Photographs of motorcyclists riding through South City Park in Redding caused a north-state social media stir on Twitter and Facebook this week.
With each posting came increased accusations that the riders were Redding Police Department officers, intentionally there to drive the homeless from the park.
Case in point was this Redding Homeless Twitter post, accompanied by a photograph: “9 police motorcycles in park harassing.”
“RPD behaving badly,” wrote an anonymous emailer, who attached some photos to prove his/her point.
“Here’s some pictures of our police department harassing the homeless at a park. Very unprofessional behavior and childish. Like bullies on motorcycles. I’ve lost 30% of my respect for RPD. So not cool.”
An anonymous photographer captured this photo and the one below, and posted it on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, claiming RPD mistreatment of the homeless. Not so, says RPD.
Within a few hours scores of Twitter and Facebook conversations erupted in which many people assumed that Redding Police Department officers were using motorcycles to  torment the sleeping homeless as a campaign to drive them from the park.
Not so, said Redding Police Sgt. Bill Schueller.
He said the approximately 10 motorcycles in the park were part of a week-long All Terrain Motorcycle certification training course from Aug. 11 through Aug. 15.
The course was hosted by the Redding Police Department, and attended by two RPD officers and two instructors, as well as other area law enforcement, such as Shasta County Sheriff representatives.
According to the California Post Course Catalog website, the five-day class was designed to “instruct personnel in the safe operation of off-road motorcycles for law enforcement purposes”.
Schueller said that the ATM course allowed the participants to practice riding all-terrain vehicles through areas typically traveled during their law enforcement duties, including parks. 
Schueller said RPD wanted to dispel the rumors of a police motorcycles-versus-homeless situation, and accusations that the homeless were herded like cattle by the motorcycles, which he said was not the case.
That said, he acknowledged that when the officers arrived at the park for their early-morning training, they encountered more than 25 homeless people sleeping in the park, which Schueller said is a violation of a city ordinance.
At that point some officers notified the homeless of their violations, and asked them to leave, while other officers arrested a few homeless  for a variety of crimes, such as possession of narcotics and outstanding warrants.
A News Cafe.com was able to locate and communicate via Facebook with the anonymous photographer, who is said to be a homeless person who’s been staying at the Good News Rescue Mission. The photographer wished to remain anonymous for fear of being kicked out of the mission if word spread of the photos.
The photographer told what happened at the park on the day the law enforcement motorcycles arrived.
“They rode into the park around 7:20 am, first riding onto the basketball courts and made people sitting there move, then proceeded around the tennis courts to the left, and around the tennis courts into the child playground, where they stopped and ticketed one guy,” wrote the photographer in a private Facebook message.
“I understand the community feeling like the homeless has overrun the parks, and that they are unsafe, but they need to realize it’s not as easy as they think it is.”
On a quasi-related topic, the homeless photographer also snapped photos of “excessive water in the park” – Â and guessed that the standing water was deliberate.
“The park is being flooded in places in hopes of keeping the homeless out because they won’t want to sit in sopping wet grass,” the photographer wrote.
“With the current water restrictions, I don’t think the city should still be watering the park to this extent.”
Back to the motorcycles, Chris Solberg, self-described homeless advocate and host of the Redding Homeless Twitter account, above, was displeased by the photos.
When told that the officers were in the park as part of an ATM motorcycle training unit, Solberg remained disappointed, and said he’s concerned about the rising anti-homeless climate.
“I just think those photos were so disturbing,” he said. I mean, look at that photo, and that poor guy on the ground. He looks terrified. And I wonder why they couldn’t do training somewhere besides on the park lawn.”
To that, Schueller had an answer.
He said that one of the reasons they trained in the park is that eventually, RPD will have motorcycle- and bike-riding officers in the park, though not in the numbers seen during north state law enforcement officers’ ATM training.
But when that day comes, he said the reality won’t resemble this week’s rumors.
“We don’t even  have 10 motorcycles to do that, even if we wanted to,” he said.
Independent online journalist Doni Chamberlain founded what’s now known as anewscafe.com in 2007 with her son, Joe Domke of the Czech Republic. Prior to 2007 Chamberlain was an award-winning newspaper opinion columnist, feature and food writer recognized by the Associated Press, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and E.W. Scripps. She lives in Redding, CA.
