Friend of SFist, Scott Rossi, became a member of Occupy SF's Welcome Committee over the weekend, where he greeted newcomers at the group's camp at Justin Herman Plaza.

As Scott notes, the camp has been "feeding, clothing, sheltering, keeping safe, and giving society’s most vulnerable members a sense of community and acceptance where formerly they had scorn and the cold concrete of Justin Herman Plaza."

Here's what Scott had to say about a couple of people he met yesterday:

Today, I talked to two truly broken men, one who told me his wife left him after he lost his job in late 2008. He hasn’t seen his son in 2 years and was hoping he’d be here because, in his words, “this would be the kind of thing I’d like him to be interested in and I know he’s somewhere in the city.” And he cried. The second man was looking for a pair of socks and shoes for his wife, who had none. Both were new arrivals to our camp and there was no room in any shelter in town and they had grown tired of sleeping sitting up in a chair in the drop in shelters, having their shit stolen when they were in the shower, not being able to sleep next to the person they loved.

And then the police came:

The police dumped fresh food and veggies all over the ground, threw away food, water, anything we couldn’t evacuate in time. The very stuff we were giving to people FOR FREE, that they have no money to buy and cannot live without. For me, I cannot think of a greater crime.

Several occupiers were beaten, anywhere from 3 to 7 arrested, much of our equipment was broken or confiscated, but we are still here. we still occupy Justin Herman Plaza, we replaced our tarps, there’s a dance party going on and people are settling in for the night.

Check out Scott's blog for more updates on the Occupy SF movement. Scott will be teaching a skillshare class about the welcome team in Los Angeles this coming Saturday and New York the following weekend. So tell your friends to check him out, if you feel so inclined.