San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland are falling apart. These cities have rampant homelessness (60,000 homeless in LA county alone), needles littering every single street, feces on sidewalks and business fronts and vagrants camping in business and residential districts. Often these people are violent, unstable and have varying mental issues, including unmedicated schizophrenia.
When businesses and homeowners call the police to report an individual peeing or defecating in front of their property, the police cannot touch these individuals. Cities have passed laws barring law enforcement from arresting, relocating or forcibly placing these people into drug rehabilitation. The overwhelmingly Leftist 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has recently made it a violation of a person’s constitutional rights to issue them a ticket for living on a sidewalk. The state of California passed Proposition 47, decriminalizing property crime, including theft and shoplifting. These insane policies, combined with lax drug laws and temperate climate – make for a horrible combination.
Does the photo shock you? It was taken by a journalist in a San Francisco supermarket on December 16th. The grotesque image shows a homeless man, presumably on drugs, defecating in the toilet paper aisle of a supermarket – even though there were unlocked, open bathrooms in the store.
Why am I showing you this photo? Because this is normal life for residents of West Coast cities. Yet, the local left-wing governments are totally fine with this behavior, often implicitly encouraging the ability of people to engage in this disgusting manner.
When Progressives have complete control over the government & law enforcement in a state, the effects of leftist ideology is tangibly experienced.
Los Angeles alone has experienced a 16% increase in homelessness the past year. Tent cities of homeless people are exploding in population. These areas are riddled with needles, vomit, leftover rotting food and piles of human feces. Diseases like Typhus (not seen since Medieval times) are being diagnosed in LA.
Californian leadership is incompetent at finding actual solutions to problems. They have driven up housing prices by not allowing developers and builders to place multi-family homes in urban areas. LA and San Francisco have refused to prosecute crime under Prop 47 (considered “non-serious, non-violent”) including shoplifting, grand theft and fraud. California has basically declared a right for people to have their “things” (read garbage) on the street – which police are not allowed to remove. As a result, shopping carts full of cans or food cannot be removed, even in residential areas. The state has not dealt with mental health and drug addiction on a public health level, allowing it to fester.
The root cause is a misunderstanding of compassion. In the leftists view, the wealthy are somehow at fault for the plight of the homeless. They believe if we stop prosecuting crime and let the homeless be free to do whatever they please, this is proper “justice”.
As a conservative, I believe this is the opposite of compassion. Letting mentally ill & drug addicted people lie face down in their own feces is not compassionate. Refusing to prosecute crime is not compassionate, both for the perpetrator and the victim.
Republicans could run these cities better, because they are not handcuffed by an insane, irrational view of “justice”. We believe you DO NOT have a right to poop on the floor in a store. We believe you CAN be arrested and prosecuted for stealing handfuls of clothing from Target. We believe you should be placed into drug rehab. You do not have a right to make living conditions miserable for law abiding, tax paying citizens.
Cities and states have a right to enforce laws to prevent crime, homelessness and degradation. In fact, they have a moral responsibility to their citizens to keep the streets safe, clean and productive.
Photo Credit: CBS, American Mirror.
