Before I remark on James Freeman’s Wall Street Journal column on the challenge that the homeless pose for the people of Los Angeles, let’s reflect on this article by Benjamin Oreskes and David Lauter in the Los Angeles Times from 2019:
As people living in tents, RVs and makeshift shelters become a fact of life in neighborhoods far and wide, homelessness is now an all-consuming issue in Los Angeles County, with 95% of voters calling it a serious or very serious problem, according to a new poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Business Council Institute.
The near-unanimous opinion that homelessness ranks as a top concern marks a sharp change from earlier surveys of Los Angeles voters over the past dozen years, said Fred Yang of Hart Research, the Washington, D.C., polling firm that conducted the survey.
Only traffic congestion and housing affordability — at 88% and 85%, respectively — came close to rivaling the near universal concern over homelessness.
“It’s all over L.A.,†said Justine Marine, a student who participated in a focus group tied to the countywide poll. “You can be in a good neighborhood, and it could be right around the corner. You can’t escape it.â€
The methodology of that poll is described here. Angelenos are sympathetic with the homeless; they want those who need treatment to get it. They just don’t want homeless people in front of their houses or in their backyards. They want them discreetly out of sight.
Things have not improved since 2019. If anything they’re worse. I honestly don’t think the people of Los Angeles are quite where they need to be on this issue quite yet.
Now on to James Freeman:
Fleeing Los Angeles residents have lately been willing to acknowledge the expensive dysfunction and lawlessness that’s driving them to relocate. But this week brings hope that even those who remain may finally be willing to turn away from the extremes of progressive governance. Voters who decide not to abandon L.A. before this fall’s elections for mayor and other municipal positions can set a new course toward sanity.
A group of Angelenos recently expressed to Democratic pollsters their frustration with the city’s pandemic of homelessness. Benjamin Oreskes and Doug Smith report in the Los Angeles Times today:
“The degradation of life in L.A. is exponential, and I don’t see an end. The politicians are doofuses,†a white male voter said.
“California is the fifth-largest economy in the world. Why can’t we do anything?†a Black voter wondered.
“I run into one or two every day, and I wonder: This is someone’s son. Did he refuse help? How can you help them? We’re failing them,†a Latino voter remarked.
Sympathy is not enough. Making treatment available is not enough. Making housing available is not enough. Some of the homeless do not want treatment and in fact want to live on the street. I honestly believe that any person who deals with the homeless on a routine basis will tell you: sometimes you’ve got to do what they need rather than what they want.
From the recent LAT report linked above:
Angelenos, the pollsters concluded, are angry over the condition of the streets, disturbed by the human suffering taking place on them and frustrated with the inability of government to do anything about it. They want elected officials to set realistic goals, pursue tough policies and hold themselves accountable.
“You go to the store, you go to school, you go to work, and there they are, they’re everywhere,†Sragow said of the homeless people camped on streets around the county. “They’re just everywhere. And the measure of success will be when they’re not everywhere.â€
When the trajectory of the policies that have been tried have failed time and again, you’ve got to change the trajectory of policy.
Compared to Russia and China, the US (and the EU) is a Third World country.
Homeless people in the streets in every city north, south, east, west, nearly all clinically insane; trash everywhere; open armed insurrection in a dozen or more cities; a major political party waging open race warfare; an utterly corrupt, sexually deviant Congress, Presidency, courts, civil service, and military. We might add a fake economy, ongoing de-industrialization, loss of technological leads and competency, open warmongering…
I’m sure this problem will be addressed, right after the more pressing problem of student loan forgiveness, restoration of the SALT deduction and the announcement of the first transgender astronaut.
On a serious note, a series of interlocking walled enclaves with private security will probably an answer.
The way LA has dealt with homelessness is a continual relaxation of laws – ignoring parking violations, trespassing on private property, abandoning public health standards, criminal behavior normalized among the homeless population, and foolishly funding living spaces costing hundreds of thousands dollars per unit.
Lawlessness, though, seems to be accepted, to the point of sanctioning it, here in CA, where people can roam into stores, stealing goods without any fear of reprisal. If someone is jailed, they are immediately released on little to no bail. People are trying to recall our Soros-funded DA, who sides more often with those who violate the law, rather than the victims of that violation. In the meantime, crime continues to soar, while frequently reported neighborhood harassment by homeless or deranged people goes on unchecked. The ironic aspect of this whole out-of-control scenario is that what is being zealously policed (except in the homeless encampments) are the vaccination status and proper masking of those who conduct their lives within the perimeters of the law.
It’s only a public illustration of how many people have mental illness.
You can be an ass and call them lazy drug addicts who we’re never properly socialized but the real truth is we used to keep the mentally I’ll institutionalized.
Lawyers and public attitudes changed that .
When Bob Sykes makes his spot on observation he doesn’t mention our legal differences.
In this country, the mentality ill,
(Whom we cannot successfully cure), have civil rights .
This being a nation that respects property rights, the commons have been reduced to parks and sidewalks. We must allow those less abled to circulate freely among us as long as they obey the law.
Beggars at the gates of Jerusalem.