Abbott tweets old video of non-homeless man having mental health episode

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Will Sommer Retweeted

On Friday, Greg Abbott tweeted a video of what he implied was a homeless man attacking a car to his 314k Twitter followers. In reality the man wasn't homeless, but intellectually and developmentally disabled, and his family says they feel deeply hurt:

Link to tweet

[Kurt V.]

1. no impathy whatsoever. Freaking disgusting

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Christ...the defenders and haters who back him up. GD Repub/conservadildos

[abqtommy]

3. Hey Abbott, you and all the reTHUGS are using ratfuckery since it's all you've got left.

[tulipsandroses]

4. I'm confused by the Governor's strategy here

He posts the video citing mental illness and a talks about lawlessness.
Does he think having a mental illness is a crime?

I read some of the links posted in the article regarding the fight to decriminalize panhandling and homelessness. The well to do people spreading rumors of homeless people running amok.

What a disgusting pile of shit these people are! That includes the governor. He has the power to do something about homelessness does he not? He thinks its a better idea to clog up the courts issuing citations, sending people to jail and plunging them further into poverty with fines they can't afford to pay?

The well to do have it in their power as well to do something that is helpful and meaningful to their less fortunate brothers and sisters in their city.

I work for a community mental health center. We get help from the govt, but we also get help from local folks who want to see people with mental health/addiction issues get the help they need. We partner with organizations that assist people that are homeless transition to temp shelter while they look for work, get job training, mental health care and move on to permanent housing. I've had clients that were homeless with their children. I've had clients tell me they pretended to be on an outdoor camping adventure when they had to sleep on a park bench with their children to ease their children's fear of having to sleep outdoors. How cruel it would be to inflict further trauma by arresting a homeless mother for sleeping on a bench?
Even if they are not with children, its a tragedy that the best the Gov and the well to do can do is bad mouth and criminalize people for being poor or having a mental health issue. My center is under funded. We don't have the funds we need to help all the people in need. However, I am grateful for the people from the community that step up and offer their help by donating and doing fundraisers and the like. So my point is, there is so much that these well to do folks could be doing to help their local organizations instead of bad mouthing these folks.