very frustrated and upset. This has become the face of homelessness, which has hurt every single homeless person in this city,” she said, according to a video of the meeting. “It’s making people angrier, both the merchants and nonprofits there, but (also) everyone who drives by. I believe in protest, and I believe this has become terrorism.”
In response to an inquiry about her remarks on Monday, Semple read from a prepared statement. Semple said she planned to read the same statement during the conclusion of the public comment period at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
“At the Human Rights Commission meeting last Tuesday evening, I used the word ‘terrorism,’” she said. “If I had pre-written my remarks, I would have chosen a different word. I apologize.”
Semple, whose ward includes downtown and south-central Eugene, declined further comment.
One of the council’s most progressive voices who has a history of social activism, Semple faced immediate blowback from her liberal supporters for her remark at the meeting. She is seeking re-election next year in a race that so far has drawn two challengers.
“It is the job of our ‘representatives’ to not allow fear and bigotry to be the reasoning for our City’s choices,” Eugene resident Jana Thift wrote on a Facebook post. “It seems that Emily forgot that it was her fighting for the right to gather in protest not so long ago.”
Added Jean Stacey, a Eugene social activist, also on Facebook: “This is so against the person we know. Emily Semple fanning (the) flames against homeless people is shocking enough for a health check.”
But at least one resident came to Semple’s defense on social media.
“The protest camp is a slap in the face to every working person in Eugene,” Eugene resident Diane Davis posted on Semple’s Facebook page. “Thank you for standing up for taxpayers who just want to be free to walk the streets.”
Get the Daily Briefing newsletter in your inbox.
Start your day with the morning?s top news
Delivery: DailyYour Email
The protest camp, led by homeless advocate Eric Jackson, has been relocating in and near downtown for months, mostly recently in front of the Fifth Street Public Market expansion project and Eugene Municipal Court.
The camp seeks to bring attention to what Jackson has said is the criminalization of homeless people by local officials in enforcing the city’s illegal camping ordinance and the county’s curfew for its properties downtown. More recently, it seeks to protest the City Council’s approval of an amended ordinance that allows adjacent property owners to enforce trespass on planter strips — the narrow strip of land between the sidewalk and curb.
Semple, who lives near the camp’s current location, told the commission she’s heard reports of campers regularly yelling vulgarities, fighting, using drugs and disassembling bicycles.
The city councilor said she’s walked around the alleys and buildings in the immediate area several times in recent days and observed feces, urine stains and used drug needles.
Rosamond Press 
Leave a comment