Cities' homeless crackdown: Could it be compassion fatigue?

[limpyhobbler]

A growing number of cities across the United States are making it harder to be homeless.

Philadelphia recently banned outdoor feeding of people in city parks. Denver has begun enforcing a ban on eating and sleeping on property without permission. And this month, lawmakers in Ashland, Ore., will consider strengthening the town's ban on camping and making noise in public.

And the list goes on: Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, Oklahoma City and more than 50 other cities have previously adopted some kind of anti-camping or anti-food-sharing laws, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

The ordinances are pitting city officials against homeless advocates. City leaders say they want to improve the lives of homeless people and ensure public safety, while supporters of the homeless argue that such regulations criminalize homelessness and make it harder to live on the nation's streets.
...

complete piece: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-06-10/cities-crack-down-on-homeless/55479912/1

[TheKentuckian]

1. What compassion would they be exhausted from?

[Kalidurga]

2. Pretty much word for word what I was thinking...

compassion would be providing shelter/homes for the homeless. It is nice when people give the homeless a bit of cash, but that doesn't solve the long term problem.

[limpyhobbler]

4. Maybe it it means that they are tired of pretending to be compassionate.

[HiPointDem]

9. +1. homeless people are annoying, stinky, & unsightly. plus they make you feel guilty.

[nanabugg]

3. Thanks to the 1% and what they and the banksters have done to this economy...

We will soon have more homeless people than illegal immigrants..

[Zalatix]

6. Yes, and the immigrants are leaving, too.

http://theweek.com/article/index/221485/the-dramatic-decline-in-illegal-immigration-3-theories

[Zalatix]

5. The laws are ultimately useless. What are they going to do with homeless who break the law?

Jail them? Our prisons are already overcrowded.

[limpyhobbler]

7. But think of all the jobs that will be created in the prison construction industry.

[Zalatix]

8. Gotta find money for that. They're cutting budgets for cops and courts now.

People got mad when I cheered about that, but THIS thread, right here, should serve as a reminder of why those particular cuts are necessary.

[TheKentuckian]

10. They'll just go with the privatization scam and the cost hit later, larger, and with profits for fat

[Zalatix]

11. That snake will eat its own tail, too.

With fewer and fewer people able to pay for private prisons the system will collapse in on itself. It may take a while, though.