Posted on 09/28/2017 4:19:20 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Los Gatos homeowner is worried people living in a downtown homeless encampment will start a wildfire, killing themselves, his family, tenants and neighbors. John Whitney says hes been trying for years to get authorities to clean up the encampment, to no avail.
The encampment runs alongside Highway 17 behind the post office.
Ironically, theres a blackboard at the encampments entrance that reads, Stay Alive.
This is a fire hazard right here, Whitney said, pointing to a discarded pizza box, and sleeping and garbage bags. The amount of dumping is unbelievable. Last year, Caltrans came out but nothing happened.
Caltrans did not respond to requests for comment.
But Town Manager Laurel Prevetti said the town is already working with Caltrans on the problem. We have worked with them in the past to clear other encampments,Prevetti said in an email. We are working with our contacts in that agency to address this current situation. As you can imagine, the state is inundated with homeless camp removal requests. Caltrans assesses the request, determines necessary personnel and equipment, and schedules the job of removing property/trash and the people.
Prevetti went on to say the town has offered transients social services when camps have been cleared in the past.
The town has also discussed the potential wildfire concern with the fire department, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
I have a suspicion one of the men down there is a rapist, but the women don't report him, because they don't want to deal with police.
Just this morning the “homeless” set the area under a freeway exit on fire, snarling traffic in our area.
I used to own a home in Campbell, just off 17.
No way!
(Video also at link)
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/36476401/hfd-extinguishes-fire-under-h-1-kapiolani-exit
HFD extinguishes fire under H-1 Kapiolani exit
Thursday, September 28th 2017, 7:06 am HST
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -
The Honolulu Fire Department on Thursday morning extinguished a fire under the H-1 Freeway near the Kapiolani Boulevard exit that sent plumes of smoke into the air.
According to Honolulu Fire Capt. David Jenkins, firefighters were dispatched around 6:05 a.m. to an area under the Kapiolani Boulevard exit.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames by 6:25 a.m.
HFD said it started as a rubbish fire that spread to a nearby parked vehicle.
Officials added there appears to be a longstanding homeless encampment in the area where the fire started.
Honolulu police briefly shut down several lanes of the H-1, but lanes were reopened as soon as firefighters managed to get the flames under control.
The cause is still under investigation.
There are already vagrancy laws on the books, they are just being ignored.
I thought the Supreme Court overturned them.
The only way this will be ended is for someone to file a class action against governmental authorities for violation of environmental laws by refusing to enforce them against the “homeless.” The primary one being violating the Clean Water Act by allowing them to crap all over the place.
Could happen. A guy in the article pointed at a pizza box and said, “That’s a fire hazard.” Heh.
Yup.
Also, used to go to the Chateau Liberté in the late 60's.
Landowner? I’m at a loss, up here, we have trucks with snowplows. A camp like that could be gone in 60 seconds.
“Vagrancy”?
I think those laws were done away with about 40 years ago when it became no longer against the law to be homeless.
My second boss used to tell me about growing up in St. Louis in 40s. If the beat cop found a bum sleeping in a doorway, he got a hard nightstick to the bottoms of his feet. Cities were a LOT cleaner, civil, and favorable to ordinary people back then.
Looks comfy.
Many drunks and junkies there. It’s a miserable place
Effing bums....
St. Louis City cops were real handy with those nightsticks and still have them made custom, called Mullanphy Tablelegs. Very dense hardwood with a brass cap on the business end.
People complain about how violent the cops are today, shoot, they have nothing on how cops used to be.
The difference is that there was no 24 hour media to hype it up and people didn’t make heroes out of bums who got a wooden shampoo/urban turban for “disturbing the peace.”
“People complain about how violent the cops are today, shoot, they have nothing on how cops used to be.”
I agree. I grew up in Boston in the 1930s-—1940s. No one messed around with the cops-——and if one of the neighborhood boys got into trouble,and some did,the parents were on the side of the cops.
There was virtually no crime in our neighborhood.
.
.
Boston has the oldest police department in the United States.
Back then the hiring requirements were: male, fast runner, good with your hands, and Irish or German.
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