“You’ve got to tell everyone what they’re doing to poor people,” said Mary. “They’re taking all our stuff.”
Mary and a small group of friends had just been run off a place they’d been camping. They had then moved to a location along railroad tracks in south Modesto, under the Highway 99 overpass. Many of their belongings had been confiscated.
Two days later, they were rousted again. As sweeps go, this one was easy. Instead of the usual heavy equipment and squads of cops and cleanup crews, just a few workers got the place cleaned up in a day. This group of campers had been mostly neat and clean. One had swept the surrounding premises daily.
Anyone watching this site over the last seven or eight years would marvel at the expense of all the sweeps during that time. The most costly have been by Caltrans, but Highway Patrol, railroad police, Stanislaus County Sheriffs, and many tons of heavy equipment have routinely chased people away, only to have them return time and time again. The expense in dollars must be nearing millions for this one location…