Rachel Fleischer<\/a><\/p>\nOne afternoon while shooting, I was driving on Cahuenga and saw a police car pulled over to the side of the road. Two homeless men stood before a line of shopping carts parked up against the wall behind them. I pulled over, grabbed my camera and approached as the officer reprimanded the two men, got in his car and drove away.<\/p>\n
When I asked what had happened, they told me that the officer had given them one hour to get rid of their shopping carts or they would be confiscated by the city’s sanitation department and their belongings inside the carts thrown away. Because the shopping cart did not belong to the men, the officer had the right to confiscate it as stolen property. Both men (featured in the video below) were understandably distressed by the situation.<\/p>\n
Not only did those carts house their belongings but the gentlemen were also watching the carts of several of their homeless friends who were nowhere to be found at the time. The men were to unload their belongings and those of their friends if they were to be saved, taking them back out and laying them on the ground where who knows how long they would remain in tact.<\/p>\n
The men temporarily averted an unfortunate situation. As they emptied and reshuffled the contents of their carts, I began to consider how repeatedly having to deal with these kinds of trying circumstances, might begin to take their toll on a person’s physical and psychological stability.<\/p>\n