Why are tax, zoning, dog leash, noise, traffic and other statutes zealously enforced but not laws on vagrancy, eliminating waste in public, causing a disruption, blocking sidewalks, littering and any other infraction associated with bums?
And if the laws don’t apply to bums, then neither do the laws regarding hosing them and their trash down to get them to flee.
Some cities make an effort to enforce anti-vagrancy laws while others dropped the ball completely and have voluntarily become bum meccas.
“Why are tax, zoning, dog leash, noise, traffic and other statutes zealously enforced but not laws on vagrancy, eliminating waste in public, causing a disruption, blocking sidewalks, littering and any other infraction associated with bums?”
I am sure you are asking this as a rhetorical question, or as a gripe disguised as a question, but nevertheless you know and I know the answer as it is the same answer for everything. Those crusty bums have no money to extract.
Vagrancy laws are not zealously enforced because any stringent vagrancy statutes get struck down as unconstitutional, since not owning a home can not be made a criminal offense in a free country.
As for the other laws targeting the unsavory habits of the homeless, those can be enforced, but I think it all comes down to how municipalities want to spend their resources. Those areas that have a big homeless problem also problem have more serious criminals that they would rather have the police focusing on.
I was at a recent meeting in Ventura after a crazy, homeless guy stabbed and killed a tourist in a restaurant on the promenade. I said.....you can enforce that every single dog on the beach is on a leash, why can’t you enforce the no loitering, sleeping in the parks and harassing people laws?