689
The Supreme Court Should Be Ashamed for Criminalizing Homelessness.
(inequality.org)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
689 points (98.7% liked)
politics
19089 readers
1687 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Some people prefer freedom.
The freedom to live in a tent and shit into the sewer system that feeds the water supply is the same level of freedom that gives me a right to kill people without repercussions. Sometimes limitations on “freedoms” are acceptable because society has a structure. They can choose to live outside of that society, but they clearly enjoy living in places like LA… so they have a choice. Either accept somewhere to live and get out of the streets, or leave society as a whole.
I don't care about conforming to society. You can make me care about it if society feeds all hungry children. Until then, it doesn't interest me.
You don’t even seem to have a basic understanding of how city water supplies work. No amount of people shitting in the woods makes your drinking water contaminated; where the fuck do you think animals shit?
Edit: there are absolutely public health concerns to be made about human shit being around where people do things, especially non porous surfaces which don’t offer opportunities for decomposition. But that’s a problem to be solved with better public restroom coverage, even housed people will pee/shit in public when there isn’t a restroom available
For the record, Portland's water supply comes from the Bull Run Watershed. The sewer system is a combined sewer system, so if someone does poop down a storm sewer inlet, it goes to the same water treatment system as everyone else's poop.
That said, people pooping on the sidewalk is a legit problem. I've had to report a couple of poops that were pretty clearly human.
Living in your own feces isn't freedom.
You don't get to define what freedom is for somebody else.
When someone is living in their own refuse, they have abdicated the responsibility to make decisions for themselves.
Well, yes, society needs people to abuse.
They're abusing themselves. Society saying "no, stop it." is the OPPOSITE of abuse.
It's no different than grand-ma being a hoarder. Her kids and grand kids step in to make decisions for her because she clearly can't on her own.
It's just that, in this case, it's society doing the heavy lifting.
Yes, conformity must be enforced.
When your non-conformity places you and others at risk? Absolutely.
I look forward to a human world without humans harming others. It will occur when humans have eliminated themselves as a species, and that time might not be far off.
Until then, we can enjoy oppressing the non-conformist and mentally ill. People like Mary Barnes shouldn't have been allowed to enjoy the freedom she did - she lived in her poo, made art with it, and ended up being a successful artist. Disgusting!!!
Forcing mentally ill people into treatment isn't harm, it's helping someone incapable of helping themselves.
I'm a Psychologist.
Have you seen how patients get treated on mental health wards?
That's not an argument to not treat them, that's an argument to make treatment better.
As someone with a history of mental health issues who has received forced treatment by family, i beg to differ. Healing started once i got out of the social circles who were trying to force me to be not have problems and i found people who would accept me (mostly) for who i was. I am now much better, no thanks to forced help.
Healing comes with acceptance, enough acceptance will lead to the person with problems to start noticing how their issues are cause problems and then seeking help on their own becomes available.
My heart breaks over how limited the supply of patient acceptance is in society; how few people are even willing to try to demonstrate a modicum of empathy for what people with mental health issues are experiencing
Thank you for saying this. As a Psychologist, standing up for the rights of patients - who are 'disgusting' and 'different' - is a difficult task. When people don't conform, they are not treated as human. They are problems to be dealt with. It is disgusting.
Lol! What kind of weird ass argument is this?!
Can you back it up?
You honestly think someone living in garbage and shit is capable of making good life decions?
Because if they were, the rest of us wouldn't be dealing with:
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2023/07/hidden-toll-of-homeless-crisis-portlands-prized-natural-areas.html
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2021/05/portland-announces-it-will-aggressively-clean-or-remove-homeless-encampments.html
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/security-guards-stopping-homeless-people-camping-old-town-steel-bridge/283-2558b928-4c8d-4242-800c-d348c128d19b
It's bad enough now that there's actually a cottage industry building up around camp cleanup:
https://www.bioonepdx.com/homeless-encampment-cleanup/
You haven't answered my question. All those links talk about the problem of homelessness, not that they "abdicated the responsibility to make decisions for themselves."
Excellent victim blaming, by the way.
If you're living in the street, shitting on the sidewalk, yes, you've abdicated the decision making process.
I disagree with you and I'm done with this conversation. You haven't backed up any of your claims.
Edit: Hopefully you won't ban me for my opinions.
LOL - you need evidence that someone shitting on the sidewalk like a dog is making good life choices?
No, I need evidence on your claim that less fortunate people forfeit their right to decide for themselves.
Your elitism is showing.
You're a lost case. For everyone else reading: we cannot expect that people who for some reason or another got into a financial or mental health mess, are the ones who can get themselves out of it without help. Suppose a drunk person falls into a pond and can't get out. And then you say "well, SERVES YOU RIGHT for getting drunk. You get out of the lake yourself!" Who- who? The hell thinks like that?!
A person who's top priority is "shit, what will I eat tomorrow? Will I be safe tonight?" should be helped by those like us, the one with the access, knowledge and resources. They should not be victim-blamed.
It's kinda weird when people are not empathetic to those in need, when you think about it.
They aren't simply "less fortunate". They lack the ability to properly care for themselves or establish a stable environment in which to live.
If they're going to burden society with their issues, they have no right to complain when society resolves their issues for them.
Yeah, you've been repeating the same thing for the past 5 or 6 comments.
Yup, because their deplorable state is self evident.
I think you're just trolling at this point. Are you doing this for the lulz? Yeah, you're doing this for the lulz.
Nope, just reporting on the state of the homeless in my town.
Things will start getting better once drugs are re-criminalized starting next month.