“I don’t have any more energy to move.” “But the sweeping machines are coming for us, Mama.” “Whatever …” – her last syllable trailed off as she looked down.
I remembered this terrifying conversation with my mama when I heard about the violent death by sweep that killed lifelong Vallejo resident James Edward Oakley. Me and Mama were crumpled up in a doorway of an abandoned building. We had already had our car-home towed. We had already had our tent and all of our precious belongings stolen. And now they were coming again. To sweep us out of this doorway. To nowhere.
“They knew James was there when they ran that backhoe through that lot,” said Shawn O’Malley, longtime friend of James and a currently houseless organizer with the Vallejo Homeless Union…