Komo TV Seattle is Dying,,,, yep they went there (camp, high income)

[leastprime]

We were on the ---X bus last Sunday evening. We witnessed 5 of the 7 refusal to board (freefare) by the driver. Driver was kinda ticked off. I don't blame him and would back him up if any boarder caused trouble. I am kinda ticked too.

[Gardyloo]

Court pours cold dose of reality on Seattle’s hot homelessness debate

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...ssness-debate/

As the cries to “get tough” on Seattle’s sprawling homeless camps grow louder, lost in the din is a court ruling Monday that said: Sorry. Not going to be that simple.

It seemed everyone was either too busy howling or defending the status quo to notice it.

Even if cities like Seattle were to try to broadly enforce no trespassing laws to clear out all those people living in greenbelts and under bridges, it could be unconstitutional, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found.

In an “en banc” ruling — meaning all 23 judges were eligible to vote — the judges found that lying down to sleep is so fundamental and life-sustaining that cities can’t bar people from doing it on public property, unless there’s somewhere else provided, indoors, for the people to go.

“The court said that people experiencing homelessness cannot be punished for sleeping or sheltering on the streets in the absence of alternatives,” one advocacy group that brought the Idaho case summed up Monday. The group noted it applies to all the Western states in the circuit, which includes Washington.

[sll3454]

Originally Posted by Gardyloo

Court pours cold dose of reality on Seattle’s hot homelessness debate

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...ssness-debate/

Does that prevent something from being done about the paople who are breaking laws: stealing, selling drugs, assaulting people?

[Gardyloo]

Originally Posted by sll3454

Does that prevent something from being done about the paople who are breaking laws: stealing, selling drugs, assaulting people?

Not if they're felonies. Got somebody in mind? Call 911.

[mhays25]

Lying down isn't the same as setting up a camp.

[Blondebaerde]

Originally Posted by Gardyloo

Court pours cold dose of reality on Seattle’s hot homelessness debate

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...ssness-debate/

Wow, just wow. $.02:

Seriously: is there an objective study that establishes, of all the tried "programs" nationwide, which one actually works to reduce vagrancy and addicts wandering the streets? I'd like to read it, cut through all the malarkey. If there is, we as a nation could start implementing it. Unfortunately, garbage solutions like a "head tax" on every employee of a firm that actually adds something back to society, i.e. taxing the wealthy to pay for bums, was a non-starter. As I recall, no one was accountable for any results, it was another Robin Hood BS Socialist scheme.

My ideas:

• Bums, vagrants who are able bodied: mandatory c. 45-90 day stay in min security work farms, state-level, to return something back to society (once adjudicated), and eviction from city limits. Additional trespass becomes a criminal offense, see below.
  
• Mentally ill: involuntary incarceration until analyzed, guessing 72 hr hold at police/booking discretion. Re-introduce state homes for mentally ill. Yes, I'll pay more taxes for that, those taxes currently going into programs that don't seem to work;
  
• Criminals: busted into jail. Processed like any other criminal, no exceptions.

I'm not clear why the police haven't gotten warrants to sweep the bum-camps for the above, frequently. Everyone fingerprinted/iris scanned, while not superseding Fourth Amendment limits (illegal search and seizure).

I'm gathering what I've stated won't work, per the quoted decision from the 9th Jerk Court of Appeals, infamous for far-Left bench policy making on numerous decisions. Curious who shopped this case to them, but that's beside the point. That public interest is subordinate to vagrants on the streets, crime, DISEASE, and other complete BS really suggests to me laws need to be updated. That's an interesting view of the Constitution they've come up.

Alternately, might I also assume our rights to protection from vagrants shall not be infringed, either? That, too, is entirely Constitutional presumably. My right to freedom and self-determination shall not be infringed by threats and violence from a proliferation of bums.

[mhays25]

Your punishments, while understandable, need to focus on illegal behavior, not legal behavior. In the US, we don't penalize people for simply existing in public places.

So broaden nuisance laws to get stronger on camping, maybe based on health and littering etc. And drinking and smoking. Try to do these things in a way that doesn't draw an illegally-discriminatory line...for example protecting sidewalk cafes and maybe letting us drink a beer in a park someday, but cutting back on bums drinking if there's a way to do that. Crack way the hell down on people who commit small crimes repetitively, which is easier said than done.

And definitely pay for treatment. All the stick in the world will still let a lot of people slip through. Some of Seattle's problem is that other places only punish rather than doing their share of positive behavior influences.

Agreed on involuntary commitment, but we have a constitutional problem with that apparently.

[CapitalBat]

Originally Posted by Gardyloo

Not if they're felonies. Got somebody in mind? Call 911.

I’m not going to defend this video, but did you even watch it? It looked really intensely at why that doesn’t work (it seems to mostly be a case of the courts refusing to press charges.)

[Gardyloo]

Originally Posted by CapitalBat

I’m not going to defend this video, but did you even watch it?

Have you even read this thread? Yes, to answer your question.

Next election, when that voter's pamphlet comes to your mailbox, why not look at the contests for judges and your county prosecutor, and see who best represents your views? Look and see how the candidates for county and state office (who manage the courts' and jails' budgets) line up on issues of homelessness, drug treatment, civil rights, court and jail capacities, deterrence programs, all that.

As I said upthread (in a couple of different ways) self-education is the first step, if one cares enough to take it.

[NWbyNW]

Originally Posted by Gardyloo

I think probably it's KOMO-TV's viewers are dying off. Ever since KOMO was bought by Sinclair Broadcasting (which politically outfoxes Fox) the programming has been skewing to the right. It's only logical that KOMO/Sinclair would be gleeful in painting Seattle in the most disparaging light possible, seeing that their owner/masters have long gone full Trump. We are, after all, the New Gomorrah.

KOMO has recently surpassed KING as the most watched local news channel in Western Washington. Just some insider info for ya.

Q13 FOX is showing the most overall growth of all the networks though. KIRO is holding steady but rises during Football season.