Crackdown on the homeless

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Local police have taken to the park to keep homeless people from sitting on the park benches. One officer told Mike, a homeless veteran, to pick up litter, earlier today. The cop said they might remove the park benches soon.

Police now walk through the park and harass the homeless at least twice a day. "Mom," an elderly lady, said cops threw some homeless man to the ground and cuffed him yesterday, after accusing him of dealing drugs. No drugs were found in his possession.

[Warpy]

1. Cops are under stress because budgets have been cut

and their jobs are under the gun. While this doesn't excuse them for being thugs and bullies toward the citizens least able to fight back, it does allow us to understand where they're coming from and to try to deal with them if we spot this stuff.

Local merchants think the homeless fuck up the scenery and that's why their business is down. They're the real bad guys in this scenario, usually the ones who wail loudest for police to remove all those tacky people on benches and if that doesn't work, remove the benches so that no one will be able to stop and enjoy the park.

It's just more of a string of utterly stupid and self defeating ideas because people on shopping trips who can't stop and rest are going to do a whole lot less shopping.

Besides, the way this economy is going, merchants are in grave danger of joining the homeless sooner or later.

If a homeless person is surrounded by litter and there's a reason to think he generated it, it's within the cop's job description to tell him to clean up after himself. However, hardassing them with the excuse of the drug war is not.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. My heart bleeds with sympathy.

:nopity:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

7. thanks for the comments. can we vote this topic up?

[saigon68]

4. Obviously these cops have nothing better to do

Ergo---- eliminate them and lower taxes </sarcasm>

[Jeffersons Ghost]

6. the ones that I meantioned clean up the park. it's their place

[asdjrocky]

10. Wow, really?

Don't blame the pigs because they have pressure on them?

If they are so "under the gun" how do they find time to harass the homeless?

[Warpy]

11. I can always tell when someone doesn't read past the first sentence

which was also meant to point out that there will likely be more of this stuff as the economy continues to sour.

Knowing where someone is coming from is a good first step at trying to defuse a potentially violent situation and I suggest trying it from time to time.

Well, unless people enjoy watching the powerless beaten.

[asdjrocky]

13. I read the whole thing.

I saw where you said you were not making excuses. Here's my problem, the police in my depressed town are making 3 to 4 times what the average income is here.

Anything that smacks of excuses for them gets me riled a bit. Didn't mean to be as snarky as I was, but I just can't stomach worrying about what is bothering a cop.

[AngryOldDem]

16. Cops are unnecessarily rude and aggressive with homeless people.

I won't even qualify it with "most cops," either. I have seen it with my own eyes. I could tell you stories.

Homelessness has become a scapegoat for a lot of inner city woes. Trouble is, making homeless men, women, and children "invisible," or picking them up and moving them elsewhere, won't solve these woes.

[Warpy]

22. Yeah, they are. I hate seeing it and will intervene, if only to let

them know they are being watched very, very closely.

Cops are getting kicked around so the worst of them try to find someone completely defenseless that they can kick around.

Just expect it to escalate as budget woes worsen.

And removing the park benches is the stupidest idea I've ever heard of as a way to "solve" the homeless "problem."

[MineralMan]

3. Sitting in This Park is Prohibited!

Funny, except some places have actually implemented such rules. Even malls, these days, don't allow sitting on the nice benches they have there.

I was once told to move on by a mall cop. I was sitting on a bench outside of the store where my wife was shopping. I told the mall cop to screw off and that I'd be leaving when my wife finished her shopping. He left.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. What. The. Fucking. FUCK?

What can be the motivation behind doing that, other than sadistic jollies?

[MineralMan]

9. Where I've heard of it, it was a ploy to get the homeless out of

retail areas. No sitting laws are designed to keep anyone from staying in an area, the frequent goal of anti-homeless actions. You're supposed to be in a shop or walking to another one. They don't want anyone there who isn't actively spending money.

See this: I'm posting it as an OP, too:

http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/1_in_3_cities_criminalize_sitting

[anarch]

5. I say raze all the parks to the ground, and cover the new vacant lots with broken glass

or spikes or something, so as to assure that no homeless people might experience a modicum of comfort on the public dime.

[AngryOldDem]

17. Careful -- some (not here) might take you up on this.

The city where I used to live -- an economically depressed city, no less -- had an arts center built about ten years ago, mainly through the auspices of a suburban gazillionaire doctor who named the thing after himself and his wife. This guy was upset, though, that to get to his shrine to himself people would have to pass through a section of town primarily inhabited by the homeless. His solution? He wanted giant shrubs and bushes planted along the street so people would not have to look at them on their way to the opera.

I can seriously see some who would advocate for the razing of parks and other places where homeless people gather.

Quick, cosmetic solutions are always best as opposed to finding meaningful, long-lasting ones. :sarcasm:

[cutlassmama]

12. WTF are the benches for if people aren't supposed to sit on them? Don't

cops have better things to do than harass innocent people? There are rapes, robberies and murders to be solved. How about they go doe their job???

[woo me with science]

14. Corporations are persons. The homeless aren't. nt

[midnight]

15. I suppose, with the patriot act trumping the constitution,being alive will be consideration

for crimes when the corporations have sucked all they need from this country.

[Dystopian]

18. KandR.

Thank you for being out on the streets. I've been reading your posts, know that you're trying to get help for the homeless.
Have you had any luck with the homeless veteran...I know you've been trying to get help for him.
Those cops are heartless .....and sounds like they're getting brutal ....doesn't surprise me.

Thank you for all that you do...

peace~

[Jeffersons Ghost]

19. he's not technically homeless anymore...

someone is letting him sleep at their place these days

[Dystopian]

20. Thank you for the update...

Nice that someone has taken him in...but....it won't last.
I've heard of similar stories....Sad.


peace~

[Ignis]

21. K&R

[mdmc]

23. ..