Posted on 03/18/2006 8:40:06 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Consensus has been reached among civil rights leaders, downtown business interests and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on a Skid Row cleanup plan that involves a crackdown on crime, but not sweeping up the homeless from the streets.
It is the first time that downtown business interests and civil libertarians have agreed on an approach for downtown's destitute Skid Row, which is home to an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 homeless people.
The American Civil Liberties Union and business leaders have endorsed a plan by criminologist George Kelling, who has called for police to crack down on drug dealers, prostitutes and other criminals on Skid Row.
The plan would put dozens of more officers on patrol in the roughly 50-block Skid Row area with an emphasis on experienced beat officers rather than rookies. More undercover officers also would be assigned to target drug dealers.
The plan for now would allow the homeless encampments to remain near the parts of downtown where developers have been converting buildings into upscale lofts and condominiums.
Police Chief William J. Bratton has been considering Kelling's plan as well as a more aggressive proposal that calls for sweeps designed to move the homeless from the streets.
Downtown business interests traditionally favored aggressive sweeps, but they now endorse Kelling's proposal.
"We've come to the sad conclusion that most of it is a drug problem," Central City Association President Carol Schatz told the Los Angeles Times. "You may be getting a huge number of people off the street by simply enforcing the law."
The ACLU of Southern California, which has been critical of aggressive LAPD sweeps of Skid Row, also agrees with the Kelling approach.
Ramona Ripston, the organization's executive director, said she also believes that Skid Row needs more police.
"Sometimes you reach a moment where we have to do something," Ripston said. "We can't let that continue to go on down there. ... One of the steps we need to take is to try to purge that neighborhood of the criminal element."
Villaraigosa also has endorsed the Kelling approach.
"As far as I'm concerned, there's only one option on the table: the George Kelling model," Villaraigosa said. "We're committed to addressing the causes of crime."
The plan would not make an immediate dent in the thousands of homeless people who sleep nightly in cardboard boxes and tents on Skid Row. LAPD policy currently allows homeless people to set up street dwellings as long as they remove them by 6 a.m.
Kelling's approach argues that the LAPD must reduce crime on Skid Row before the city can tackle the underlying social and medical causes of homelessness downtown.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
""We've come to the sad conclusion that most of it is a drug problem," Central City Association President Carol Schatz told the Los Angeles Times. "You may be getting a huge number of people off the street by simply enforcing the law.""
It's amazing what "simply enforcing the law" will accomplish.
If drugs were legal, the criminal element of the drug business would be gone. As it is now the police collect a paycheck making drugs illegal, leading to the crime infested area, then they get a paycheck to clean up the infested area. Now if we did not pay cops to make drugs illegal, we would not have to pay them to clean up the area. Those who wanted to use drugs could legally get enough drugs drugs to keep them stoned in a corner some where, where they would not be a nuisance to anyone but themselves. Drug abuse is stupid and I don't recommend it to any one. The War on Drugs only exists to transfer the fruit of the taxpayers labor, to those on the government payroll.
If drug users carried 100% (24/7/365) insurance then I might just bend a bit about the abusive usage of mind altering substances.
I am sick of people saying marijuana has no effects 12 hours after they use it. Driving cars and causing accidents seems to be just fine with young dope heads. A local motorcycle cop was killed two years ago by a cute young lady who just "had a few puffs on one joint" before she got in her pickup to go to work.
Booze is bad enough, we don't need to add coke, meth and every other warping substance to the daily intake.
Yes, I am an old man who doesn't think getting drunk does much for ones character either.
Some young guy was shown on the local news yesterday, he was getting arraigned on some heavy charges. He had pot and cocaine in his system, as he went across 4 lanes and killed someone in a head on crash. I hope he will be spending the next 30 years in jail.
Drugs being illegal did not prevent this tragedy, and I have a feeling may of perversely contributed to the tragedy. Safer drug use in a different environment, may have benefits. Something has to change, and I do not see even more laws and regulations as the answer.
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