For the second time in my cross-country journey I have found myself interrogated by police simply for being a person with a backpack.

Now I have no problem with a police officer asking me if I am OK. There was just a tornado in Dwight, the location from which I’d come, and certainly there are not a lot of people walking. And I am used to explaining to people that I do not need a ride, that I am intentionally walking. But, I fail to understand how simply walking down Old Route 66 justified the police officer to turn on the squad car’s lights and pull me over.

There is a lot of talk about this being a free country. For sure we have more freedom than most places in this world. Yet, I don’t find it so free to be required to show a police officer identification–and not just show it to them, but to allow them to run your name through their database to ensure you have no outstanding warrants.

Standing on the side of the road, with a thunderstorm approaching in the distance, my options flashed through my mind. I could stand by my morals, refuse on the grounds that it violated my civil rights, and risk arrest, or I could provide my ID and feel like a sellout, but avoid arrest and hopefully stay ahead of the storm. Under similar circumstances in Greensburg, Pa., I allowed myself to be arrested rather than provide police with identification–in that case I refused to tell police my date of birth and was put in the back of a squad car, taken to the police station and charged with disorderly conduct as a result. (And yes, the charge stuck as the judge refused to change the court date to a time I could be present so I was found guilty in absentia.)

In the end I provided my identification but made it more than clear to the officer that I found her request highly objectionable and a violation of my rights. I told her I was only providing my ID, “because you asked nice.”

“I have a right to ask,” the officer said. Her excuse was that a couple weeks earlier a homeless woman had been walking down the road. Apparently the woman had a master’s degree. “I don’t know why she didn’t just get a job in her field,” the officer said.

I don’t know what was most objectionable. It was bad enough that the officer found it OK not only to assume that the homeless woman was guilty of some crime, but that since I was also walking down the road I might be homeless and guilty of some crime. But it was difficult to comprehend how the officer could be so naive about unemployment. I’m quite certain the homeless woman would have loved to get a job in her field–now why didn’t she think of that.

Perhaps the officer was accustomed to only seeing people at their worst. But far too often the poor and the homeless are victims of harassment. A joint report by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities, found that cities across the country target the homeless by creating laws that make it illegal to perform life-sustaining activities in public, ranging from loitering or eating in public to sitting in certain locations and begging. And apparently walking, if you appear to be homeless that is, could also be a highly suspicious act worthy of police scrutiny. The moral of the story is that, if you are going to be poor or homeless, it’s best to do whatever necessary to have wheels.

As I continued down Route 66, and the squad car pulled away, I found myself increasingly angry. Never before this journey have I had any such interactions with the police. The police had won today. But I vowed to continue the battle another day.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

As I am fiercely pro-choice, I can accept that some women believe abortion is wrong. But I will never accept the right of the government to take this choice away from women, well, take the choice away from poor women. What is often missed in the debate is this: women of means will always have access to abortion while poor women may be forced to make life-threatening decisions should abortion be made illegal or otherwise inaccessible.

I was reminded of just how dire things were for women with unwanted pregnancies prior to Roe v. Wade as I watched a screening of The Coathanger Project in Arlington, Va., yesterday. And, I was surprised to learn a generation of young women make no connection between coathangers and abortion. Coathangers have been a symbol of the form of dangerous self-induced abortions many desperate women in the United States once performed, and that women around the world still perform.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, which works to make advances in sexual and reproductive health worldwide, roughly half of the three million pregnancies in the United States each year are unintended. By age 45, more than half of all American women will have experienced an unintended pregnancy; one-third will have had an abortion. Worldwide 60,000 to 80,000 women die annually from unsafe abortions with an additional 5 million suffering injury.

