3 ms·
No. It's a joke. The police a) don't want to deal with the liability of an overdose on their watch, b) don't want to do the hour's worth of paperwork for arrest
by slothtrop 5y ago
No. It's a joke. The police a) don't want to deal with the liability of an overdose on their watch, b) don't want to do the hour's worth of paperwork for arrests, because they just turn them right back on to the street. Junkies plainly do not get arrested most of the time.
- rvense 5y agoNor should they be. Drug abuse is a health problem. Unless someone is an immediate threat to their surroundings, the police should not be involved.
- Veen 5y agoDrug abuse is a health problem. Breaking into people's homes, damaging their property, and then extorting them is a criminal problem. You don't get a pass on lawbreaking because you have health problems.
- slothtrop 5y agoA different conversation, but if you want to talk about "oughts" vs the reality, squatters ought to be removed by the police.
- bsanr2 5y agoDruggie squatters and shiftless cops? It sounds like your area has a cultural issue that you might want to work with neighbors and community officials to rectify.
- slothtrop 5y agoSome cities are trafficking hubs. Drugs are everywhere. Effective deterrents for would-be users might include better support networks and opportunities both for work and social/active engagement, in a limited sense. Most would occupy varied low-income areas and consequently there develops microcultures of poverty, which includes drug abuse, but they have easy access to the rest of the city - they meander to those areas they want to squat. Breaking up these places geographically helps (as opposed to having large "projects"), but here again it's not a silver bullet. There's little the community can do legally, voluntarily and with few funds, to fight off a drug epidemic. If it were so easy this would have been done many times over. The frequent violent altercations (including stabbings) leaves people afraid of users as well.
- bsanr2 5y agoThe answer has always been investment, but of course what is far more important is eking out that last 20 points for Bradyn's SAT score.