4 ms·

You may think it isn't a crime to shit in public, and stand in the middle of the street moaning and pissing yourself because you are so high you are mostly cata

You may think it isn't a crime to shit in public, and stand in the middle of the street moaning and pissing yourself because you are so high you are mostly catatonic. So I hope you and people like you never move to where I live.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
People using everywhere as their bathroom certainly decreases quality of life for everyone else but it's not even a blip on the radar when you lose a couple packages a month and your car gets broken into once a year. Solve the most impactful problems first.
- josephcsible 5y ago
  Isn't a lot of the stolen stuff being fenced to pay for drugs? If so, aren't they really just two parts of the same problem?
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    In other parts of the country junkies take day gigs. Installing roofing and screeding concrete are two of the stereotypical ones. Obviously stealing cats or being a porch pirate is a better ROI with the side benefit that you get to be your own boss. But junkies don't do these things to anywhere near the same extent in other parts of the country because they can't get away with them to the same extent. Addiction is a powerful motivator. If stealing stuff to get your fix is likely to result in withdrawal in a holding cell people will find the next best way to get their fix.
    - pmoriarty 5y ago
      Drugs should not be so expensive that people should have to steal to afford them. Their prices could be massively lowered if they were legal, since the cost to produce them is almost negligible. People with severe mental health issues have trouble holding down jobs, so I'd be very surprised if the people the original article talks about who are running around screaming at invisible demons could manage to work installing roofing or doing anything else. These people need help, not prisons.
      - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
        If you're too far gone to get a day gig you're usually also too far gone to have the industriousness required to cause real problems for society. If you're screaming at demons on the sidewalk you also aren't breaking into stuff. The people who have made a regular income stream out of victimizing people are higher functioning than that. They're just regular old tweakers picking the best option available to them. The former needs mental health care. The latter needs their best option to be something that doesn't victimize other people (whether you use a carrot or stick to achieve that matters not).
pmoriarty 5y ago
"You may think it isn't a crime to shit in public, and stand in the middle of the street moaning and pissing yourself because you are so high you are mostly catatonic." You think these people prefer to shit in public? Lots of them are sick (mentally and physically) and drugs and alcohol can make one lose control of one's bowels or bladder. When you have to go you have to go, and there are very few public toilets in SF, and many businesses just won't let homeless people or people who look poor use their bathrooms, especially not in places where there's a large homeless population, like the Tenderloin. So where are these people supposed to go? If SF residents really wanted to do something effective about all the shit and piss in the streets they'd build many, many more public bathrooms and lift people out of poverty. But they don't.
- merpnderp 5y ago
  "You think these people prefer to shit in public?" Yes I do. Shitting in a plastic bag is available to everyone. Peeing in privacy behind a dumpster is available to everyone. Taking any half assed steps towards public hygiene is available to everyone. I've seen a homeless drug addict stick the water fountain bubbler into his bunghole while he was washing his ass with it. The same reason they aren't shitting into bags and throwing them in the trash, or peeing into storm drains, is the same reason they're homeless - addiction makes people into sociopaths.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

People using everywhere as their bathroom certainly decreases quality of life for everyone else but it's not even a blip on the radar when you lose a couple packages a month and your car gets broken into once a year. Solve the most impactful problems first.

josephcsible 5y ago
Isn't a lot of the stolen stuff being fenced to pay for drugs? If so, aren't they really just two parts of the same problem?
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  In other parts of the country junkies take day gigs. Installing roofing and screeding concrete are two of the stereotypical ones. Obviously stealing cats or being a porch pirate is a better ROI with the side benefit that you get to be your own boss. But junkies don't do these things to anywhere near the same extent in other parts of the country because they can't get away with them to the same extent. Addiction is a powerful motivator. If stealing stuff to get your fix is likely to result in withdrawal in a holding cell people will find the next best way to get their fix.
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    Drugs should not be so expensive that people should have to steal to afford them. Their prices could be massively lowered if they were legal, since the cost to produce them is almost negligible. People with severe mental health issues have trouble holding down jobs, so I'd be very surprised if the people the original article talks about who are running around screaming at invisible demons could manage to work installing roofing or doing anything else. These people need help, not prisons.
    - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
      If you're too far gone to get a day gig you're usually also too far gone to have the industriousness required to cause real problems for society. If you're screaming at demons on the sidewalk you also aren't breaking into stuff. The people who have made a regular income stream out of victimizing people are higher functioning than that. They're just regular old tweakers picking the best option available to them. The former needs mental health care. The latter needs their best option to be something that doesn't victimize other people (whether you use a carrot or stick to achieve that matters not).

pmoriarty 5y ago

"You may think it isn't a crime to shit in public, and stand in the middle of the street moaning and pissing yourself because you are so high you are mostly catatonic." You think these people prefer to shit in public? Lots of them are sick (mentally and physically) and drugs and alcohol can make one lose control of one's bowels or bladder. When you have to go you have to go, and there are very few public toilets in SF, and many businesses just won't let homeless people or people who look poor use their bathrooms, especially not in places where there's a large homeless population, like the Tenderloin. So where are these people supposed to go? If SF residents really wanted to do something effective about all the shit and piss in the streets they'd build many, many more public bathrooms and lift people out of poverty. But they don't.

merpnderp 5y ago
"You think these people prefer to shit in public?" Yes I do. Shitting in a plastic bag is available to everyone. Peeing in privacy behind a dumpster is available to everyone. Taking any half assed steps towards public hygiene is available to everyone. I've seen a homeless drug addict stick the water fountain bubbler into his bunghole while he was washing his ass with it. The same reason they aren't shitting into bags and throwing them in the trash, or peeing into storm drains, is the same reason they're homeless - addiction makes people into sociopaths.