George Kingfish Stevens: I wish I had your eyesight when I got married. I wouldn't have stigmatized myself into what I got!
Posted on 02/26/2024 4:50:48 PM PST by canuck_conservative
Missing from the picture, though, is the violence and disorder that makes these camps untenable from the get-go. They’re crime dens. They’re dangerous. They’re places no human should live, and places that the public should not have to subsidize.
Even though police run patrols, and community groups run outreach programs, tent cities tend to be “governed” by gangs. In Vancouver, gang members set up tents in the community as an outpost for dealing. In Calgary, a gang took over a camp near a drop-in centre — resulting in beatings of campers and assaults on centre workers. In Edmonton, gangs are taxing the homeless and extracting payments for visiting drug-use facilities; a 16-year-old girl was even sex-trafficked through the camps. It’s a total racket...
Advocates are most concerned about police actions, but often ignore the sheer amount of violence and criminality coming from homeless people themselves.
Beyond that is the physical danger. Sanitation is poor, and the tents people live within are firebombs-in-waiting. People die. In one example, an Edmonton investigator’s log, filed in court, described the scene after a woman, aged 24 to 26, burned to death...
It’s not the state’s place to formally dedicate space to an economy that trades in cruelty and addiction. The provision of addiction treatment programs and homeless shelters (which don’t allow drugs, weapons and sex trafficking) is plenty...
Tent cities should, at the end of the day, be stigmatized. The drugs that fuel the violence within shouldn’t be free. Residents aren’t tenants, and shouldn’t be entitled to faux-tenants’ rights. Evictions need to remain a tool on the table, unconstrained by extensive consultations, because the semblance of order in these hubs can quickly break down and require quick clearing...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
In the mid ‘90’s the cops wouldn’t even go into the homeless “enclaves” in Portland.
If any of us descend quickly we could be in those camps. We will be targeted after the Nov. 2024 election although we have far less money than Trump. What if canceled conservatives had their bank accounts frozen, their employment ended with a blacklist for future jobs and credit card accounts were canceled.
There but for fortune....
There was a newspaper cartoon by Charles Guindon of well dressed rich people getting out of limos to enter a fancy hotel for a party. Outside were homeless people huddled together.
“There go the homeless ruining our parties for us again.”
When I travel between Alaska and Arizona I use the Stoney Trail to bypass Calgary and the Devonian Way Bypass to skirt around Edmonton. If I have to RON in the Calgary area I do so in Airdrie. In the Edmonton area I do so in Stony Plain. I avoid large cities as much as I can.
We have a growing generation of sociopaths who think living in a “camp” and a criminal life is cool. The homeless faction of that large group is minimal.
They should be more than stigmatized. They should be unapologetically razed.
Canada-who cares? We may have the same thing here but we’ve got conservative solutions with a new POTUS. Canada is lost.
Why work when you can “camp” and have all your expenses paid for by some worker bees? I see it all the time. Medical care busses visit the camps and give them all free medical care. Same with a dental care bus. Churches bring clothes, food, propane, heaters, stoves, tents, sleeping bags. NGOs and the state give them EBT cards. The county gives them portapotties, water tanks, and trash dumpsters. Charities and NGO have entire systems set up to ensure they continue to get free stuff. Some charity even sends out mechanics and “handymen” to fix their cars and RVs. All while living tax free on public lands.
During the Great Depressions, such place were called “Hoovervilles”. These should be called “Bidenvilles”.
George Kingfish Stevens: I wish I had your eyesight when I got married. I wouldn't have stigmatized myself into what I got!
Brazil has a word for these.
Favelas.
“There but for fortune”??? I always thought it went”There but for the grace of God”
There but for the grace of God is what I believe.
The other phrase was in use before the singer Phil Ochs wrote his much covered song. He was an antiwar songwriter.
His sibling and he had severe mental illness. “He was prescribed medication, and he told his sister he was taking it. On April 9, 1976, Ochs died by suicide in Sonny’s home. Years after his death, it was revealed that the FBI had a file of nearly 500 pages on Ochs.” Wikipedia
There But For Fortune
Show me the prison, show me the jail
Show me the prisoner whose life has gone stale
And I’ll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune go you or I
Show me the alley, show me the train
Show me the hobo who sleeps out in the rain
And I’ll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune go you or I
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