Women, particularly poor women, are shortchanged again and again. Despite the fact that women bear future generations, we are given little support in doing so. One need only look to the stalled health care bill currently before Congress to see just how low a priority is given to women’s health. Pelvic exams, domestic violence screening, counseling about sexually transmitted diseases, and birth control itself were not initially on the list of basic benefits all insurers must cover. In its fact sheet on contraceptive use, the Guttmacher Institute notes that virtually all women (98 percent) aged 15 to 44 who have ever had intercourse have used at least one contraceptive method.

“Without publicly funded family planning services, the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions occurring in the United States would be nearly two-thirds higher among women overall and among teens; the number of unintended pregnancies among poor women would nearly double.” – Facts on Publicly Funded Contraceptive Services in the United States, Guttmacher Institute, February 2009

Whether abortion will be covered remains to be seen. The health care bill may be dead in the water. But, as it is, poor women and those in the military are expected to pay for abortions out of pocket since Medicaid and military hospitals are prohibited from funding abortions while wealthy and middle class women with health insurance do not face similar restrictions.

At the same time, some would have the government take things a step further. Numerous politicians have proposed legislation that would control the fertility of women as a condition of welfare eligibility with forced birth control or sterility. Just don’t ask the government to pay for said birth control. (Many health insurance plans didn’t cover birth control until women discovered they were covering prescriptions for Viagra. Thank you Viagra.)

This puts poor women in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t position. What right do we to have to control when or if a woman bears children simply because she has the misfortune to be poor? Some may argue that people choose to be poor. Unfortunately, in reality, being poor is more often a circumstance of birth. Rather than blame those who are born into poverty (or to suggest that the poor do not have the right to have children, no, we won’t go there) we need to be holding our government accountable for perpetuating a system that traps people into generational poverty.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2008, there were 2.2 million workers earning wages at or below the minimum wage. And more than half of the 37 million people in this country living in poverty in this nation are women.

Attempts to control women’s reproduction at the expense of her health and personal freedom come from all sides. A recent report by NARAL Virginia, found 72 percent of the Commonwealth’s crisis pregnancy centers receiving state funding relay medically inaccurate information to pregnant women. The year-long undercover investigation found that many of the centers, under the guise of being a health clinic, provided inaccurate, and potentially dangerous, information–one investigator was told “the AIDS virus is smaller than the holes in condoms.”

“Despite knowing that their clientele is sexually active and requesting birth control and contraceptives to prevent future unintended pregnancies, these centers choose to only promote abstinence. One investigator, asking about how to engage in safe sexual activity was told, ‘Sex is like jumping on a bed when your are young–it’s really fun until you crack your head open.’” – Crisis Pregnancy Centers Revealed, NARAL Virginia, January 2010

It is one thing to be up front with women when telling them why you believe abortion is wrong. It is quite another to use deceptive practices and scare tactics to prey on women in a vulnerable position, particularly college students, young single women, minorities and those who do not have health insurance or financial means. Further, suggesting that birth control will not work to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases borders on criminal negligence.

And crisis pregnancy centers are not the only use of public dollars to fund a political and religious agenda set on controlling women’s reproduction. Despite the Obama administration’s elimination of $150 million for abstinence-only programs, the Senate’s health-care reform legislation would reinstate $50 million.

Of course such disregard for women is not restricted to abortion and birth control. The needs of pregnant women, including those who planned for and want their babies, are also ignored. Doctors routinely put their needs above the needs of their patients when it comes to labor and delivery, from unnecessary cesarean sections to refusal to allow a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) to the American Medical Association’s longstanding recommendation against home birth.

Ladies, and gentlemen, it is time we all stand together and demand something better.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

Leaving Pittsburgh today I felt conflicted. I was not interested in being part of a G-20 protest that could become violent. And I didn’t think it was my battle. But, with each step I took, I realized that every protest is my battle–our battle–to preserve democracy and free will.

We are slowly losing our voice in this country. Newspapers are folding; elections are bought and sold; global businesses and corporations are not held accountable for wrongdoings. So, though I will not be at the protest in person, I am with them in spirit.

