Many of the chronically homeless are mentally unable to function by themselves. Providing long-term care for them is the better solution but throwing out on their own is a much cheaper alternative.
You try to put words in my mouth. Please don't. Legislation and court decisions over the past 40-50 years have made it increasingly difficult to to commit those who are unable to care for themselves and have cut funding to inpatient and residential facilities to the point that there are very few hospitals solely devoted to the treatment of mental illness open anymore.
I do not disagree with that. But I do know that cops routinely move the homeless along to areas where "nice" people don't have to see them.
Fifty-one years to be exact, when the California legislature passed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act to deinstitutionalize state mental patients. Good old socialist California...whoops! that was passed under Reagan's governorship when one of his stated objectives was to "to send the welfare bums back to work". I guess mental patients got lumped in with welfare bums. Too bad it didn't work. However, just to make sure there were plenty of homeless on the streets to blame as welfare bums, as president, Reagan also got the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 passed, which similarly turfed out mental patients in the federal health care system. This time in the name of "balancing the budget", yet oddly enough by the end of his second term Reagan had managed to triple the national debt.
Neither one got the majority of the votes. He won not so much because of anything the GOP did (indeed the party leaders didn't want him as their candidate) he won because the Democrats insisted on nominating just about the only candidate he could beat and indeed one who was known to have significant opposition.
There are folks who are homeless because they are mentally ill and then there are folks who develop mental illness as a result of homelessness. Unfortunately a lot of people are already mentally compromised prior to becoming homeless either due to natural causes or drug use. There are also some who choose to be homeless, thinking it is an adventure, get caught up in the lifestyle and become mentally compromised.
Homelessness can happen to any of us... A great Australian once said "you can judge a society by how it treats its weak..." - Stayed with me ever since.
I get that and I appreciate it; but, when you have aggressive homeless people, and vagrants, those rules don't apply. There is a percentage of homeless that are homeless by choice and exploit that lifestyle; they are lazy and have no desire to improve or take positive help. Just because you are home doesn't give you license to be an A**Hole and defecate in the thoroughfare or accost people.
Completely agree...we have just that problem here in Darwin...plus businesses are broken into on a nightly basis...sending some of them out of business. We cant have anything nice in town as it will get broken (everything must be concrete and solid steel)...businesses hose human waste off their entrance every morning...Humbuggers who swear and threaten violence if denied 2 dollars or a smoke. We have homeless pi..ing and shi..ing and having sex in full view... Many of these people don't want a place to stay because it always comes with the proviso of no drinking or drug taking. We cant even put these people into involuntary rehab as its against their human rights, even if jail is the other option. Cant give them a fine as they wont pay it. Cant give them community service as they wont turn up. So many are in jail...and then back to jail. Many deliberately commit crimes during the start of the wet so they can have a bed and three meals while the wet is on...WTF do we do!?
And don't have to deal with them as well. Would you really want riff-raff crapping in your yard, urinating on the walls of your house or business, panhandling and hassling your neighbors, stealing everything that isn't nailed down that is easily carried off and making a general nuisance of themselves at you and your neighbors expense? What would you suggest that should be done with these folks? Tell the home/business owners to tend to the problem themselves? Hang up on them when they call in a complaint? Ride through the area and not do anything about it?
Sure we all do, but when the call goes out, sarge wants the problem tended to pronto. “NAT” (necessary action taken) is all what he wants to hear on the radio when you clear the scene. Fixing the problem (always works in theory and on paper) is what politicians and do-gooders do. The police have to actually get out there and deal with the matter and carry out policy. And the tax payers and business owners have priority. Being the police isn’t always an easy and pleasant job. We have to do to others what others mandate us to do, good and bad.
As a resident of a state (Texas) that actually could self divide into as many as 5 states as agreed to when annexed into the US it is hard to see this as a serious issue. The problem is politics within our 'party' system and should be solved there. We tend to forget that our parties have evolved in nature over time, being born and dying out when they become irrelevant over time. The birth of what we call the Republican party was just before the Civil War and could have been seen as 'liberal' for its era, now of course its very different. We might be looking at a new sea change in our politics where both parties may cell divide into completely new entities. It won't be pretty, but perhaps its time to do so. It would be easier than breaking up existing states
The Party system has ruined divided this nation for Decades, this is nothing new, it's ferocity and intensity is higher than it has been since the Civil War. Without the party system, it would maybe force people to actually research candidates, rather than vote based on party loyalty. I have long held the wish for the U.S to be a direct Democracy, but as I have gotten older, I now see the people of this nation are too lazy and unconcerned with the consequences of elections to care about voting. I don't know if Direct Democracy would work, I'm no political expert, but I am greatly concerned about this nations future, and hope that our ignorance and laziness does not destroy this great nation for my children, and people who wish to experience freedom and prosperity for themselves, like we have had for decades.
Maybe just Austin would want to secede from Texas, rename themselves to some sort of PC friendly and generic non-offensive designation and form their own planet.
