The fascist rationale for the homeless sweeps is what the police and the City Council tacitly accept as sane, and reasonable which I contend it is not. Poverty is not a crime - and homelessness is not a moral issue. Im of the opinion that the homeless may well be less violent than a similar group of the working class. After all, a mass shooting in a mall with an assault rifle takes some moola for the weapon and the ammunition. The homeless kill count surely cannot match that of any drug runner the likes of Oliver North, a reckless teen gang member, or, BTW, the needless deaths committed by the Portland Police itself. I am not unaware that there was a stabbing of one homeless person by another in the down town area and that is used as a rationale for the sweeps - but how is the relocation of the homeless from one area to another going to prevent another occurrence? It obviously isnt - it will just relocate the problem from the Pearl District, and from the vicinity of the Hilton, Nordstrom,etc into a middle class neighbourhood. Rather than allow the Portland Business Alliance or Pearlites to dictate city policy, I think more Portland citizens and taxpayers should demand a real solution from the City Council; it is the middle class, after all, which bears the biggest tax burden (all the loopholes seem designed for the 1%). I propose that more Portlanders should demand that our City Council do what Utah did. Upon research, Salt Lake Citys leadership realized it was far cheaper to house the homeless than to police, incarcerate and provide emergency medical care for them. With stagnant wages, under-employment and unemployment, a minimum wage that is a farce, the homeless problem is only going to grow exponentially especially if TPP passes. When faced with unemployment due to outsourcing, a health crisis or whatever, fewer than 1 in 4 Americans have enough savings to cover at least six months expenses. Lastly, Id like to propose that Portland take up the cause of the homeless for the simple reason that most of us in the middle class have more in common with the homeless given our own economic insecurity than with the fastidious preferences of Portlands investment class.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 16:45:44 +0000
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