Encouraging the homeless to find a new haunt is nothing new, but managers at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium may be breaking ground by attempting to do it sonically.
Of course, Manuel Noriega is and David Koresh was familiar with the acoustic warfare tactic, which at least one now-vanquished homeless San Franciscan felt was a harsh reaction to his and his cohorts' squatting, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Between 20 and 40 homeless had been hanging out and sleeping at Civic Center Park, and according to the newspaper, it was a source of frustration for police, the mayor, the city Recreation and Parks Commission and the concert promotion outfit, Another Planet Entertainment, which operates the auditorium.
To combat this scourge, Another Planet began using the building's outside speakers to blare a cacophony of the world's most jarring noises - chainsaws, motorcycles, jackhammers, an aircraft carrier alarm - in hopes of shooing the homeless off of its stoop.
The clamor, which begins nightly at 11 and continues until 7 a.m., prompted building manager Robert Reiter to comment to the paper, "I thought it was the building alarm going off."
Another Planet Vice President Mary Conde and founder Gregg Perloff said people attending events at Davies Symphony Hall and the War Memorial Opera House, both about two blocks away, had issued "an enormous amounts of complaints" about the homeless people in the area.
Blasting them with various "industrial" sounds, which Another Planet acquired from iTunes, has been "tremendously effective" so far, Conde said.
San Francisco has one of the worst homeless problems in the nation, according to the Chronicle, which has an entire special section devoted to the issue on its website. According to the Coalition on Homelessness, about 37,000 households are on the waiting list for housing, 6,000 people in the city experience homelessness each night and 2,200 homeless children are enrolled in public schools.
The problem gets worse each year, despite the city's spending $200 million annually to combat it, according to the newspaper. In March 2011, police began enforcing what is known as a sit-lie ordinance, which fines repeat offenders who sit or lie on public sidewalks between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. - the hours when jackhammer and chainsaw noises aren't emanating from the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium speakers.
Though some business owners say the sit-lie law has been a success, the ordinance was frowned upon by local homeless proponents prior to being approved by city voters. A national advocacy group in December cited the law in giving San Francisco low marks for its handling of the city's homeless.
It would appear that Another Planet's tactic for dispersing the homeless is being received similarly.
"What (expletive) behavior," said Oscar McKinney, a homeless man who said he had 6,100 quality-of-life citations who was chased out of the area by the overnight noise coming from the auditorium, according to the Chronicle.
Sonic warfare has been used as a psychological tactic to run folks out of an area in the past. In the 1993 Waco, Texas, siege, the FBI reportedly "used bagpipes, screeching seagulls, dying rabbits, sirens, dentist drills, and Buddhist chants" in an effort to flush Koresh and the Branch Davidians out of their compound, according to author Steve Goodman.
The method was also employed in 1989 when U.S. troops surrounded the Vatican embassy in Panama City, Panama, where Noriega and some his men had taken refuge. The troops directed loudspeakers at the embassy and played Christmas music all day on December 25.
The following day, the U.S. Southern Command radio station began taking requests from soldiers and played a variety of appropriately titled songs for the next few days, including the Rolling Stones' "Rock and a Hard Place" and The Animals' "We Gotta Get Out of This Place."
It didn't work. Noriega remained in the embassy until January 3, five days after the music stopped.
(For the complete Noriega playlist, click on pages 4-6 of this document at George Washington University's National Security Archive.)
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When I visited SF, I was walking out of a store and noticed a huge crowd gathered on the sidewalk on both sides of the street. On the other side of the street, a homeless guy had a tall potted plant. He would crouch down and hide behind it as unknowing customers exited the store. He would then proceed to jump out and scare them. The crowd of people would all laugh and then take turns making their way over to him, from both sides of the street, and put money into his hat he held out for 'entertainment donations.'
@Greek American : I saw the same guy when I visited SF! At least he is doing something to earn his money. I got a laugh from it and gave him money as well.
the poor will allways be with us. Some people are homeless because they choose to be, most do not. Many have mental health issues, but not all. I bellieve that if someone can work, they should. We as a community put resources togeather to care for these individuals. Even though it's not enough, it is reasonable to expect thsoe individulas to work to help themselves. If the owners of the Civic Center properties use sound to keep the sidewalks clear, I say good for them.
Three quarters of us want to work but we can't be trusted. We tell our story and yet no one cares. We lose our families, our homes and our medical benefits. We aren't the homeless but we are close. We are the American disabled and believe me those government programs aren't worth a damn either. So if you can't get a disabled person back to work, how the heck do you get the homeless off the street?
How, may I ask, do you have access to the internet at 10:52pm?
People are saying this is mean, but you realize a lot of people live around there, right? My super tiny friend lives right next to the Civic Center and has to deal with the masses of homeless walking to classes or work, and I see the horrible problem every time I visit her. People will scream at you, or follow you, or attack you (her boyfriend was mugged right by their apartment)
... yeah, deal with that and then see if you disagree with government chasing away some of the homeless from that area.
