Crime, Homelessness and Politics

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Kurth
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Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by Kurth »

After hijacking the 2022 Midterms thread with a tangent on crime, homelessness and politics, I saw something relevant to that discussion and thought the topic deserves its own thread as we head to the 2024 elections.

I saw this the other day and couldn't believe it: Salt & Straw co-founder says ‘I can’t stay here’ if Portland HQ employees aren’t safe
Portland’s iconic ice cream business Salt & Straw may move its headquarters from Southeast Portland out of state, owing to frustration with crime, drugs and street camping, said co-founder Kim Malek on Wednesday. That’s if Portland and Multnomah County leaders can’t help the company address the issues that are plaguing its operations.

“We would consider all options,” Malek said. “We don’t have concrete plans. But our intention is to be at the table working with the city and county to find a solution and not move. Portland is part of the soul of our company. We love this city. This is about having a safe place for our team to work.”

On Monday, a fire in an RV parked at Southeast 3rd Avenue and Ash Street near the company’s headquarters and kitchen shut down power to Salt & Straw and several other businesses after the blaze brought down a transformer.

“If we can’t make it safe, I can’t stay here,” Malek said. “It’s just not responsible of me to put my team in that position.”

Since I've lived here (2015), there are few companies that seem more Portland than Salt & Straw. My wife even worked there for a year or so doing events for them. It's just amazing that they would consider moving our of Portland and a real sign of how bad the homelessness and crime situation has gotten.

I'm glad Christine Drazan isn't our governor, but I hope the incoming Democrat, Tina Kotek, got the message: Portland, and OR generally, need to address the homelessness issue and do it soon. No more kicking the can down the road.
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Holman
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by Holman »

The whole question of homelessness, open drug-use, survival crime, and associated unpleasantness is usually predicated on the assumption that perpetrators are responsible for their own circumstances.

How many of them would continue in such circumstances if other options were available?

Maybe the most basic difference between the Left and Right is that the Left sees the desperate poor as the victims of society while the Right sees them as its antagonists.
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by Kraken »

In Boston, the homeless tent city/drug market is at the intersection of Mass. Ave and Melnea Cass Blvd, known as Mass & Cass. The new mayor made cleaning it up a priority, and succeeded in displacing it a block or so. They spent a lot of money finding temporary housing for the population, but they also require a lot of support services that are hard to provide, and no neighborhood wants them concentrated in one place. You can read the city's plan here, if you're so inclined.

It costs more money than the city can afford, so it requires state government buy-in, and it seems that no matter how many individuals they process, more show up. But at least they're making a serious effort, and Boston doesn't have anything near Portland's problem.
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by Smoove_B »

It will be interesting to see if Portland takes a page from NYC:
Months into his first term in office, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is touting early progress in his administration's effort to clear the streets of homeless encampments.

"I have said since we started this initiative that every New Yorker deserves dignity, and we are demonstrating that this is possible," Adams said in an emailed statement.

The administration's goal is to put homeless New Yorkers on a path to permanent housing and stability, as part of the broader plan to improve public safety. The mayor's office pointed to the latest encampment sweep numbers as a sign that he is following through on his promises.
How's it going?
But homeless advocates say the approach is a return to misguided tactics. They argue that the policing-focused strategies the city is using to persuade people to go to shelters in fact perpetuate the decades-long crisis.

"All they're doing is doubling down on a failed policy," said Jacquelyn Simone, policy director at the NYC-based Coalition for the Homeless. "Policing and criminalization are not the responses to what is fundamentally a housing and mental health crisis."

...

Dave Giffen, the executive director of the coalition, said in a statement that the new funding is a "small partial step" in the right direction.

"In the absence of a comprehensive plan to create vastly more permanent affordable and supportive housing, one that respects the dignity of all New Yorkers without homes, these piecemeal efforts are destined to do nothing more than kick the can down the road," Giffen said.
Maybe next year, maybe no go
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Kurth
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by Kurth »

Holman wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:37 pm The whole question of homelessness, open drug-use, survival crime, and associated unpleasantness is usually predicated on the assumption that perpetrators are responsible for their own circumstances.
Wait, what? The “whole question” of homelessness and all its cascading related problems isn’t predicated on blame or fault. Engaging in dealing with the issue doesn’t mean we have to blame the homeless. What we have to do is find a solution to the problem and stop sticking our heads in the sand pretending it’s not a problem or minimizing it or thinking it will take care of itself.
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Holman
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by Holman »

Kurth wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:42 pm Engaging in dealing with the issue doesn’t mean we have to blame the homeless.
Seems like that happens a lot, though.
What we have to do is find a solution to the problem and stop sticking our heads in the sand pretending it’s not a problem or minimizing it or thinking it will take care of itself.
I agree.
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by hitbyambulance »

one of the prior threads: http://octopusoverlords.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=98082

