Council Says No on ACLU Settlement

This is what a census done by the County earlier this year found.

On any given night there are shelter beds available, but those who are sleeping on the sidewalk choose not to go to a shelter... for whatever reason.

I think the rationale for rejecting it is a good one. Council members feared if they ratified the deal, these types of encampments would spread to other neighborhoods and be protected by the proposed agreement. I think the idea that laws should be applied consistently across the city is very sensible.

I think its pretty obvious why people choose to sleep on the street. They are addicted to drugs and they can't use drugs at the shelter. The common sense behind this is so basic it surprises me that we even have this debate going on. We have a group of people who are unable to help themselves, yet we don't want to force them to get help, so lets just allow them to live on the street and continue to suffer. I'm not for putting these people in a shelter, a shelter will do them no good. Many of them just need to be institutionalized and thats a sad but true fact.

Sad but true, drug addiction is a major contributor to the homeless problem. But with our overcrowded jails at more than full capacity, can we lock up every drug abuser? It would be a Revolving Door of people coming in and landing right back on Skid Row. Not the best use of our city resources. In order to get people off the street we must give them the means to get treatment help and then force them to take it, or else leave the city. But right now we're not giving them any incentive to leave the street by allowing them a sleep on it. We must not support their habits with handouts. Not even spare change.

capital punishment for possession of a certain weight of drugs. the only way.

How about going after the dealers too? On any given night you can look out on Spring Street south of 7th, and the drug dealing is right out in the open. I talked to a couple cops sitting in a parked police car facing south on Spring between 5th and 6th, and asked about the out-of-control drug dealing that is now a regular event every night on the west side of Main between 5th and 6th, and they acted as if their hands were tied. What the f@^%$??? It's a dangerous combination for the ACLU to try to perpetuate people's precarious life living on sidewalks while drug dealers contribute to the reasons they will not go into the shelters - namely because they are addicted and don't want to (or can't) follow the house rules inside the shelter. Shame on the ACLU for perpetuating homelessness!

I'll give out the solution. Maybe I should go to a City Council meeting and let them know.

The Police seem to be concerned mostly about crimes going on inside tents where people also sleep. How about making it illegal to set up a tent on a city street? If you go against this law, we take your tent. That doesn't go after the people, or even after sleeping on the street, but it should cut down on some of the drug dealing and prostitution.

If you sell drugs near a school, in many places that increases the penalty. Is there such a provision for selling hard drugs near a rehab clinic? There should be.

One can argue about whether one has a right to sleep on the sidewalk. But public safety and health must be valued as well. The nonsense that is allowed in Central City East cannot be justified, IMO.

Joel Klein had an article the other day about a Skid Row drug dealer busted with a pound of cocaine who got 17 days of jail time. That's appalling. Like the author said, considering the low amount of risk and high potential profits, drug dealing in L.A. actually works out to be a pretty good career choice.

Lawyers run the ACLU. Lawyers want to perpetuate the cycle of drugs and lawlessness so that the defense attorneys can rake in huge profits from the legal defense and add more money to the ACLU warchest. There was a time when the ACLU fought for legitimate civil rights, that time is over, replaced by an abomination of greed and red tape.

As for confiscating tents from the homeless, most of the homeless people I see live in sleeping bags and cardboard boxes. How hard is it for them to replace a cardboard box ??