YES, they need to try and come up with more methods of combating this problem, but in the meanwhile, having such a huge population of homeless in one section (you would see rows and rows and ROWS of homeless sleeping there) breeds far more issues than it solves. If every homeless person was a sad man or woman who wanted work and just couldn't find it rather than drug addicts, alcoholics, people with mental problems (and often aggressive), maybe things would be better. Instead, it can be dangerous to even leave your apartment you're paying 1500 a month for (which is the rate many people living there pay)
wait til apple finds out and riaa. did the songs from itunes include a license to play in public forum? lol
Most of the homeless here in SF come from other places. There are a ton of agencies that provide free food and resources for these people when they dont make enough panhandling for pizza.
If you feel so bad for the plight of the homeless, then volunteer to feed them or take one into your home. But please don't expect everyone else to carry other people's burdens.
You sound like a first class jerk. I hope you get to spend some time homeless.
So cruel. They should at least let the bums make song requests... . The dying rabbit symphony, or chipmunks christmas carols, or the jackhammer five.
Trust me, San Francisco has plenty of programs to help homeless people. Many are faith-based, others are state and county programs. I worked there 25 years ago in a VA-sponsored program for homeless veterans.
First hand, I can tell you that when homeless veterans were offered rehab, mental health treatment and housing they still couldn't maintain even minimal standards of appropriate behavior.
Obviously YOU didn't serve our Country, Did you???
As a veteran myself I have an idea of what you're saying. I too happen upon homeless veterans and when I direct them to the VA for assistance, they resist. Which either means they are complete idiots, too proud or they aren't really veterans but posers. I despise homeless people who say they are veterans but are not. Makes me want to kick em in the head.
The city spends $200 mil a year to combat that prob..makes you wonder wer the tax $ is going..loud music cost: $50 that leaves $199000050 to spend wait employee turning on music cost $3 mil and the rest of $ goes to those ever selfless ppl trying to find a solution..that is all not important.back to the real issue ..those dirty crazy violent hobbos making it dangerous for those super smart ppl in the area that pay all that $ to live there..how there helping to solve the problem for the long term is unimportant jus keep letting the city rip u off and blame the homeless for being homeless
So, if someone chooses to get drunk all the time, and so cannot keep work, and ends up on the streets, why should I care? I don't, I don't care one bit what happens to those people, they can die for all I care. Same goes for the drug users, who cares, they are a waste of space and stealing my oxygen. Let them die like the parasites they are, there are plenty of more desrving people that need help, that when helped, turn their lives around and contribute to society. Same goes for war vets, last legal war we fought was WW1 & 2 and Afganastan, if you fought in any other war, then you are just a murderer, don't ask for my sympathy. Oh, and don't bother with the patriot thing, most soldiers join the armed forces for money. The truly patriotic soldier is much fewer.
Most homeless people have mental health issues...Not all, but most. Access to care is the problem, not a lack of desire to get help. Most of them have no means for help – and have not for most of their life. I don't know about you, but I was lucky to have a great family there for me growing up. Go pick on the welfare thieves and freeloaders, the criminals in government stealing our tax dollars, the criminals who cause the need for such a large police presence (and spending) in the country...but have a little compassion for those who are truly sick.
They spend 200 MILLION ANNUALLY TO COMBAT THE HOMELESS??? How about taking that 200 million and building some homes for the homeless. Could that solve the problem?
Why give them anything? Why do they deserve a home but the hard working couple or single person has to live in an apartment? Besides, they will just trash the home because all their money will go to booze and drugs. No, if you want to help, offer them a job, if they don't take it, let them starve.
Unfortunately, I would say that the $200 million is a joke. I don't know where they got their alleged numbers but that number is off the charts. Are they including all of the money spent in the Emergency Rooms, on law enforcement, and what not? There is not $200 million actually going to solving the problem versus dealing with the after affects of not doing enough and having to pay for it. As the old commercial went, "You can pay me now or you can pay me later."
Psychological warfare on homeless people, and arrests for feeding them in Florida in the middle of a recession. Ah the brotherhood of man.
How many of the homeless people, after being fed, offer to help clean up, or help serve their fellow homeless people? None, you know why? They don't care about anything; I'll never help a homless person unless they trying to find work.
I thought that Moonbeam Jerry Brown would have all these problems solved by now.
1 in 35 living spaces in the US is vacant. 1 in 200 Americans is homeless. Please recognize what's wrong with these figures.
We have the space. We have the solution to the problem of homelessness. What in God's Name is keeping us from fixing this? What kind of self-absorbed, profoundly flawed people have we become? Shame on us. Christian Nation? Hardly!
@vinyl,
The government also burns tons of agricultural produce every year for "economical" reasons.
"The upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there… just to scare the sh** out of the middle class. Keep ‘em showing up at those jobs." –George Carlin
would they be left alone if they held up "occupy" signs
This is the same thing we do to grackles on the RiverWalk here...
The only thing those noises will do is attract the New York hipster crowd.