I’ve been cleaning out the e-mail box (something I’ve been atrociously lazy about) and in the process, I’ve come across a few gems. This link was sent by my first reader and Dallas resident, Dr. Heinous.
LOS ANGELES, April 14 — A federal appeals court panel ruled on Friday that arresting homeless people for sleeping, sitting or lying on sidewalks and other public property when other shelter is not available was cruel and unusual punishment. The 2-to-1 ruling, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, essentially invalidated a 37-year-old ordinance that the police have used to clear homeless people off the streets. Legal experts said the case, which they believed to be the first involving the rights of homeless people in public spaces to reach the federal appellate level, would be closely followed by cities nationwide.
The Eighth Amendment, barring cruel and unusual punishment, prohibits Los Angeles “from punishing involuntary sitting, lying, or sleeping on public sidewalks that is an unavoidable consequence of being human and homeless without shelter,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote. The Los Angeles police responded by releasing a statement that said: “The condition of being homeless in and of itself is not a crime and should not be treated as such. But the criminal element that preys upon the homeless and mentally ill will be targeted, arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
It would be nice if we could just target, arrest, and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law that criminal element preying upon the homed, mentally well-adjusted, taxpayers of our fair city. But you know how it is, some folks just have the right to exist wherever they want, the rest of us have the right to pay taxes for their protection.
I was in Santa Monica recently, wandering around the Third Street area. I’d been there once before, maybe ten years ago, with Ubu.
One thing I noticed is that ALL the bars were gone. The place was all eateries and shops. No bars or the like. Which was odd, as I remembered playing pool in an entertaining place when I’d been there the first time.
While eating, I overheard someone complaining that the Santa Monica city council had shut down all the bars. I guess they wanted to make the area more ‘family friendly’.
However, the street was rife with the homeless (not homeless-as-in-I-lost-my-job, homeless as in I’m drunk or crazy and haven’t bathed in months). I swear half of the park benches had some scruffy old smelly sort camped on them.
It’s just that there seemed an odd contrast between keeping this nice upscale shopping area free from those nasty sports bars and the like, yet letting the area be overrun with bums.
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