I know the homeless guy who is being interviewed in this news video. Wow. Things haven't changed much since I moved off 'the nickel' and out of Lost Angeles.
Same old harassment: issuing tickets for pushing shopping carts (Westwood is big on this), tickets for sleeping in your own car, tickets for being in one neighborhood over 72 hours, tickets for wearing colors, tickets for carrying pagers while unemployed, citations for vagrancy, confiscation of personal property, suspension of the Bill of Rights, "emergency" anti-homelessness laws and on and on and on.
When the cops tell you that they are only cracking down on crime, that's code talk. I hope you know that. What it means is that they are making up NEW laws with which to criminalize homelessness. Laws like you can't sleep in your own car after 10 p.m. Like you can't sit on a sidewalk from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Like you can't wear a blanket on a public sidewalk. That kind of crime crackdown.
Fascism is acceptable if it's done in the name of property owners.
Same old harassment: issuing tickets for pushing shopping carts (Westwood is big on this), tickets for sleeping in your own car, tickets for being in one neighborhood over 72 hours, tickets for wearing colors, tickets for carrying pagers while unemployed, citations for vagrancy, confiscation of personal property, suspension of the Bill of Rights, "emergency" anti-homelessness laws and on and on and on.
When the cops tell you that they are only cracking down on crime, that's code talk. I hope you know that. What it means is that they are making up NEW laws with which to criminalize homelessness. Laws like you can't sleep in your own car after 10 p.m. Like you can't sit on a sidewalk from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Like you can't wear a blanket on a public sidewalk. That kind of crime crackdown.
Fascism is acceptable if it's done in the name of property owners.
Tags: homeless, rousting, cops, citzens, pretense, hypocracy, American shame, skid row, homeless veterans, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, American fascists, fascism, cultural fascism, political video, vlog, vlogging, vlogger, factotum, bum, tramp, hobo, vagrant, transient, property owner, Bill of Rights, suspended civil rights, the nickel
"tickets for carrying pagers while unemployed"???
ReplyDeleteJacksonville, Florida's seeing some new tactics as well lately...but people there get a ticket for having a pager? DANG!
It's part of their anti-gang strategy.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood why Detroit does this...
ReplyDelete1)Its not like homeless people are ever going to pay their tickets.
2)Once a homeless person/criminal gets arrested, he or she is back on the street by the end of the night. The city jails are too crowded.
Who knows.
A cop told me it was so that a file can be started on them. Once they're in the system, have a paper trail, it's easier to control that person on the street.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell does a homeless person do with a pager, keep in touch with his agent? It's a quandary. People shouldn't be hassled for no good reason, but gangs are a real problem, and I don't want some homeless dude living in my bushes ether.
ReplyDeleteSeems clear that the government should come up with a solution to this problem, but I've found that the government really only does one thing really well; make a new law against something that a lot of people are doing, criminalize a set of folks for doing that thing, and encourage most people to think those people are weird or threatening. Over and over in history. One day you're minding your own business and the next thing you know you are being ticketed for having a pager in your refrigerator box.
Actually, FHB, since pagers are sooo much cheaper than cell phones, they were an inexpensive way to deal with a world that requires documentation, regimentation, identification, and instant communication.
ReplyDeleteHomeless veterans still have doctor's appointments at the V.A. which get rescheduled. A pager would come in handy there.
Some free clinic require a phone number. A pager can be used as such. A lot of homeless people use the phone number of payphones or flophouse hotels.
Adult children of the homeless who can't let their parents stay with them still like to reach out and page their crazy old man once in a while....see if the old badger is still alive.
And there are A LOT of working homeless whose employers demand a communication number.
And I DID actually meet a few ex-television actors living on the streets of L.A. You never know when your agent's gonna call.
Wow, Ok. See, that's why I come here.
ReplyDelete