Pittsburgh is not a city unknown to protest. It has a long history of labor disputes and strikes including the Homestead Strike of 1892 and the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. And though I cannot confirm this fact, I was told that the reason it can be difficult to traverse from one neighborhood to another in the city stems from attempts to prevent communication between strikers in various parts of Pittsburgh.

So I was disheartened to hear comments from residents wishing the protesters would get arrested or thrown out of town. And it disturbed me to hear people say how glad they were to see all the police because the police were there to protect them. Sadly the police presence appears to be more about the protection of property in Pittsburgh and less about the safety and protection of the residents or the protesters. I worry that it has been set up to be confrontational and potentially violent when it could have easily been peaceful.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

Over the border in Surrey, British Columbia city leaders attempted a truly foul solution to the problem of homelessness. According to an article in the Surrey North Delta Leader, chicken manure was spread around a Whalley social service building on Aug. 14 in an attempt to drive away vagrants. A political relations nightmare ensued and by the following Monday the manure was cleaned up and lime spread to cover the odor.

Change.org’s  Shannon Moriarty perhaps said it best:

“To many, this bird dung story will be kind of funny, really nasty, or completely outraging. But to me, it’s just really sad.

Sad for the people who usually sat outside of those city buildings, most likely because they had nowhere else to sit. Now the whole world knows what city officials really think of them, perhaps even what they equate them to.”

I like to think that some good has come from such a horrible act of disrespect towards our fellow man. Yes manure was spread. But, when the situation was brought to the light of day, citizens were disgusted and demanded the injustice be righted.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

Since I began my walk not a month ago I have climbed mountains and walked beside farm fields. I have met amazing and generous people and made lifelong friends. I’ve walked through impoverished communities and been touched as those with almost nothing pulled money out of their wallet to help me on my way. I’ve been harassed and arrested by police, and fired from my job. And, yet, I still feel I have lived a truly fortunate life.

This morning I awoke in a women’s shelter. I may have been there by choice, but the other women who had arrived at Pittsburgh’s Bethlehem Haven shelter were there as a last resort. Some had been living on the streets or left domestic violence. One woman had a terminal illness and was attempting to fulfill her dream of traveling when her wallet and bus ticket was stolen, stranding her in Pittsburgh with no money. My roommate for the night had moved to the shelter to escape an abusive relative. But the shelter offers only a temporary safety net. Each woman still must find permanent housing.

I can’t imagine ever thinking that a shelter, no matter how nice, is a step up. But I can see how easily one can become tangled in the system, unable to break free. The loss of a job, a house or the need to escape a violent situation can lead to the rapid unraveling of what is often a fragile support system. When I arrived at the shelter yesterday I went through the same intake process as all the other women, was given my sheets and towel and the combination for my locker, and a room–a base from which to find a home, a job and put one’s life together. For all my education and hard work I could easily be in their shoes. As of this morning I too join the ranks of the unemployed–the victim of sexual discrimination packaged as a layoff. I was fired from my online job this morning as I sat working on my laptop in the dining room of the shelter.

Pittsburgh is a city of contrasts. Lovely in parts around the universities while areas like this and near Duquesne University (above) are in serious decay.

I would like to think my determination, education and drive to succeed would keep me from being homeless. In truth, there is nothing to prevent it from happening to anyone at any time. While I lived in Brussels I spent three months living in a quasi-homeless state. My husband and I went from living in a beautiful and spacious apartment to a cramped hotel room in the blink of an eye. One day we had an apartment, the next day it was uninhabitable as the result of a fire. We were forced to gather our belongings and move into a hotel, then another hotel, then another. We were able to keep a roof over our head only through the support of friends and family and good jobs. Had we lacked either or both of these, we could have easily been out on the street.

And so if I have learned anything in my travels, it is how fragile our support systems really are, and how readily and frequently those in positions of authority trample on even our most basic rights–whether it comes in the form of harassment by police, sexual discrimination on the job, or by well meaning groups and individuals who expect privacy and free will to be checked at the door.

