No one advocates more forcefully for Fresno’s homeless. That’s why authorities went after her. | Opinion

She’s tough. She’s assertive. She’s resolute. And she doesn’t back down from verbal confrontations with authority figures.

In my book, these are admirable qualities. No one in Fresno shines a brighter light on the city’s treatment of its homeless population than Desiree “Dez” Martinez.

Regrettably, the qualities I admire have unjustly placed Martinez in the crosshairs of the same authority figures with whom she confronts — typically with her cell phone recording video of their interaction.

Shortly after midnight on March 17, 2022, Martinez received a phone call from a woman in the midst of being evicted from one of the city-owned shelters along Parkway Drive with only the clothes on her body.

As she does unfailingly, Martinez immediately came to the woman’s aid. In doing so, Martinez got into a verbal dispute with a Fresno police officer who threatened to place her under arrest if she did not desist.

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After multiple occurrences (as verified by the officer’s body camera footage), Martinez got tired of the threat and challenged the officer to make good on it. Which is exactly what happened. Martinez was handcuffed, tightly enough to leave abrasions on her wrists, placed in the back of a squad car and charged with misdemeanor resisting a police officer.

Following 11 months’ worth of arraignments, hearings and motions — all at taxpayer expense — the case was set to commence to trial Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court. Except it didn’t. No sooner did Martinez’s attorney declare he was ready to proceed than prosecutors dismissed the charges.

The reason for the abrupt change of heart, according to a statement issued by the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, was because “supervising prosecutors determined after review of all pertinent evidence that the case could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Of course the case couldn’t be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Anyone who viewed the video Martinez posted on her social media accounts (or had access to police body cam footage) could see that. There was no reason for those charges to hang over Martinez’s head for 11 months, causing much undo stress, until justice was finally served.

Unless those charges were little more than retaliation by Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp and her allies at Fresno City Hall.

What makes me suspicious? Because this is hardly Martinez’s first dalliance with the legal system while advocating for Fresno’s homeless. Nor the first time she’s beaten it.

Retaliation for unconstitutional ‘Dez Martinez Law’

Remember when the city of Fresno floated a new law to create a “buffer zone” around homeless encampment sweeps taking place on public property? Anyone entering the area without “express authorization” could have been charged with a misdemeanor or fined up to $250.

They might as well have named it the Dez Martinez Law. City officials didn’t want advocates like her (or the media) documenting the occasionally brutal, oftentimes pitiless activity that takes place when homeless camps are cleared.

Better to keep the ugly side of those policies hidden.

Needless to say, that didn’t happen. The ACLU of Northern California, with Martinez named as a co-plaintiff, sued the city over the proposed law and in May was granted an injunction by a U.S. District Court judge.

In a few weeks, according to the ACLU spokesperson Tammerlin Drummond, the city will have to pay restitution for violating the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs in this case, including Martinez.

Now you have a better sense why an unsubstantiated charge of resisting a police officer can be viewed as retaliation against Fresno’s most vocal and persistent homeless advocate.

“Both advocating for the rights of others and criticizing public officials, including police officers, are protected activities under the First Amendment,” said local attorney Kevin Little, who represented Martinez in the misdemeanor case.

“One cannot be convicted for engaging in such behaviors. That is a fundamental tenet of our democracy that should have been recognized by the officers and prosecutors from the outset.”

No charge for city employee who shoved advocate

Wait, there’s more. Among the evidence Little was set to present at trial is a 40-second video taken by Martinez during a January homeless camp sweep in the same general vicinity as the March 2022 incident.

In the video, Martinez can be seen speaking with two city employees involved in the cleanup effort who clearly don’t know how to deal with her.

At the end of it, one of the two men forcefully shoves Martinez’s cellphone into her face.

Documents provided by Little show the city employee in question (who I’m choosing not to name publicly) was cited for assault. But to the surprise of no one following along, the DA’s office declined to press charges.

So here’s the lesson, folks: Homeless advocates in Fresno can be arrested, cuffed and stuffed, then forced to wade through the legal system just for a few heated words. But city employees can physically assault homeless advocates and get away with it.

That’s Fresno County justice under Smittcamp, whose track record of prosecuting individuals she doesn’t like while sparing her allies is firmly established. This is just the latest example.

Meanwhile, Martinez told me via text she is “relieved” the case was dismissed and plans to take “a little time off” before resuming her advocacy.

Very pleased to hear that. Fresno’s unhoused people need someone tough, assertive and resolute standing up for their rights.