3 ms·

I recall a homeless guy in SF laying in front of the Alameda ferry terminal. He had pooped and was smearing it over the door, ground, and was rolling in it. Th

I recall a homeless guy in SF laying in front of the Alameda ferry terminal. He had pooped and was smearing it over the door, ground, and was rolling in it. The other passengers and myself were just watching. I remember watching everyone’s faces and us deciding what to do. This was fairly normal for all of us. The coast guard came off the incoming ferry and basically joined us. It wasn’t their job, eventually we got some security and even they were like... “ugh, I don’t know if it’s safe to move him”. Eventually all of us just routed around the homeless man via the other doors (usually for getting off the ferry). No one taking care of the problem, to my knowledge. Can’t really blame anyone for not wanting to move a man covered in feces. But I agree this is a crisis and I honestly don’t know who they will get willing to solve that problem.

tomjen3 7y ago
In a different country, some sailor would be tasked with removing him, and would just hose everything away with the firehose (it runs on whatever water the ship sails in, so the only cost is the power to move the water through it). I am not sure it would be a better solution, but it seems to me that the current status where you can't enforce basic societal rules, like don't roll in shit in public, because the only social sanction, exclusion, can't be applied is simply unsustainable and quite frankly we need to make it possible to arrest people who act this way (and ensure they are arrested).