Though I have only been on the road for a month, I have experienced more highs and lows than many experience in a lifetime. The opportunity to travel across the country, make friends of strangers, and share their hopes, dreams and struggles has changed me immeasurably. I have a deeper appreciation for just how hard so many people work to barely scrape by.

There has long been a gap between the rich and poor but evidence suggests it is growing.

And yet few seem bitter about a life of struggle. Even when I talked with those who clearly were poor, they spoke a common refrain: “no matter how bad I have it, someone else has it worse.” I cheer their optimism, but it disturbs me to think that so many have accepted that they do not deserve better, and do not question that a minority in this world have a right to horde a majority of the resources and benefits.

So I am saddened to have to take time from my trip, but my ankle injury is too painful for me to continue walking. How long my recovery will take is unclear. But I do know that even this very necessary recovery time is a luxury many in this nation do not have. I may be putting my travels on hold, but I am not ending my journey, my fight to bring about change, and and close the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

Loitering is not my idea of a good time. And I doubt most people enjoy loitering. But, when you are homeless, it is a way of life.

Since I’ve begun this journey I’ve spent hours loitering. I’ve loitered at Panera, at Starbucks and McDonald’s. I’ve spent time lingering far too long in parks, libraries and along the side of the road. There is nothing quite so conspicuous as loitering with a massive backpack.

So today, even as my ankle protested, I put one foot in front of the other and began walking. Not because I wanted to, not because my ankle was OK, but because the shame of being seen loitering yet again was too much for me.

No matter what people will say, myself included, you stare at loiterers. And, though you may feel bad for them, you want them to move along. Countless cities and towns across the country have enacted laws that make it illegal to loiter forcing homeless people to become invisible.

According to a July 2009 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, Homes not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities, numerous cities have enacted laws that have prohibited activities ranging from loitering to sitting in certain areas to panhandling in an attempt to target the homeless.

“Even though most cities do not provide enough affordable housing, shelter space, and food to meet the need, many cities use the criminal justice system to punish people living on the street for doing things that they need to do to survive.” the report states. Further, a study by UCLA released in September 2007 found that Los Angeles was spending $6 million a year to pay for fifty extra police officers to crack down on crime in the Skid Row area at a time when the city budgeted only $5.7 million for homeless services.

Of the 235 cities surveyed for the report: 47% prohibit loitering in particular public areas and 19% prohibit loitering city-wide. Fortunately the Supreme Court has overturned several loitering laws for being unconstitutionally vague and violating the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

Though I did not fear being arrested for loitering at  the shopping center, I certainly felt ashamed. A homeless man in Greensburg, Pa., I had shared my dinner with a few days ago said he had gotten over that long ago. Perhaps out of necessity you let go of the embarrassment of being homeless. It had not yet left me–I felt deeply conscious of what other people thought.

Whether or not he felt self-conscious in his loitering, and regardless of whether the Supreme Court has found the laws unconstitutional, that has not stopped police from harassing those forced to live on the street. And unfortunately I learned this first-hand in Greensburg when I was arrested for disorderly conduct as I sat shoeless in the Amtrak station.

The report cites numerous examples of homeless individuals being arrested for allegedly loitering. In the summer of 2005, at a free public event at Riverfront Park in Little Rock, Ark., various businesses were giving away free samples of their merchandise to the public. Vendors encouraged homeless people to take free samples but officers of the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department told the homeless individuals, including a handicapped man at a picnic table, that they had to leave the event immediately or be subject to arrest for loitering in a park.

