Free Republic

Seattle drug addicts have praised the city's new mayor for allegedly telling cops not to arrest people doing illegal substances on the crime-ridden city's streets. One 36-year-old local, who gave his name as Brandon, told the Daily Mail on Wednesday that Mayor Katie Wilson is 'cool' after her office and Seattle's progressive city attorney Erika Evans reportedly plotted to avoid prosecuting most public drugs use cases. Brandon, who lives on the streets because he prefers them to his taxpayer-funded apartment, said of Wilson's new plans: 'They tried to do that already during Covid. We went buck wild! I'm not gonna...

A man who allegedly ambushed two police officers after luring them to a transit center with a bogus 911 call has been charged, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital that reveal new details about the attack. The officer-involved shooting took place in downtown Bellevue, Washington, at around 12:25 p.m. Friday at the Bellevue Transit Center. Bellevue is a city located just east of Seattle. The suspect, Mohamed Morray Bangura, 38, calmly spoke with the officers for several seconds, pretending to point out an argument he reported on 911, according to charging documents. That's when he allegedly suddenly unzipped...

A tourist viciously stabbed by a crazed homeless woman inside a bathroom at Macy’s Herald Square had been changing her 10-month-old daughter at the time, sources told The Post. The 38-year-old mom, who was visiting from California, was in the seventh-floor bathroom with her baby when she was repeatedly knifed Thursday afternoon, the sources said. The victim suffered knife wounds to her back, shoulder and arm in the unhinged attack that unfolded during the holiday shopping rush at the packed flagship store in Midtown. The alleged attacker, Kerri Aherne, 43, was arrested on charges of attempted murder, assault and weapon...

It is always amazing that, in a place where liberal Democrats have reigned supreme for decades, and say they want a change, their answer always seems to be, "If we just elect some new Democrats..." Since he came on the scene during the summer, the entire nation has been able to see what's coming once Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani gets sworn into office. He is an unapologetic socialist and will implement ridiculous and useless socialist ideas in the Big Apple. When it comes to the city's homeless population, even Democrat Mayor Eric Adams knew there had to be some restrictions. But...

Voters in Texas' capital overwhelmingly rejected a plan to raise taxes to pay millions for homeless services last week, but that isn't stopping local leaders from looking for the money in other places. The City of Austin is now proposing cutting millions in funding from the fire and ambulance services to give it the city's unsuccessful program for people on the streets. 'It's a slap in the face because they really aren't listening, and they really are steamrolling, whatever they want to do, and continuously trying to undermine the public will,' local public safety advocate Cleo Petricek told Daily Mail...

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs … announced $84 million in grants to 176 organizations across the country to help veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Of the total amount, $42 million in grants will cover legal services and another $42 million in grants will go toward case management services to improve housing retention by veterans who are at risk of becoming homeless or who were previously homeless and are transitioning to permanent housing. Legal services grants will be distributed through VA’s Legal Services for Homeless Veterans and Veterans At-Risk for Homelessness Grants program and provide...

A Portland Democrat who once called for homeless individuals to be given housing suffered an ironic and cruel twist of fate last week. As The Oregonian reported, 51-year-old homeless man Vashon Locust was arrested on Tuesday after starting a fire that torched Portland City Councilor Candace Avalos’ townhome and car. He faces charges of reckless burning, second-degree mischief, and trespassing. These are all misdemeanors. According to a police affidavit obtained by the paper, Locust snuck into a shed near Avalos’ home on October 26 and attempted to use an electric outlet. When that failed, he set a fire to stay...

A new study from a pair of think tanks has found that massive amounts of money, taxpayer dollars that are meant to combat the ongoing homelessness crisis, are in fact being used to further the left’s political goals. This might explain why the homeless problem seems to get worse each year despite the fact that we throw billions of dollars at efforts to solve it. FOX News reports: A new study just exposed the corruption behind America’s homelessness crisisFor years, Americans have been told that “compassion” for the homeless meant writing ever-larger checks – more money, more programs and far...

“We would not eat.” That is how disabled U.S. Navy veteran Juan Saro described a life without the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP…About 1.2 million veterans are enrolled now, according to the National Council on Aging. More than 20,000 military families, 213,000 National Guard and Reserve members, and more than 1 million veterans, rely on such benefits, according to Veteran.com. Saro survived a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his time in the Navy. He later worked as a sixth-grade teacher. But COVID-related health problems made it impossible to stay in the classroom. The veteran now...

