A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America (Mojave: income, to eat)

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

It's been a couple of years dealing with a street person... his own family has totally given up on him... and all the police know him by name.

He drops his pants and takes a dump in the hospital doorways... smashing booze bottles in the walkways... walks around with paper bags with dead birds... people have bought him Burger King breakfast and he throws it back at them... when he started throwing rocks at US Postal Mail Lady he got the attention of law enforcement...

The last 3 weekends in a row he has smashed out a Hospital Admin Window... and fully admits to it when Police show up...

In California, most things under a $1000 have been decriminalized... they take him to Psyche and 72 hours later he is pushing a shopping cart in the parking lot...

Strange as it sounds he wants to be arrested... the DA even got a restraining order against him for damaging area property... but he always comes back and makes it a promise saying this is his home... male now age 31

That's the thing I don't get why this type of thing is tolerated .

Once someone is a harm to themselves and others something should be done .

Too often a blind eye is turned because "they are homeless what can we do"
All out of political correctness .

People shouldn't feel like they can't take their kids out to parks etc and that's how it's become in certain places in L.A.

Tired of the liberal attitude that lacks common sense .

[Ultrarunner]

I'm certain I can attribute a facility cost or 15 to 18k per year to this one individual x 2 years...

LEO say that we need to hire more security and consider enhancing perimeter fencing... all for one guy that EVERYONE knows.

I had to beef up patrol between 5 and 7 am because Nurses were refusing to get out of their cars waiting for an escort if they saw him...

I don't have the answers but local government suggests we need to have a fortress mentality and design accordingly... of course would this really stop someone from smashing a $600 window that takes 3 days to get...

In all fairness... the night beat officer has tried... he asked if he could write reports parked in the parking lot... I said I am more than happy and tell your friends!!

He made two arrests of the guy on consecutive Saturday nights... so it isn't the beat officer.

[Tex?Il?]

Globalization/outsourcing and automation/technology of manufacturing jobs is basically the root of the problems of inequality and poverty in America today.

The postwar decades were the best of both worlds:

The rest of the industrialized world was either rebuilding from square one after being reduced to rubble or adopted marxism. We not only had our growing middle class, but the recovering countries of Europe could be new markets (for the next 25 years at least, Germany and Japan eventually rebuilt their industrial infrastructure and gave our car companies a run for the money starting in the 70s). And since the rich accepting being taxed at a super high rate to finance the war effort, they continued not to complain when in peacetime they financed the building of the interstate highway system, the space race/NASA, eradicating polio, etc.

Also, great technological advancements, but for the most part were not such that they made a lot of labor obsolete.

Incidentally and ironically, the reason WHY the US is the country without universal healthcare is probably rooted in the fact that US companies were so well off that that they could sponsor health insurance for all their workers. Example, the UK NHS (national healthcare service) started in 1948, when the country was basically broke and bankrupt from fighting Nazi Germany, and still had mandatory food rationing.

Healthcare really only became an in issue starting in the 90s when the economy went through a post-industrial reconstruction from middle class manufacturing to low skill, low paying service jobs, and high education jobs, with little in between.

For these reason I support a lot of the left-leaning causes like universal healthcare, etc. not because its a "fundamental human right" (that just sounds too entitled, and a lack of gratitude for how healthcare is even possible), but because its basically a necessity if we are to return to a world of upward mobility that we had decades ago.

[SandyCo]

My mother was schizophrenic and an alcoholic. I had conservatorship over her for a year, and then I didn't renew it, because although she belonged in a locked nursing facility there were never any beds available. There is little recourse for these people, so I don't blame families for giving up. You can only try so hard and do so much while still taking care of your own family (I had a young child at the time). This was in the mid-80s, and nothing has improved since then. Everyone thinks that institutionalizing is a dirty word, but in some cases, it's necessary. Unless we're willing to pay someone to follow a schizophrenic around to make sure they take their medication regularly, we're going to be dealing with these problems.

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

It's been a couple of years dealing with a street person... his own family has totally given up on him... and all the police know him by name.

