This spot near the confluence of Monument and Fountain creeks was littered with good intentions.
Trashed with good intentions, actually. And then burned.
Colorado Springs police say people donated boxes of clothes, food and sundries to a homeless camp near Cimarron Street and Interstate 25 around Christmas. Most of it went unused, was strewn about a wide swath of creek-side property and recently lit on fire, one of the worst messes officials have seen around the camps.
“What they tried to do, it flipped on them 180 degrees and now it’s just waste,” said code enforcement officer Jeff Robinson, of the donors.
Police invited the media for a cleanup day at the site Thursday, to show why they say well-wishers should not donate items directly to the homeless. Authorities also want to show, at a time when City Council is considering a law to ban camping on public land, how the proliferation of camps is marring the landscape and the creeks.
“I think it’s gotten out of hand with allowing them to camp here,” said Officer Brett Iverson, of the police Homeless Outreach Team.
The city stopped enforcing a ban on public land camping in 2008, after criticism of their tactics and uncertain legalities, and what had been a few isolated campsites has grown to at least 140 tents, mostly along Fountain and Monument creeks, areas with popular hiking and biking trails.
The site visited Thursday looked as if a bomb full of relief supplies had exploded. Iverson said a group of homeless men in their 20s recently abandoned the site, first setting most of the donated goods on fire.
Bagels, loaves of bread, canned food and candy canes were strewn about the creek-side in a ring of tents and massive boxes, mingling with pillows, blankets, mattresses and clothes. And most of it was charred and black. Piles of toilet paper and feces showed that the bank of Monument Creek had served as the camp latrine.
What's so "progressive" about human feces in public parks?
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