i heard the phrase "Crackdown on the Homeless" on a local news show this morning

[datasuspect]

that didn't sound right at all.

not when lots of people can become that way pretty damn quick lately.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. They meant, "Crackdown on homelessness," right?

I really hope that's what they meant.

[datasuspect]

2. insofar as it relates to homeless people sleeping on CTA trains and buses

this was WGN's morning news show.

no, they said crackdown on the homeless.

it seemed really inhumane the way they framed it. plenty of soundbites from CTA higher ups about round trips being forbidden.

they didn't mention the arctic cold snap we've been having.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

5. That's pretty messed up.

Any protests planned to challenge the CTA? I wonder how they'd react to well-dressed, respectable-looking whites riding the subway for round trips...

[datasuspect]

8. i don't use public transit anymore

but i had to a few weeks ago for a few days.

i was shocked at the number of apparently homeless people on the trains. i've never seen that before.

in the past, you might see a wayward drunk or one guy, but there were more than 5 people who stunk to high heaven and clutched all manner of small bags who were sleeping on the trains.

i cannot say for certain they were homeless, but they didn't appear to have consistent access to hygiene facilities.

[valerief]

3. That doesn't sound very bootstrappy, though, and it's still a bootstappy Congress, WH, and media. nt

[Bake]

9. Nah, they probably meant those "unwashed" homeless people.

Bake

[NightWatcher]

4. I saw cops arresting a "will work for food" sign holder near the interstate last week

I was so pissed off. What are they going to do, give him a ticket?

If it is illegal to be homeless how long before the debtor prisons spring up around the country? We could put a lot of people to work building and staffing prisons for bad debtors. "What are you in for man?" "student loans, you, oh medical bills, that sucks".

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

6. At least that person probably had a place to stay for the night.

A horrible way to get one, though.

[ixion]

7. ah yes... our 'civilized' society loves to put the jack boot of rightousness

right up the a** of the homeless.

Some civilization.

[99th_Monkey]

10. Tell your city officials and media about Dignity Village in Portland Oregon

http://dignityvillage.org

I helped them organize their own self-governed encampment on unused city land several years ago.

They're doing great, have been building cob-heybail housing, have their own wind-energy turbine
for electricity to their common areas .. check it out.

I think Dignity Village also has outreach to other cities who want to try something like this.

[leftofthedial]

11. goddamned lazy bums! too damned lazy to work!

anyone in this country can pull themselves up by the bootstraps and be as rich as they want to be. but not if they are lazy good for nothing bums who make bad decisions and then want the rest of us to take care of them and their brats. why did they even have kids if they were just gonna end up homeless anyway? that's child abuse. lazy good for nothing miserable worthless bums!

if they didn't want to be homeless, they shouldn't have gotten laid off. or had a relative with cancer. or who got sick with whatever. or they shouldn't have let the bosses steal their pension money. lazy bums. good for nothing. it's not my fault! why should I pay?

we oughtta crack down.

and crack down hard.

[bean fidhleir]

12. You got it! Euthanize them, that's the solution. We do it to homeless non-humans

And these people might as well be non-humans - they're Useless Eaters of no value to Real People.

Gas them all.

[leftofthedial]

17. I don't know. gas is pretty expensive.

[bean fidhleir]

18. They could always use Zyklon B - that was cheap. And it's only a one-time expense, anyway.

They could even convert the shower room in a defunded school.

[leftofthedial]

20. is there any way to make them pay for their own share of the gas?

that would be the American corporate way.

that, plus a government subsidy of a few hundred thousand per "client."

[bean fidhleir]

21. oops, you're right, I completely neglected that possibility.

Probably couldn't get anything for their blood or dental fillings. Could maybe harvest organs from the kids and the ones who hadn't been parasites very long. That could help with profitability. But maybe the gas would spoil the organs. We'd have to look into that, and possibly divert the still-healthy to a different harvesting modality, low-oxy suffocation perhaps with the exhaust pumps driven by treadmill.

[leftofthedial]

22. now you're thinking.

who says you can't squeeze blood from a turnip?

[annabanana]

13. HIt 'em while they're down!. . Merry Fuckin' Christmas. . . . . .n/t

[MiniMe]

14. Are they going to make it illegal to be homeless now?

Like these people really want to be homeless. Give me a break.

[Greyhound]

19. We've been doing it for years now, the criminalization of poverty.

The vagrancy laws were the solution before, now we have a whole new set of laws to lock up those that do not conform to the mold.

[Odin2005]

15. That's fucked up.

Our society's lack of compassion towards those the honeless is disgusting. It's like people care more about them driving down property values or what not else BS then actually caring about the actual people.

There is a reason us folks here in the Upper Midwest tend progressive. With our cold winters people either helped each other or they froze to death

[Iggo]

16. What're they gonna do? Give 'em all homes?

Yep, that'll show 'em. "And I better not catch you bein' all homeless again, or I'll give you ANOTHER home! Whaddaya think of that, HUH?"

[Cleita]

23. What is wrong with our society that they feel they have to beat up

on those who have reached the bottom rung of our economic ladder, the people who have nothing, and yet they want to take that away from them too.

[PeaceNikki]

24. People, even some who claim that they want to help, don't want to LOOK at the homeless

I dunno if it causes them guilt, or shame, or what... but I even recall a thread here where a prominent DUer was embarrassed by a homeless person that was someone they knew.

[Cleita]

25. It isn't even only the homeless but the

way the immigrants are treated as well, who are just as poor. The only difference is that they can work. Many of the homeless are too broken in body and spirit to hold down a job.