AP: Police: Suburbs Dropping Homeless in L.A.

[question everything]

Police: Suburbs Dropping Homeless in L.A.

Sat Sep 24, 5:23 PM ET

At least four suburban law enforcement departments have been spotted dropping off people who appeared to be homeless on the city's downtown streets, authorities said.

(snip)

Police and downtown officials have long suspected that law enforcement agencies from outside the city were using the downtown neighborhood as a dumping ground for homeless people. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Police Department ordered officers to stop out-of-area police cars they spotted dropping people off.

(snip)

Officials from three of the departments — El Monte, El Segundo and Pasadena — said dumping was common years ago but is now banned. They offered to investigate if the LAPD would provide details. Officials from the fourth suburb, Burbank, declined to comment.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has defended the deputies who tried to leave a homeless man downtown Tuesday, saying they were only trying to help the man get social services.

(snip)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050924/ap_on_re_us/homeless_dumping_2

[camby]

1. Give me your tired, your poor...

NOT!!!

[John Q. Citizen]

2. Man, how scummy do some of these so called

"public servants" get?

[Lithos]

3. Consistency

Personal responsiblity and culture of life in action.

L-

[Jara sang]

4. That is so weird that you posted this today

I have been in Seattle(lots of homeless) for the past couple of days and I was thinking about a similar scenario.

[radwriter0555]

5. El Monte and El Segundo don't have shelters or soup kitchens of course,

but downtown LA does, i.e., the Midnight Mission and various shelter's along skid row.

It sure would be nice if those cities had their own relief agencies.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. No, but you see, then the homeless would

stay there.

The point isn't to provide the homeless with better services. It's to get them out of town.

(Hey, that excuse is another for my list of conservative "We're only doing what's best for them" rationalizations.)

[SemperEadem]

12. exactly

El Monte is out east off the 210 fwy in a rather beautiful suburban area. El Segundo--well, the sewage treatment plant kind of factors in my wtf?! reaction because depending upon which way the wind blows, it smells like..... Ass!

But it's true--neither has the social services to meet these people's needs--but who's to say that they were able to maintain right where they were? The police didn't want to look at them, so they rounded them up and drove them downtown.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. LA has bussed homeless people out to Riverside forever.

One way bus tickets.

[question everything]

21. LOL, this reminds me. In the 80s we lived in Iowa

and I remember a judge someplace sentenced a convicted child molester to... one way bus ticket to Los Angeles.

This was before the whole issue of child molesters got the headlights that we have today.

[electricray]

7. OK I really am a liberal but I just can't help laughing my ass off at this

edited for spelling error

I picture some cop bringing a homeless guy out to LA like some people take their unwanted pets to the country. Granted neither image is really funny in real life, but somehow my brain turns everything into a sitcom.

[rodeodance]

8. your analogy works for me.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. This has been going on in SF for ages.

And not just from the suburbs of SF. Cities all over the West send their homeless to SF. Or at least they used to.

[shanti]

17. they ship them to sacramento too

our weather is fairly tolerable year round, so i guess that's their rationalization.

[krkaufman]

11. I had someone in Milwaukee tell me on Friday....

... that Minneapolis, MN is known to have shipped homeless to Arizona?

[0007]

13. With all due respect for the homeless and the down trodden

I just wish they'd dump these folks to that kink lover of Jesus in Crawford Texas

[Wordie]

14. I've worked in social services...this is not uncommon.

SOMETIMES it makes sense...assisting a person to return to where ever that person came from in the first place, where they may have supportive family or friends. (How many of the homeless people in this story might have come originally from downtown LA? Who knows.)

BUT, it is frequently used as a method to just dump unwanted people on someone elses' doorstep. One person I knew used to say in reply to proposals to build a homeless service center in that city, "If you build it, they will come." The fear often is that by providing services, a community will ATTRACT homeless people.

Too bad there isn't some sort of federal legislation requiring a minimum level of support for homelessness from each community (the amount could depend on overall population). That way, the financial burden would be shared fairly among all communities and we would not see stories like this.

As it is, each community seems to believe that it's the other community that is responsible. Each believes that it is attracting people from other communities by providing services, while forgetting that there are those local homeless from their own community who have probably left for elsewhere, now being supported somewhere else, making the score (for those who need to keep it) probably fairly even. (Just as an aside, no-growth folks often think this same way.)

[wtmusic]

15. Burbank declined comment -- typical

I wouldn't be at all surprised.

[mainegreen]

16. We have the same problem in Portland

Since Portland is the only source of social services for homeless for about 50 miles around. Some time last year I remember reading that our police were going to arrest police from the neighboring towns caught doing this.

I've heard the arguement from people that it makes sense to drop homeless people off where they can get services, but the problem with that arguement is that these services are provided by the city. By the city. That means local taxes. If neighboring towns don't want to provide this service, fine. But they should not be able to foist their problems on the taxpayers in the cities that do provide this service. Of course these services should be provided by the county, or even better the state. Unfortuanately most electors will not support this as they have no (or so few) homeless in their area, that they don't see this as their problem. Of course most people who become homeless in their area leave due to lack of services, but they wont admit that.

Personally, I'd like to see some city bus all their homeless people out to a neighboring richy-rich suburb, and drop them all off at the local Shop 'n Grocery so that these soccer-moms and yuppies can see the homeless, to make it their problem too!

[loudsue]

18. If we had a REAL "government of the people, for the people, by the people"

We'd have mental health facilities and shelter for EVERYONE who needed it. We'd also have temporary shelters to house people who are trying to get back on their feet, everywhere, where families could stay together until they get back up.

[PassingFair]

19. Here in the suburbs of Detroit,

we do the same. Hauling them down to Detroit.
We have mental health facilities and shelter for folks, too.
They're called JAILS.
:sarcasm:

[Raster]

20. Did they shoot over their heads and turn them back at the bridge?

[ignatius 2]

22. Fucking swine..I am shocked and disgusted by this, but then again

not really..many suburbs have walls for reason..if people don't see the homeless than it doesn't exist for them.

They live in the Bush world of delusion,privilege and arrogance.

Many are a couple of paychecks away themselves.