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Audacity of Truth
"Change" You Can Believe In:
"Nixon didn’t try to do that. They couldn't control (the media). They didn’t try. [...] What the hell do they think we are, puppets?"
- Liberal opinion writer Helen Thomas, describing the Obama admin's penchant for heavily scripting public appearances & press conferences - 7/1/09
9th Circus: Homeless have the right to sit, lay, and sleep on public sidewalks
Via the LA Times:
Los Angeles’ policy of arresting homeless people for sitting, lying or sleeping on public sidewalks as “an unavoidable consequence of being human and homeless without shelter” violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and punishment, a federal appeals court ruled today.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, decided in favor of six homeless persons, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. The suit challenged the city’s practice of arresting persons for violating a municipal ordinance, which states that “no person shall sit, lie or sleep in or upon any street, sidewalk or public way.”
The appeals court ruled that the manner in which the city has enforced the ordinance has criminalized “the status of homelessness by making it a crime to be homeless,” and thereby violated the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
City officials had no immediate comment on the ruling, but it appeared that the decision could have significant ramifications for the city’s policy on the burgeoning problem of homelessness.
In her ruling, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw said that Los Angeles’ Skid Row has the highest concentration of homeless individuals in the United States. She said that about 11,000 to 12,000 homeless people live in Skid Row, a 50-block area, bounded by Third, Seventh, Main and Alameda Streets.
“Because there is substantial and undisputed evidence that the number of homeless persons in Los Angeles far exceeds the number of available shelter beds at all times, including on the night” the plaintiffs were arrested or cited, “Los Angeles has encroached upon” the plaintiffs’ 8th Amendment protections “by criminalizing the unavoidable act of sitting, lying or sleeping at night while being involuntarily homeless,” Wardlaw wrote.
*shakes head*
Hat tip: AJ Strata
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26 Responses to “9th Circus: Homeless have the right to sit, lay, and sleep on public sidewalks”
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The next thing you know, liberals will be criminalizing having a job and being a good citizen.
Most homeless people seem to have a substance abuse problem. Why does the court not rule to ban substance abuse? Unconstitutional?
- Before you even need to get into the idiocy of the judges position, its another case of states rights versus the Federal jurisdiction in imposing their interpretation of individual Constitutional rights “trumping” the “greater public good”. A large number of the street people suffer from various communican;e deseases such as TB etc. Its not just indifference, or insensitivity that causes people to shy away. Theres very practical reasons, not the least of which is indecent public displays, and accossting passersbye for handouts, that can occur in a heartbeat with people who are more often than not, mentally challanged in some way.
- Its “identity politics, revisionism, equivalency, Libertarian” nonsense run amok. The 9th is the Lefts Liberal “Congress/law machine”, and needs to be disbanded. Hopefully when things get bad enough, in this case read “effects businesses enough”, something will finally be done. Because I can guarentee you that the street people will take this as a green light to try to move into tourist areas (easier panhandling), and when that happens here and in Florida, the fit will hit the shan.
- Bang
The following has nothing to do with the 9th circuit’s decision, really…just my own recollections and reflections:
I had the opportunity during a spring break in college to spend a couple of weeks working with an inner-city Christian ministry in Chicago (Jesus People USA, for anyone who might know of them). They fed about 200 homeless people every day, and I got to know several of those people. Many — perhaps most –needed desperately to be institutionalized, for their own good and the good of those around them. No, they wouldn’t be free, but they’d get three square meals a day, proper medical care, and they would be safer.
By and large they did NOT fit the liberal stereotype of the hard-working production line worker who got pink-slipped and couldn’t find another job. They were on the street because a) they were reaping the consequences of a whole string of bad decisions they had made in their lives, or b) they were those who had been put on the street as part of the push to “de-institutionalize” many mentally ill patients during the late ’70s/early ’80s, and they were simply incapable of holding down a job.
The experience really opened my eyes to the possibility that there’s really not much that can be done for the homeless except what the good folks at JPUSA were already doing…keeping them fed, giving them a place to rest and interact socially for a while, enouraging them to get help wherever they could, and just basically keeping them alive until they either find a way to get back on their feet or kick the bucket. Anything beyond that, they have to do for themselves…if they can.
The scourge among the homeless is nothing compared to the ACLUeless.
As if we needed more examples of how the ACLU has continued to carry out its mission statement.
In our republic you have the right to succeed and you have the right to fail. For the failures among us we can either allow them to starve to death or keep them alive. Christ would more then likly have loved the poor and done everything in his power to help them, don’t you think? It has always been in life that the least among us take care of each other as best they can by sharing what they have. Those that have more then their share are the most selfish. That is not a generalization, it is an axiom. Peace
Hey, you don’t like the Constitution the way it’s written, just make another amendment, you’re so bright at doing that. Just make it illegal for homeless people to exist. Then you can kill ‘em all off and there will be no more blight on your view.
God forbid you should spend any of your precious money to help them, since the “greater good” only applies to you.
Solitaire, how is it you would actually help them?
Why, isn’t it obvious how he’d help them Forest Hunter? First, make it illegal for you to expect to be able to walk down a public street without being assaulted, panhandled, tripping over passed out deadbeats, or smelling urine and feces. How dare you expect the public good to be upheld over the RIGHTS of these noble urban outdoorsmen! Secondly, make it illegal for you to keep them off your private property, you only have a home because you stole it as an evil greedy rich person, if it wasn’t for people like you, these poor hapless victims would all be rich as Bill Gates. And lastly, by seizing your money through taxes to redistribute to these people, it’s not your money after all, you’re just allowed to earn it for the government, who afterall knows far better how to spend it than you do.
Silly, isn’t that clear now?
