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Does this really even need to be said? Police don't care about the health or the safety of the homeless.
by tuxxy 7y ago
Does this really even need to be said? Police don't care about the health or the safety of the homeless.
- sfj 7y agoAll police are bad people.
- DoreenMichele 7y agoI posted it because someone outright asked me for information a few days ago concerning how the pandemic is impacting the homeless population: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22819760 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22819760
- scollet 7y agoIf there's a systemic problem, I believe it should be reiterated until an acceptable resolution is found. It is systemic, so we should recognize that an individual's reinforcement of the problem is a small part. There is a greater sum that equals a militancy towards disenfranchised groups. A discussion is to be had at both a micro and macro levels. Please don't leave it at the micro. Some people are unaware and information is key to arguing this plight.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoI don’t think it’s appropriate for society to expect police to also behave as mental health care professionals. We don’t want to spend the money on mental healthcare facilities and don’t want to create a legal framework for involuntary committing of people, but we do want to blame police for not being able to handle society’s mentally ill.
- ehnto 7y agoIt's pretty appropriate for them to act like people who want to help the community though, and homeless are still part of the community.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoTheir bosses (the voters) raise hell at the politicians to push the homeless out of sight. If police don’t do that, the local politicians will have to replace the police, or else the voters will replace the politician.
- ehnto 7y agoI can see what you are saying, you are probably right about the cause and effect. But I think you've unfairly shifted the blame to voters. Voters don't know how to handle a societal problem as big and as endemic as a growing homeless population, that's why we put our trust in politicians, councils and governors. Voters are just signalling a desire for a clean and safe neighborhood, and suppose even that they don't care how it's done, it's still the city and police force's responsibility to figure out a way to do it humanely and in a way that helps solve the issue, not sweep it into another neighborhood. I want to point out that I am not anti-police, I'm just lamenting what seems to be a lack of empathy and perhaps even a lack of bravery for someone in the chain to change the approach. It's by no means an easy problem to solve, I don't envy those in charge.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago> Voters are just signalling a desire for a clean and safe neighborhood, and suppose even that they don't care how it's done, it's still the city and police force's responsibility to figure out a way to do it humanely and in a way that helps solve the issue, not sweep it into another neighborhood. I’m not willing to give voters the benefit of the doubt. We have a pretty well educated population that consistently goes to the polls and votes for the person that promises the lowest taxes. We can all say we want to support our fellow citizens all we want, but I have yet to see any action on that front.
- qqssccfftt 7y agoPolice do not care about the health or safety of people.
- Jonnax 7y agoSure. But it's not helpful to say that. If someone says the police are especially bad towards the homeless, saying that they're bad to everyone just belittles and says that the concerns of the homeless aren't important.
- jeltz 7y agoMaybe, but it is a bit relevant in a pandemic. Even if you do not care about homeless people they will still infect others and use ICU resources. Compassionate treatment of homeless also happens to be what is best for everyone here, even the people who are not homeless.
- DoreenMichele 7y agoIt's 3am where I am and I'm quite surprised to see this on the front page. I've already deleted one comment because I'm not in good shape to judge if it was informative or pointlessly fighty. But I will note that I mostly wasn't hassled by the police while homeless for nearly six years. In fact, they tended to look out for my welfare to whatever degree they could without creating a conflict of interest for themselves. One night, the police came up to our tent (I was homeless with my two adult sons) and shined a flashlight on it and ordered us to come out with our hands up. When I opened the tent and came out, they went "Oh, it's you." and promptly dropped into social worker mode, asking if I knew about various local services, etc. They were looking for a guy named Michael who was camped in the area. He had beat up his girlfriend and she had filed a police report. So they were pretty keyed up, expecting to deal with a violent criminal. They were quite relieved to see it was me and my sons instead. I knew the area well and I walked them over to where Michael stayed when he camped there and also talked about paths into and out of the little valley where I was camped and what I generally knew about Michael and his habits. I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I do remote work online which I began doing while homeless. I am not a criminal. Etc. I'm just desperately poor because I have too many personal challenges and too few resources. And the cops mostly didn't bother me, though I certainly had a few negative experiences with them as well. Cops are human. They aren't a monolith. Different cops behave differently from each other and the same cop can behave differently in different circumstances and with different people. Just like any other random human on planet earth.
- Ar-Curunir 7y ago*don't care about anything but protecting capital
- jeltz 7y agoYes, because if people stop saying it I feel that we have accepted it as unfixable. And I would like to think it is fixable.
- AndyMcConachie 7y agoPolice mostly just follow orders. Most terrible things we like to pin on police should probably instead be pinned on police, local political leadership, and ultimately local polities. If police are assholes in your area there's probably a good chance it's because the local political elites want them to be assholes.
- chithanh 7y ago> because the local political elites enable them to be assholes FTFY
- imtringued 7y agoIt is true. When a policeman breaks the law himself he might get covered by his higher ups and merely lose his rank or the job but still not face any criminal consequences.
- RickJWagner 7y agoMight. Or when she breaks the law, she might get thrown in jail like everyone else. It depends on how corrupt the local establishment is. The cops play a tactical role. For reference, see the original handling of the Jussie Smollett case. Clearly laws were broken, but corrupt higher-ups provided cover.
- bilbo0s 7y agoIn all honesty, I'm not really sure how the whole, "well everyone is corrupt" thing all you guys commenting here seem to be doing helps. I mean, yeah, everyone is corrupt, but you are still responsible for your actions. I mean, if the DA or mayor or whatever in a town is bent, does that mean a cop who coerces sexual favors from a prostitute he's caught in that jurisdiction is not a dirtbag? Of course not. It only means that your DA is a dirtbag, and your cop is a dirtbag. (It's also likely that the dirtbaggery extends to others in city leadership. The judges, the mayor, some council people. Etc. Just like the dirtbaggery in the police force likely extends to other cops in that department.)
- macspoofing 7y agoDo you? Do you think protecting the 'right' of the homeless (who are probably suffering from mental illness and/or addiction) to live in squalor, without basic sanitation?
- BigChiefSmokem 7y agoPolice is a broad term and I don’t think you can apply that attribute to a group. Police being powerless to do anything about the problem (they are law enforcement, not public health services) is probably the more reasonable question to ask. This of course goes back to local leaders, status quo thinking and self interest getting in the way of any meaningful action. Remember the homeless are being cited for things the community itself voted on.
- AlgorithmicTime 7y agoTo be clear, I don't care about the health or safety of the homeless, either.