With the arrests and federal indictments of two California men announced on Thursday, we're now getting an idea of how California's billions of dollars to "end homelessness" vanished without a trace. Instead of helping to solve the problem of rampant tent encampments filled with addicts on the beaches and streets in California, things got worse. Where did all that money go? An audit in 2024 revealed that no one knew how the homeless money was spent. I wrote about this in "No Wonder Gavin Newsom Didn't Want an Audit to Track $24 Billion in Homeless Spending." The audit revealed that...

Federal investigators accuse Charlotte community activist Cedric Dean of exploiting homeless people to defraud Medicaid out of millions of dollars.

It's apparently the latest trend in Los Angeles. Homeless encampments aren't just popping up in parks and sidewalks anymore. Now, they're taking over some private lots, too. "It's just sketchy," said Samantha Rene, a Koreatown resident. The encampment sits at Hoover and San Marino Streets, right next to an apartment complex and close to a place of worship. Hoover Elementary School is just two blocks away, and many young students need to pass it to get to school. "Sometimes when I pass by, they're always like screaming, fighting or sometimes they're like doing this," said Jayleen Alas, a 4th grader,...

MADISON, Wis. -- Jaytona Lockhart is living on the streets of Madison. "I'm not gonna be homeless too long, you know what I'm saying? It's just for a season," he said. "I work myself into getting some resources to help me find some housing." Lockhart and others facing housing insecurity watch as the Dairy Drive tiny homes and the Veteran's Museum homeless encampment are shut down and the permanent men's shelter on the city's east side is built, all changing the landscape of homelessness in the community and highlighting a growing problem. "We have teams of providers that go out...

Screencap of Twitter/X video. Trump has had control of Washington, DC for a little over a week and it has already made a tremendous difference, and while partisans and talking heads on TV continue to describe this as ‘authoritarian’ many of the people who actually live there seem to appreciate it. In the video below, which has been shared widely on Twitter/X and other social media platforms, a young woman from Washington, DC marvels at what Trump has been able to do in such a short amount of time. You will not see this young woman featured on CNN or...

President Trump has taken extraordinary measures in the nation’s capital to fulfill an ordinary function of local government: keeping clean, orderly streets. His actions seem unusual because government officials in America’s cities long ago abandoned the basics. They have been led astray by academics and activists who promised them crimeless cities and an end to homelessness if only they established a right to housing and eradicated income inequality. These idealistic public-policy frameworks have failed to achieve the desired outcomes anywhere in the U.S. Instead, they’ve ushered in the worst homelessness crisis on record. President Trump’s strategy is straightforward: Everyone living...

Federal officials have cleared about 75 homeless camps around the nation’s capital under President Trump’s effort to clean up Washington, DC — and they’re not done yet. United States Park Police have removed dozens of tents since the president penned the “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” executive order in March, the Department of the Interior told The Post Friday. Authorities have also scrubbed up to 80 graffiti sites from Capitol Hill Parks as of Aug. 6, Interior officials said. Interior leaders, led by Secretary Doug Burgum, are revising guidelines so there is a no-tolerance policy for illegal...

The White House says those living in homeless encampments in the nation's capital will have two choices in the coming days: accept treatment at a homeless shelter, or go to jail. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the ultimatum during a Tuesday press conference as reporters prodded about President Donald Trump's federal takeover of Washington, D.C.'s law enforcement. She said many of the homeless encampments across the city have already been dismantled, and those that remain she expected to be dealt with this week. "Seventy homeless encampments have been removed by the U.S. Park Police," Leavitt said, adding that...

President Trump is holding a press conference this morning, where he is expected to make a major announcement on his plans to end violent crime and homelessness in Washington, DC. As The Gateway Pundit reported, President Trump announced over the weekend that he will hold a press conference this morning, and it will “essentially, stop violent crime in Washington, D.C.” ”It has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World. It will soon be one of the safest!!!” the President said. .... Snip.... The President is expected to begin his press conference in the White House briefing...

Hundreds of National Guard troops were expected to flood the streets of Washington DC as President Donald Trump threatens a federal takeover of the capital. The move came as Trump blasted the crime and homelessness in DC while deploying 120 FBI agents to work alongside D.C. police and other federal law enforcement officers in the nation's capital. 'The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,' Trump posted on Truth Social. 'The Criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong,' 'Be...

Guest post by Joe Kovacs ‘Before the tents, squalor, filth, and Crime, it was the most beautiful Capital in the World. It will soon be that again.’ Saying the American public “is not going to put up with it any longer,” President Donald Trump is now providing some details about cleaning up the nation’s capital city of Washington, D.C. On Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said a news conference is slated for 10 a.m. Monday in the White House Press Briefing Room to address the matter. “I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was...