Ruslan Sharipov
ruslansharipov@gmail.com
(916) 256-9415
Dear Friends,
I am leaving on the streets of Sacramento already for 11 days and nights.
Today Sacramento Police demanded me to leave American River college and internet computer Recource Center and now i am using my last money in internet cafe (12 dollars an hour) to write you what happened today because probably i won’t be able access internet even in public place and the main library is too far away so i doubt that i will be able to get there for internet use.
While being homeless i was still trying to go to American River College which i was attending more then a year.
Since i don’t have internet access anymore i was trying to use college computers to access internet very shortly and write how i became homeless and what i have to go through as a result of U.S. Homeland Security
But today very weird things started happening when i tried to use internet.
First of all library of the college has restrictions for using internet for educational use only.
Therefore because i often went to Recource Center where i saw all other students accessing internet different websites.
In the library if you use internet for own purpose administrator usually sends you polite message and says that not to use other then college websites.
In the American River College Recource Center, i never before was restricted in using internet, as well as i saw all other students using different websites. Moreover, all over college you can see students chargign their cell phones and notebooks and i never saw college staff prohibiting charging cell phones or notebooks to anybody.
However today, when i put my cell phone to charge since i am homeless and didn’t know where else to charge my phone, unexpectdly college representative approached me and told me the following: «We are monitoring all yoru internet activities, since it’s college computers and also you are not allowed to charge your cell phone here. If you charge your cell phone again we will call police.»
I said that i am sorry and that i was not aware that i cannot charge my cell phone and said that i won’t do it again. Also i asked that representative why do you threaten me with police if i am not going to charge my cell phone again. Also i asked why all other students charge their cell phones and notebookes and you don’t threaten them with police.
She also told me that in Recource Center and in American River College i cannot access any internet besides college related materials while at least 20 people out of many were accessing different internet websites such as myspace.com and many others.
In spite of the fact that i was surprised that never before anybody prohibited me accessing internet websites in Recource Center and after i became homeless and has no longer access to internet, unexpectedly college Recource Center threatens me with Sacramento Police for chargign cell phone and accessing internet.
Thus i said i won’t charge my cell phone again and said sorry, however in a few minutes this woman came up to me again and said the same information that i am not supposed to charge cell phone in college and again threatened me with police.
I told her that i am not charging it anymore and why does she tells me this again and threatens me with polcie again. There were cameras in the computer lab and it looked like that she was trying to come up to me as many times as possible to make it look like as if I am not listening to her and continue to charge my cell phone. However, even those cameras may show that i removed charger from electricity immediately after she told me that it’s prohibited to charge phones.
Thus she didn’t ask me to leave the building but only gave me warning that next time they will call police and because she was threatening me with police and was rude to me for no reason, i started to type complaint on my e-mail to the President of American River College – David Viar ( ViarD@arc.losrios.edu ) to express my concerns that Recource Center threatens me with police.
American River College (which is in Los Rios Community Colleges District) has it’s own Sacramento police on site, and as soon as i started to typing my complaint to the Preseident of American River College, police officer who named himself as Frank Smith appeared at the door and interrupted me typing complaint and demanded me to give him my documents.
Then in front of more then 100 students he told me to leave the buidling and folllow him.
Outside Sacramento police officer told me that i cannot use college computers for personal use and that i cannot charge cell phones there.
He asked me why i didn’t leave when Recource Center representative demanded me to leave.
I told to the officer that it is not true, representative only gave me warning and never asked me to leave the building. Moreover, if Recource Center told me to leave the building i would do so.
Then police officer also told me why did i use college computer to type personal complaints, i asked police officer how did he know that i was typing complaints because i didn’t tell anybody what i was typing. Police officer told me that in college they can monitor what students do.
Thus the questions is why never before when i used internet in Recource Center, Sacramento police didn’t tell me to leave the college and don’t come back again.
Moreover, I told police office that many other students open different websites and charge their cell phones and notebooks and why nobody call police on them?
Sacramento Police officer Frank Smith answered me: «We are talking about you, not about others».
I told to police officer that if Recource Center woudl ask me to leave i would leave myself and i don’t see the reason why it was necessary to make me look like a criminal and remove me from the college on the eyes of hundreds of people as if committed a crime.
Thus i believe this is not fair, while other students have no problems using internet websites and charging tehri cell phones and only for me there was such theratens with police and actual removal with police escort.
Moreover police officer told me not to come back and thus besides beging homeless, Sacramento Police under the excuse of Recource Center tells me not to come back leaving me homeless on the streets without access to college and internet.