California cities had laws on the books against homeless people camping or sleeping on public property, and it was very common for police departments to roll into those areas unannounced in the early morning hours and arrest or chase them away and confiscate and dispose of their tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, clothes, etc. But then a few years ago the 9th Circuit Court ruled that public property is exactly that and thus it is illegal for cities to prohibit people from camping or sleeping there.
I spend time at our old house in a nice town on the San Francisco peninsula. Last April or May, a bum was sleeping on a public bench in front of the local Safeway grocery store. I called the cops and got the “there’s nothing we can do - he isn’t breaking any laws” story. I began screaming at the woman about me paying taxes to live in a nice, safe town and bums in town were creating an unsafe environment. “Sorry, sir, there’s nothing we can do.”
It is so damn infuriating.
We are seeing this problem in Los Angeles now in epidemic proportions!!!!! Even in our beautiful city of La Verne, sadly.