One after another, the three vehicles entered University Park in central Phoenix the night of June 2. First, a Phoenix park ranger pickup truck, followed by a Phoenix police patrol Tahoe. A second ranger SUV brought up the rear.
It was just after 11 p.m. The park, situated just west of downtown Phoenix off Van Buren Street and 10th Avenue, had technically closed an hour earlier. But inside, under the bright park lights, people still milled. A man in a red shirt gathered his belongings as the three city vehicles drove slowly towards the group. He began to walk towards the open gate but a park ranger, who’d just exited the SUV, stopped him and directed him to sit at the nearby table. The man in the red shirt couldn’t leave — not tonight.
The scene unfolds in a video shot that night by @unshelteredphx, an Instagram account that highlights the dangers faced by Phoenix’s homeless population. In it, the Phoenix park rangers and police officers detain the homeless people still in University Park after hours. They run their names for warrants and issue trespass citations. Then they make them leave the park…