Seattle has basically no affordable housing (or the US, in much of the very western-most coast, either) so i have no idea how they're even going to start fixing that. i just know the money that keeps getting allocated to "the homelessness public emergency" by the city government increases every year, and little appears to happen as a result. there is no accountability at all for the contracted service providers. also (and correct me if i'm wrong) but it seems fentanyl and this new meth are more likely to cause permanent brain damage, accelerating the descent into crazytown. there is no political will to make mental-health housing institutions or involuntary commitment-style drug treatment centers.
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by hitbyambulance »

" Mayor says NYC will treat mentally ill, even if they refuse "

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... ey-refuse/
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by Pyperkub »

Holman wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 9:07 pm
Kurth wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:42 pm Engaging in dealing with the issue doesn’t mean we have to blame the homeless.
Seems like that happens a lot, though.
What we have to do is find a solution to the problem and stop sticking our heads in the sand pretending it’s not a problem or minimizing it or thinking it will take care of itself.
I agree.
Especially WRT to Police & Homeless interactions. The increase in militarization training of the police reinforces this as an enforcer role (as opposed to public servant, including the homeless public).
When I entered the Washington, D.C., police academy in 2016 as a recruit officer in the district’s volunteer police reserve corps, I quickly discovered that I was joining a paramilitary organization. ...

...It’s not hard to see the link between paramilitary police training and the abuses motivating the past several weeks’ protests. When police recruits are belittled by their instructors and ordered to refrain from responses other than “Yes, Sir!,” they may learn stoicism—but they may also learn that mocking and bellowing orders at those with less power are acceptable actions. When recruits are ordered to do push-ups to the point of exhaustion because their boots weren’t properly polished, they may learn the value of attention to detail—but they may also conclude that the infliction of pain is an appropriate response to even the most trivial infractions.

Many police recruits enter the academy as idealists, but this kind of training turns them into cynics, even before their first day on patrol. And although most police officers will go through their entire careers without ever firing their weapons, others will inevitably get the wrong lessons from their paramilitary training,...

...Police departments obtaining used Army filing cabinets at cost isn’t cause for concern, but there’s no earthly reason for small-town cops to wear military fatigues, ride around in mine-resistant Humvees, or carry bayonets. Studies suggest that police departments that receive such equipment see no measurable improvement in officer safety or crime rates, but greater quantities do seem to correlate with higher rates of officer-involved shootings and reduced public trust.
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by hitbyambulance »

just one small example of the pitiful state of mental health treatment facilities

"WA hired ID thief, heroin dealer to treat mental patients. He stole their money"

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/loc ... 05467.html
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by Kurth »

hitbyambulance wrote: Tue Nov 29, 2022 6:39 pm " Mayor says NYC will treat mentally ill, even if they refuse "

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... ey-refuse/
Of course, these initiatives better be met with adequate funding. If so, this is a step in the right direction as far as I’m concerned.

But some appear to be opposed to doing almost anything at all that forces the homeless to do anything they don’t want to do. From the linked article:
The mayor’s announcement was condemned as wrong-headed by some civil rights groups and advocates for the homeless.

“The Mayor is playing fast and loose with the legal rights of New Yorkers and is not dedicating the resources necessary to address the mental health crises that affect our communities,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director the New York Civil Liberties Union.

“Forcing people into treatment is a failed strategy for connecting people to long-term treatment and care,” she said.

The Coalition for the Homeless also denounced the mayor’s plan, saying the city should focus on expanding access to voluntary psychiatric treatment.

“Mayor Adams continues to get it wrong when it comes to his reliance on ineffective surveillance, policing, and involuntary transport and treatment of people with mental illness,” said the coalition’s executive director, Jacquelyn Simone.
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by stessier »

Wait, are you saying you support this??
The mayor’s announcement was condemned as wrong-headed by some civil rights groups and advocates for the homeless.

“The Mayor is playing fast and loose with the legal rights of New Yorkers and is not dedicating the resources necessary to address the mental health crises that affect our communities,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director the New York Civil Liberties Union.

“Forcing people into treatment is a failed strategy for connecting people to long-term treatment and care,” she said.

The Coalition for the Homeless also denounced the mayor’s plan, saying the city should focus on expanding access to voluntary psychiatric treatment.

“Mayor Adams continues to get it wrong when it comes to his reliance on ineffective surveillance, policing, and involuntary transport and treatment of people with mental illness,” said the coalition’s executive director, Jacquelyn Simone.
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Re: Crime, Homelessness and Politics

Post by gilraen »

One can argue that if someone's mental illness would make them, say, incompetent to stand a trial for a crime, they are also not capable of "voluntarily" consenting to treatment.
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