LA's Vicious War on the Homeless (horrible)

[donsu]

http://counterpunch.com/skeels03222007.html


On the morning of February 8, a white hospital van stopped a few feet from a curb in Los Angeles' skid row area. According to witnesses, a man wearing a soiled hospital gown fell through the doors, and the van, later connected with Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, drove away.

The man, a paraplegic, began crawling down the street, a bag of his belongings clutched in his teeth and a colostomy bag dragging behind him. Other homeless people helped the disoriented man into a nearby park, just before police called an ambulance.

This horrible scene came just three months after the city attorney's office filed an indictment against Kaiser Permanente for dumping a 63-year-old patient on the streets of skid row in her socks and a hospital gown last year, an incident that was captured on videotape.

Patient dumping has become so widespread there's a bill in the California State Senate to criminalize the practice.

But these practices go deeper than a few isolated incidents. They are part of a system of abuse against LA's poor and homeless population.
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-snip-

Taking its cue from other major cities like New York, LA is using what it calls the "Safer Cities Initiative" (SCI) as a cover to gentrify skid row. SCI, announced in September 2006, is intended to reduce the visibility of homeless people, not address the root causes of homelessness.

-snip-

"I became homeless two years ago due to alcohol and drugs," James Maingot, who lives on skid row, told Socialist Worker. "Since then, I've seen a lot of changes in the downtown area as large corporations have bought most of the buildings to build lofts.

-snip-

At the rate the city is cleansing skid row's street population through imprisonment or displacement, one might wonder if the delay in those funds is intentional. There are still only 3,400 emergency and transitional beds for 6,000 to 8,000 estimated downtown area homeless.

-snip-

Veterans are also disproportionately represented. "As many as 27,000 homeless veterans reside in Los Angeles County" states a 2002 report by State of California Department of Veterans Affairs. The situation is so dire that the report recommended the sate "commit to a plan similar to our nation's Marshall Plan following World War II."
-snip-
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life in neo con america

[ComerPerro]

1. isn't for-profit health care wonderful?

[ikojo]

5. I was arguing with a friend of mine yesterday about the

horrors of for profit health care. He is an actuary at the HMO where we both work. He went on to say how people from Canada wait months for major surgery and the wealthy come to the US....blah, blah, blah. I then related to him the story of the 12 year old who died from a tooth infection because his mom could not afford dental care.

So much for the "free market" health system.


It should be interesting when I go for second night seder. Attending the seder will be a dcotor who has practiced in Israel (which is undergoing a transition from socialized medicine to capitalistic medicine) and England. He is now the head of a department at a local hospital. It will take all I have not to rant and rave. Perhaps the Pesach story is the perfect time to point out how the current health care system in the US keeps people from being free.

Any pro single payer health care oriented Haggadahs out there?

[Nikki Stone1]

2. "Veterans are also disproportionately represented."

Where are the Rethugs supporting the troops?

[Monkeyman]

3. There has been none

[Jonathan50]

4. I see that "support the troops" magnet sales are down from 1.2mil/month to 4k per month.

And here is what Kipling had to say about it.

Rudyard Kipling

Tommy

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o'beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:

O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's ``Thank you, Mister Atkins,'' when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's ``Thank you, Mr. Atkins,'' when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy how's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints:
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;

While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind,"
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country," when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
But Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees!



"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme" -Mark Twain