Incented
By Mitch Berg
A man attacked homeless people, telling them to get out of his city.
Naturally, I deplore violence of any sort. But it got me to wondering – which is more likely to solve the homeless problem in his town: beating the homeless while demanding they leave, or giving them food, shelter and privileges that law-abiding citizens don’t get (see, for example, San Francisco)?
The article didn’t say whether homeless people were flocking to that city, or fleeing from it. I wonder . . . .
Joe Doakes
It’s amazing how unaffordable housing had gotten since governments all over the country made “affordable housing” a priority.
June 25th, 2019 at 5:55 am
I echo what Joe said, other than self-defense or the defense of others can never be justified or condoned.
Having said that, let’s look at the article It spent 250+ words describing an attack on vagrants. Okay…but how many words would be spent reporting a vagrant randomly attacking people on the street?
Gosh, now we know the assailant’s race (never reported unless ‘white’). We know his gender: male. We know his approximate age, height and weight. Hell, we even know his eye color.
In contrast….
Yesterday, the local television channel in Rochester reported that the police are recommending the closure of the skyways at night. The police chief spoke about marshaling resources and community strategies or some such mumbo-jumbo – but what was reported about the problem that will force Rochester residents out into the dark, rain or cold?
Not a lot.
Merely that there was “aggressive behavior and panhandling”.
Could we at least get the eye-color of the offenders?
June 25th, 2019 at 6:51 am
Leftist reprobates, when confronted with the symptoms of a failing civilization like to focus their rhetoric and other people’s money towards “getting at the root of the problem” rather than treat the symptoms.
Treating the symptoms too often involves dealing with behaviors leftists actually approve of, by people leftists count on for political support. Besides, there’s no room for NGO’s or government employee unions to make a buck out of cleaning the town up.
So much better to set up programs and add city staff to examine the cause than to deal with it in any concrete way.
Like Greg and Joe, I abhor violence but it occurs to me that the reprobates might be on to something.
Rather than beating up bums, thieves, drug addicts, child molestors & etc. and demanding they get out of town, mightn’t vigilantes get better results if they beat up and run off the reprobates that spawn them?
June 25th, 2019 at 6:52 am
The unaffordable housing will once again be affordable and likely low income housing once they saturate the market with too many tiny apartment spaces next to transit, but not next to any job opportunities.
As far as the homeless- in my neighborhood, two developments are currently planned. They will be built on spaces that currently have homeless camps. Most of the neighbors who live in apartments and houses are immigrants or black people. Every neighbor showed up in support of the developments. This being unusual from a demographic that doesn’t typically show up to meetings. They support it because they believe the development, which will be “market rate” housing, will likely push out the camps that have been using the back, front, and side yards as toilets.
Who showed up to oppose? Some non-profit homeless advocates who said that the area was the homeless people’s “home” too and we needed to be sensitive to their needs.
No. Advocating for these people to remain in the elements, on the streets, is not being sensitive to their needs. There are shelters available. They can go there. Last summer, when the large camp was happening in Minneapolis, shelters had openings and many of those campers refused to go, choosing to remain in the camp by the freeway.
No. Get to a shelter, get sober, get treatment, take your meds. If you refuse to do that for yourself, if you lack your own self respect to do that, then I have no sympathy for you.
June 25th, 2019 at 8:51 am
We don’t have a “homeless” problem in SC, least not in the upstate where I live.
That’s because panhandling is illegal in Greenville and Spartanburg counties; the cops will snap you up in a hot minute for it, and folks will call them in a hot minute if they see you doing it. Without panhandling, bums can’t get wine or dope; without wine and dope, life’s not worth living. So they all go to Atlanta, Asheville and Charlotte where the reprobates are knee deep and the pickings are rich.
This isn’t hard. Like everything else in life, follow the money.
June 25th, 2019 at 9:16 am
Agreed in significant degree with mjb. There is a certain point where society needs to say “you will not live like this; you are a hazard to your neighbors when you leave used needles and your own waste out on the streets.” My daughter came back from Seattle (another waste-positive zone) talking about tiny homes, and I had the sad duty of telling her that (a) since they’re built on a trailer, they’re not that cheap and (b) the big problem with a lot of homeless people is they’re not capable of taking care of any home.
Really, we point at the abuses of the old mental hospitals, but I think we need to come to grips with the fact that when someone becomes mentally ill (etc..) to the point they’re leaving their own waste and hypodermic needles around, our best option is going to be somewhat “Spartan”, and it’s going to involve compulsion to get the redeemable people back on the right track. It doesn’t necessarily have to be brutal, as it’s said to have been in days of yore, but suburban sensibilities are going to be offended.
June 25th, 2019 at 10:06 am
Back in the 70’s, state hospitals all over the country were decommissioned. I worked at the Faribault State Hospital at the time, caring for what they used to call “retarded” people and was amazed at how able many of them were. Transitioning them to group homes was a smashing success. Some could even hold down jobs.
But like they say, a vice is a virtue taken too far and the best way to make a bad idea out of a good idea is to say, “that worked, let’s do more!!”
Mentally ill people were then released into the community. At the time, the thinking was, if you compel them to take their meds and monitor their behavior, we’ll do just fine.
What they did not consider – was “civil rights activists” and federal judges and within a very short time, the courts ruled that in most cases society cannot compel mentally ill people to take their meds.
Much of what you see on the streets is a product of that.
June 25th, 2019 at 1:26 pm
On the plus side thanks to our climate we dont have to worry about the homeless as much in winter months thanks to our harsh climate. We also really need to re open mental health wards, where most of these people belong because they are clearly inable of taking care of themselves.
June 25th, 2019 at 7:19 pm
Greg, the release of the mentally ill falls squarely on Reagan’s shoulders. It’s one of his many fuckups we don’t acknowledge.
June 25th, 2019 at 7:21 pm
I think they should take all the section 8 money and use it to house the mentally ill.