“Homeless people are no longer allowed to be visible.” –A Dream Denied: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities

And Amtrak, whose Greenburg, Pa. station was the site of my arrest for disorderly conduct for refusing to provide police with my identification, has been found guilty of ejecting the homeless from Penn Station. The lawsuit, Streetwatch v. National R.R. Passenger Corp., 875 F. Supp. 1055 (S.D.N.Y. 1995) challenges the Amtrak police’s policy of arresting or ejecting persons who appeared to be homeless or appeared to be loitering in the public areas of Penn Station in the absence of evidence that such persons had committed or were committing crimes. The District Court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting Amtrak police from continuing to engage in the practice, finding that in light of Amtrak’s invitation to the public, the practice implicated the Due Process Clause.

Arrests, even for minor crimes, can have serious consequences. Homeless individuals are rarely able to pay their fines, and, as a result, many are jailed and end up with a criminal record. Once a person has a criminal record, it is more difficult to get access to housing assistance and other services.

There is some good news. On June 8, 2008, the Berkeley City Council passed an ordinance repealing a 1946 loitering ordinance. And lawsuit after lawsuit has found loitering laws unconstitutional.

As a society we need to get over our shame, embarrassment and guilt regarding homelessness and take active steps to create more affordable housing. Loitering is a choice but a situation born of necessity. And a jail cell may protect against the elements, but it is not a home.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

I have never understood what it is that empowers some of us to always stand up for what is right, regardless of the consequences, while others stand idly by at the injustices of this world.

While I was at Target in Greensburg yesterday I met John and his young daughter Emily. As I talked with John about my journey and about my encounter with the Greensburg police, he impressed upon his daughter the value in standing up for yourself, even when it is isn’t easy. Emily just smiled but I suspect she will grow into a woman who stands firmly by her convictions.

Most people I spoke with about my tangle with the Greensburg police and subsequent charge of disorderly conduct agreed that what the police had done was wrong, and cheered me for standing up for myself. But there were some who felt that the police have the right to demand identification of innocent citizens they have no reason to suspect of a crime. Now whether the law is on the side of police is immaterial in my mind. It troubles me to think that anyone could think it is OK for those in positions of authority to abuse their power. If it is OK for the police to harass an innocent person, is it also OK for a senator to lie and accept bribes; a president to mislead the public for personal gain, or for a government to prop up businesses on the backs of workers? Yet millions in this country would hesitate to cry foul.

Numerous studies have found a connection between poverty and an increase in involvement in crime, lower levels of education, and reduced self-esteem thus locking people into a repeating cycle of poverty. I can understand how it might be hard to stand up for injustice when you have just worked a double shift and can think only of how to keep putting food on the table and a roof over your head.

Now perhaps I was born stubborn. But I was also raised in a family that taught me to do what is right; to stand up for myself; and always backed me up when I did so. And so I thank my parents for empowering me. But I am also thankful that I was born into a life that gave me the opportunity to stand firmly for what I believe in. So many children are raised in an environment where they are not made to feel valuable; taught that they cannot have the same hopes and dreams as those of means. And it is not hard to see how those raised to think they are lesser humans for being poor would grow to become adults who believe they are not worth more than minimum wage, that they have no value to society. Yes there are some in this world with rare and unique talents. But that is a twist of fate. Those who work hard to keep the wheels of society moving are no less valuable. Those who perform back-breaking work behind the scenes in the least desirable of professions–washing dishes and toilets; slaughtering meat and picking produce; cooking and serving our food; operating cash registers and selling our clothes and an endless array of material goods–are every bit as deserving of a safe and warm place to call home and good health.

It has been more than 70 years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed in his second inaugural address:  “I see millions denied education, recreation and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children. . . one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.” Though we have come a long way from the poverty seen during the Great Depression, we are still a nation in which 1 in 3 struggle to keep a roof over their heads.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper

Last night, for the first time since I began my trip, I found myself without a place to stay for the night. I spent an hour on a bench outside the Giant Eagle grocery store talking to a homeless man named Rick while I iced my ankle. From there, I had hoped to spend several hours working on my laptop at Denny’s restaurant. But Google had failed me–the nearby Denny’s had long since gone out of business, and the next closest location was too far away. I toyed with staying at a hotel, but there were none close enough that I could walk to in my injured condition, and it was getting very late. And so, this is how I found myself at the Greensburg Amtrak station at 1 a.m., for the first time being truly homeless.