He drops his pants and takes a dump in the hospital doorways... smashing booze bottles in the walkways... walks around with paper bags with dead birds... people have bought him Burger King breakfast and he throws it back at them... when he started throwing rocks at US Postal Mail Lady he got the attention of law enforcement...

The last 3 weekends in a row he has smashed out a Hospital Admin Window... and fully admits to it when Police show up...

In California, most things under a $1000 have been decriminalized... they take him to Psyche and 72 hours later he is pushing a shopping cart in the parking lot...

Strange as it sounds he wants to be arrested... the DA even got a restraining order against him for damaging area property... but he always comes back and makes it a promise saying this is his home... male now age 31

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

My mother was schizophrenic and an alcoholic. I had conservatorship over her for a year, and then I didn't renew it, because although she belonged in a locked nursing facility there were never any beds available. There is little recourse for these people, so I don't blame families for giving up. You can only try so hard and do so much while still taking care of your own family (I had a young child at the time). This was in the mid-80s, and nothing has improved since then. Everyone thinks that institutionalizing is a dirty word, but in some cases, it's necessary. Unless we're willing to pay someone to follow a schizophrenic around to make sure they take their medication regularly, we're going to be dealing with these problems.

It seems it would cost less and be more beneficial to the homeless if they were placed in camps once they violated any law and were treated for any addiction, aided in acquiring work if they were OK medically, kept there if beyond help or refuse it, so they could be kept away from the actions that hurt others, stable society and that cost far more than their incarceration in a mild security area would. Being homeless is no excuse for breaking laws. Easy for them no, but for so many they have chosen that course by their actions and refuse to change.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by jm1982

That's the thing I don't get why this type of thing is tolerated .

Once someone is a harm to themselves and others something should be done .

Too often a blind eye is turned because "they are homeless what can we do"
All out of political correctness .

It's not out of political correctness, jm. It's the result of laws that protect any adult.

http://www.disabilityrightsca.org/pubs/502401.pdf

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by expatCA

It seems it would cost less and be more beneficial to the homeless if they were placed in camps once they violated any law and were treated for any addiction, aided in acquiring work if they were OK medically, kept there if beyond help or refuse it, so they could be kept away from the actions that hurt others, stable society and that cost far more than their incarceration in a mild security area would. Being homeless is no excuse for breaking laws. Easy for them no, but for so many they have chosen that course by their actions and refuse to change.

The problem is in city of L.A the city has tolerated laws being broken by the homeless .

People know what they can get away with and in la with its lax enforcement it makes it easy for troublemakers

[Exitus Acta Probat]

Originally Posted by jm1982

The problem is in city of L.A the city has tolerated laws being broken by the homeless .

People know what they can get away with and in la with its lax enforcement it makes it easy for troublemakers

Be an illegal alien: OK

Be a homeless, mentally deranged squatter who spreads disease, tinkle and BM, and who harrasses people who are legal stakeholders in the neighborhood: OK

Be an unlicensed street vendor: OK

Refuse to pay sales tax because property taxes should be enough money already, or vice versa: NOT OKAY!!!

Refuse to pay full amount of DWP bill since it's illegal for the city to rake off profits and put them in the general fund according to a judge's ruling: NOT OKAY!!!

Trespass on private property and harass people, and at the same time be a non-homeless person: NOT OKAY!!!!

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by Exitus Acta Probat

Be an illegal alien: OK

Be a homeless, mentally deranged squatter who spreads disease, tinkle and BM, and who harrasses people who are legal stakeholders in the neighborhood: OK

Be an unlicensed street vendor: OK

Refuse to pay sales tax because property taxes should be enough money already, or vice versa: NOT OKAY!!!

Refuse to pay full amount of DWP bill since it's illegal for the city to rake off profits and put them in the general fund according to a judge's ruling: NOT OKAY!!!

Trespass on private property and harass people, and at the same time be a non-homeless person: NOT OKAY!!!!

Welcome to LA (And most of CA).

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Exitus Acta Probat

Trespass on private property and harass people, and at the same time be a non-homeless person: NOT OKAY!!!!

Maybe before Props 47 and 57. Now LA is a sanctuary city from trespassing laws