Severian, you gotta give up that shopping cart, get a job and get out of that neighborhood if that’s what it looks and smells like. The reason you work should be for the benifit of the larger society and not for your own greedy self. I don’t remember Christ having a million dollar mansion, a sports car and fine silk cloths. Christ, being who he was could have easily done that, don’t you think? Peace
Hey Solitaire,
I’ve got news for you genius. Arresting the homeless is sometimes the only way to keep them alive! During deep freezes I, and other officers, would try and check on homeless camps and if there were homeless there without means to feed themselves or keep warm, you bet I would arrest them. There was a special place in the jail that they had set aside specifically for this, so the homeless were not integrated with general population. Those city codes that seem stupid and insignificant saved lives. They may not have to worry about very cold temperatures in California, but in other parts of the country you can bet putting them in jail was the only way to save their lives.
In many instances they had been banned from the homeless shelters for violating rules, mainly intoxication. There was nowhere else for them to go.
I visited a friend in NY some years back, and took my younger brother with me. We were going to be heading from the train station to the subways, and then a few blocks to his apartment. We met my friend in the station, and as we headed for the street he told us, “If someone starts asking for money, ignore them. Don’t look at them, don’t reply, don’t pay any attention. Ignore them, okay?”
My brother and I looked at each other and shrugged. I figured he must know what he’s talking about, since he’d lived in NY for years.
But this was unusual for my friend who was always very liberal in his sensibilities. Nevertheless, I listened. NY was not my home town. My brother, however, didn’t quite follow the advice.
Not far from the entrance to the station a line of shabby men lined the curbs. They were all eyeballing the pedestrians, and they had their hands out. I kept looking ahead, making sure I didn’t trip over anybody, and paid no attention to them. My brother seemed to not quite understand the slurred accented language he heard, which had said, “Got a dollar?”
It had sounded different, and odd, with that thick NY accent, slurred by Lord knows what liquids or chemicals, and came out a bit like, “Godduhdolluh?”
Well, he looked at the fellow, and all bets were off! The beggar followed him right into the subway station, “Godduhdolluh?” and, “Cummonjzadolluh?” or, “gimmeuhdolluh!” all the way to the platform. nearly fifteen minutes of this. My friend looked at me, shrugged and shook his head. He’d learned. I learned by listening. My brother learned by enduring the beggar.
They may have rights, but so do we. They are where they are, the overwhelming majority, through their own choices. Not by the actions of others, but by their own actions. Any person who demands that I give them money, because, “it’s the right thing to do,” or demands government money – which is also partly mine! – to give to them, should perhaps look in the mirror and ask themselves when they decided to become robbers.
Demand my money and you are a robber.
Your quite the selfish person aren’t you benning? How about this: your mother gave you life, you had nothing to do with that. Until you were in your late teens you did nothing to keep yourself alive. That, you counted on others to do. And the reason for your success is, in large measure, due to those that gave you a “hand up”, you call them rabbi. So get over yourself. Peace
“So get over yourself. ”
Great advice steve, why don’t you try practicing what you preach.
Be more specific Mr. Cop, or don’t you work that way in real life? Peace
steve, the last thing you are qualified to comment on is real life.
You bash those who genrealize, yet you are the king of it. You preach about religion and Jesus Christ, yet you tolerate no one who differs with your opinion. You scream how war is evil and an abomination yet you dont seem to acknowledge the fact that it was war that gave you this country and it was war that protected your right to free speech when threatened by nazism, fascism, and communism.
As I said before steve, practice what you preach.
Is that specific enough?
- The worst thing you can do to Steve(FN) NY cop, is to ignore him. He desperately needs his “attention fix” every day. From the things he says I gather hes a freeloading slacker, looking for the next handout. Hes been going on with these idiotic posts for months like a broken record, so we just treat him like the blog site pet rat.
- Bang
War(anti-Christ), has brought the world nothing but death and sorrow. I’m sorry you don’t buy into Christ’s message of Peace. Acknowledging someone eles’s opinion and accepting it are different things. When I write, I tell you how I feel and if that is different then how you feel, so be it. On the other hand, if what you believe is hurtful to another human being, I’ll try and change your mind and behavior, non-violently. Peace
>I tell you how I feel
Perhaps you should try thinking for a change.
Sometimes I think and other times I am. Paul Valery. Peace
- When innocent menn wpmen, and children are going about their daily chores, minding their own business and just trying to live their lives peacefully, and a group of morons with some nitwit idea of a “higher calling” decides its their duty to hijack an airliner and fly it into the building killing people, then you’re damn right I’m ready, willing, and able to hunt them down, and hurt them. A lot. They’re not people, they’re rabid dogs. If you’re looking for the anti-Christ, there it is, right under your nose Einstein. Liberty
- Bang
“higher calling”, is not why they did the violent and stupid thing they did. It was for revenge and attention. Running off to kill people for the wrong reasons is the way silly people like bush do it. It is not what honorable and Peaceful people do it. Peace
Again steve you are WRONG.
Not like this isn’t a habit with you.
These Terrorists are not doing this for attention and revenge. They do this because they think the Islam Koran and Mohammed says it must done.
They quote from it, the worship it without thinking, they see and read the writing, and say all infidels must die or dhimmi to Islam.
- Steve, you’re simply an idiotarian moron. If retaliation for slaughtering 2700+ innocent civilians isn’t honorable in your mind, then I’d hate to think what is. You need a keeper Sparky. Your mind is closed, and basically dysfuntional. As I said in another post, you’re a fake. Your hate list is far better organized and widespread than any “normal” person I know, pacifist or otherwise. You remind me of the Anarchist that assasinated Garfield. So nutso, even the Anarchists avoided him like the plague.
- Bang