Unfortunately the Amtrak station is where criminals hang out. At least that must be true or surely the local police force, upon encountering someone on a bench with her shoes off, would have no reason to suspect criminal activity.

I have never before had reason to encounter unfriendly, rude and unprofessional police officers. Yes I have been a nosy reporter at a crime scene; have had my share of speeding tickets; and participated in a protest or two. But I was completely unprepared for the presumption of two Greensburg police officers that I was guilty until proven innocent. I cannot say I think police officers are always in the right, but I am willing to be respectful and I expect the same in return.

The two officers demanded my reason for being in the station, my name and my date of birth. I provided them with an unsatisfactory (in their opinion) reason for being in the train station, my name and then refused to give my date of birth. Whether or not the law requires innocent citizens to prove their identity when there is no reason to suspect they have committed a crime, I was not about to give proof of my identity to two officers seeking to abuse their position of authority.

My tangle with the law at the Greensburg Amtrak station resulted in my being handcuffed to a bench at the Greensburg Police station. Long after the handcuffs were taken off my wrists were ringed with red marks and bruises.

With my refusal to provide my date of birth, I found myself suddenly handcuffed and hauled off to the police station–not even allowed to put my shoes back on despite the fact that it was raining outside. Once at the police station, I was handcuffed to a bench while the officers performed what was most likely an illegal search of my backpack. They claimed the search was to ensure their safety and make sure that nothing dangerous was coming into the police station. Searches of private property without just cause are clearly prohibited under the Fourth Amendment. I cannot imagine how any reasonable person would suspect I was carrying something hazardous strapped to my back.

As my backpack was being searched, a woman came into the station to report that her boyfriend had thrown hot coffee on their children. Sadly, this did not appear to be a priority. Instead the police continued to threaten me with a list of charges that included trespassing, obstruction of justice, interfering with a police investigation and disorderly conduct. They threatened to hold me overnight until I could be brought before a judge the next morning.

Eventually I was given a ticket for disorderly conduct (a violation only, not even a misdemeanor) and kicked out into the night. The officers told me I had their permission to return to the Amtrak station. Instead, I made my way to a nearby 24-hour gas station where several people I talked with told me that the Greensburg police are well known for pushing the limits of their power. One employee told me that, on more than one occasion, she has been pulled over by police as she walked the three miles to and from her home. The police demanded to know why she was walking. Others shared similar stories of their encounters with the local police.

A joint report by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty found that the criminalization of homelessness is on the rise. In their July 2009 report Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities they found that cities across the country target the homeless by creating laws that make it illegal to perform life-sustaining activities in public, ranging from loitering or eating in public to sitting in certain locations and begging. Others have been harassed, as I was, simply for sitting in a public place.

“Homeless persons have reported being kicked out of bus stations in Little Rock, even when they had valid bus tickets. Two homeless men reported that officers of the Little Rock Police Department, in separate incidents, had kicked them out of the Little Rock Bus Station, even after showing the police their tickets.  In other instances, homeless persons have been told that they could not wait at the bus station ‘because you are homeless.’”–A Dream Denied: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities

Bill Connolly, program coordinator for transitional housing for Westmoreland Community Action, said it is unusual for the Greensburg police to cause problems for the homeless. Typically, Connolly said, the police will call social services and are “friendly and understanding.” The homeless advocacy organization has numerous programs for the homeless including 25 units of transitional housing. In addition, they have a successful neighborhood revitalization program that has renovated or re-constructed homes across the county.

It was 4am before I made my way to the Denny’s on the other side of Greensburg. Exhausted, my rage at the way we treat the less fortunate in this country was reawakened.

– By Jennifer E. Cooper