Occupy Eugene Media Group » SLEEPS (Safe Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep) – First Protest Camp at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza

SLEEPS (Safe Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep) – First Protest Camp at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza

In the ruling from LA vs. Jones, the judge said that you cannot criminalize someone for an act that cannot be avoided. Sleeping is part of our basic human needs and since we all must sleep, it was with this understanding that the SLEEPS (Safe Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep) campaign began.

SLEEPS occupied the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza in an effort for the public to see the need of unhoused people to be able to sleep legally. They put up tents and signs such as “SLEEP IS A HUMAN RIGHT” in this well used area for free speech. It was then that a new issue emerged–the question of whether our constitutional right to free speech has a curfew… After being evicted from the plaza in January, 2013 the SLEEPS campaign came to stand for not only our right to have basic human needs decriminalized in Eugene, but also our right to free speech without time limits.

Photos by Jana Thrift
Photos by Dusk McNeely
Photos Shared by Jean Stacey