Posted on 04/29/2023 4:28:29 AM PDT by Libloather
Oregon Democrats have put forth a bill that would allow homeless people to sue residents for "harassment."
House Bill 3501, also known as the Right to Rest Act, would allow aggrieved parties to sue for $1,000 for each incident of harassment. It would also decriminalize homeless camps. The bill comes after several years of a worsening homelessness crisis, and many residents complain of harassment and improper behavior on the part of the homeless population in cities such as Portland.
The bill blames homelessness on "economic hardship, a shortage of safe and affordable housing, the inability to obtain gainful employment and a disintegrating social safety net system." It argues that decriminalizing homeless encampments would allow the state to redirect resources toward the "root causes of homelessness and poverty."
"It is declared to be the public policy of Oregon to guarantee persons experiencing homelessness participation in the social and economic life of this state, remunerative employment, use of and free movement within public spaces, participation in and receipt of the benefits of the services, programs and activities of state government and local governments and housing accommodations of the person’s choice, without discrimination," the bill reads.
It defines harassment as a "knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a person experiencing homelessness that a reasonable person would consider as seriously alarming, tormenting or terrorizing of the person experiencing homelessness." It does not consider the vice versa of homeless people harassing residents - something many have complained about.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Headline should read Oregon democrats encourage shooting the homeless.
At least that’s what they seem to want.
I’m sure the Dems people voted for in Seattle, San Franfreako, Los Angeles and other places along the Left Coast will move to codify this into their own existing codes (aka ‘laws’).
I bet those property values in Porkland and other places around the State are just going to increase like never before!
“And how are these economic hardship cases supposed to afford an attorney for what I am assuming would be a civil case?”
National Lawyers Guild, ACLU or some other anarchist organization will represent them free of charge.
Oh! There won’t be any collusion there! LMAO!
It will be a big wildfire season in Oregon if this passes. So many fires started by the homeless.
I heard this bill summed up another way. It turns what people consider public into private. In public, like a sidewalk or park, you have no expectation of privacy. It’s public after all. Privacy is the opposite. Thus, things people do in private such as bathing, using the toilet, having sex and so on are all now legal. Stopping someone who is homeless from doing these things is now illegal. The police cannot stop them.
So how does this work ???
A homeless guy comes into my property and I tell him to leave
That’s harassment ???
What if I say I’ll call the police ???
Have I committed a felony ???
Yeah probably
Seems to me that government has just devolved from being the arbiter of human nature to choosing sides - the side opposing property rights. Government no longer has standing to enforce laws.
“How many of the homeless have attorneys?”
They’ll have as many as they want - funded by you.
Squatting on another’s property for a long time legally conveys ownership. The government wants to prevent people from protecting their ownership. Wouldn’t this be an unconstitutional “taking”?
/\
This is the heart of the matter.
Defacto elimination of private property.
If you can’t control who is on your property
there IS NO private property.
“And how are these economic hardship cases supposed to afford an attorney for what I am assuming would be a civil case?”
There will be plenty of “homeless advocates organizations” that will eagerly provide “free” lawyers... that you end up paying for.
Whatever you reward you get more of, whatever you punish you get less of. This bill will guarantee more “homeless” and less productive tax paying citizens.
Go for it Oregon, you have not hit bottom, yet!
The best term to describe the USA today is FUBAR
It’s a short step from there to declaring home ownership as an affront to the homeless. Then the the homeless will go all Dr. Zhivago on every property. Fun times.
Because they bring almost no skills to the job market, and/or they drink and drug it up to the point where they are completely unreliable if they are employed.
“here’s your $5k bill for your civil penalty and write a check to the homeless person for $1k...”
I’ve always wondered if 50 IQ noodle-arm leftists who can’t find the bathroom would know how to defend against shoot, shovel and shutup.
Amen to that, brother.
“Should go both ways, no?”
Even if it did, suing someone who is already destitute isn’t going to accomplish anything.
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