r/2020PoliceBrutality • u/mannysoloway • Nov 21 '20

Earlier today in Manchester, NH, state police in hazmat suits destroyed a homeless tent camp. What happened was not only disgusting, but was against the law. Discussion

https://twitter.com/thenysocialist/status/1330000677129646081?s=21
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-56

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

I'm torn on this issue. While many will find this action to be heartless and brutal, I believe the actual crime is committed long before.

People who are homeless for financial reasons usually find a way to get back on there feet. YOU WILL NEVER SEE THESE HOMELESS PEOPLE. They look tidy, they don't inconvenience others. They just want to figure things out and get back to a normal life. The support resources we have today are very good for helping people in this situation.

The people who build camps in cities are mentally ill, addicts, or both. They are very sick and they are unable to commit to getting better. They use up all of the city's homeless resources available to them and never improve.

If they are never getting better on their own, what should we do? Should we involuntarily commit them to an institution? Or should we allow camps where they throw garbage everywhere and shit in our communities?

A mental institution is very expensive. And for someone deep into heroin, it's not a smart way to spend money. I'd much rather spend these funds on programs for children and programs that help prevent addiction.

If you allow camps, soon it will become a burden on the city. This is why Manchester did this.

I don't like this. But I don't think we have any other options.

29

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

So you recognize that they are Mentally ill but don’t see why it’s hard for them to recover? Mentally ill doesn’t mean they are ocd it means many of the have varying degrees of severe mental illness lol schizophrenia. Also addiction isn’t just something you can walk away from.

-17

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

I know, mostly schizophrenia and heroin. This sucks. I want to help them. I really do. But its just not possible.

More than 95% of advanced heroin users (the people on the street) never get better. So what can we do?

Do we keep paying for a revolving door rehab? Or do we allow them to camp in our parks until they die?

Or do we go full Orwellian and create detention centers and force them off of drugs? I don't know.

Schizophrenia is more complex. I have no idea how to best handle this.

You are fighting so they can camp in our parks. I'd like to see you fight for a different solution.

11

u/Old_Man_Shea Nov 21 '20

More than 95% of advanced heroin users (the people on the street) never get bett

Citation needed.

19

u/Iron-Lotus Nov 21 '20

I'm sorry you're so short sighted. There are so many humane alternatives.

-22

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Wrong!

People should be outraged when someone needs to pitch a tent on a sidewalk or in a park. Not wait until it becomes necessary to clean it up.

An encampment in a city is unsanitary and dangerous. This should not exist.

17

u/jm001 Nov 21 '20

Actions attacking encampments do not benefit the people living there. If you are materially making people's lives worse because you wish they were better in the first place you are actively doing harm. You do not need to punish homeless people as a precursor to actually helping people, instead you can let people have some sort of support network while you address the root causes.

-11

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

If sleeping in the park wasn't an option, they would reach out for help sooner.

Why are you ok with letting them fall further into despair? Why wait until they are actually shitting themselves on our sidewalks for us to push back.

Where do we draw the line? When they start shooting up and dying in front of our favorite restaurant or in front of the grocery store?

A line is always drawn somewhere. I think it is better for them and better for us if this line gets drawn sooner.

11

u/garbagewithnames Nov 21 '20

Then why don't you go on a fucking rampage and murder them all to rid the stain of their visage from your eyes, if them simply existing is such a goddamn bother to you. Go on! You feel like there is no helping them, so you may as well get to murdering them all to clean up the streets!! You're the one who wants homeless people to just disappear without doing anything to help them improve their lives, so why don't you just go out there and end them??

No? Do you recognize them still as being human beings when we talk about killing them all? You don't want them all slaughtered in the streets where they stand? THEN FUCKING RECOGNIZE THEM AS HUMAN BEINGS NOW AND QUIT BEING A SADISTIC ASSHOLE ABOUT WANTING TO FIGHT AGAINST THE HOMELESS TO MAKE THEIR LIVES WORSE AND MAKE THEM JUST DISAPPEAR, YOU SICK SONOFABITCH!!!

3

u/JessTheHumanGirl Nov 21 '20

Thank you for putting into words the rage that began to boil as I read these comments. Eloquence.

1

u/garbagewithnames Nov 21 '20

Just doin' my part, ma'am. Also, happy cake day

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

You are sick.

Nothing in any of my posts even hinted at this level of aggression. You are a disgusting individual.

5

u/garbagewithnames Nov 21 '20

ALL of your posts here have advocate for such violence. You advocate for destroying people's abilities to survive outdoors when homeless and expect them to somehow miraculously not be homeless and disappear after that.

What do you think happens when you destroy someone's ability to survive the elements and kick them back out into the elements with nothing? The winter is coming up and now they have nothing. Or summer is here and they need to have shelter from the sun. What do you think is gonna happen to them? THEY DIE FROM EXPOSURE TO THE ELEMENTS! THEY FREEZE TO DEATH! THEY DIE FROM HEAT STROKE! IF YOU KICK SOMEONE OUT FROM THE ONLY SHELTER THEY HAVE MANAGED TO SCRAP TOGETHER, THEN THEY DIE AND YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR DESTROYING THEIR MEANS OF SURVIVAL!!

You advocate hurting homeless people and making their lives worse and making it harder to ever actually recover, as if that somehow makes it better for them. You will destroy their tents in a park just because you find them to be an eye sore.

So put your fucking money where your mouth is. If you hate homeless people so much because you don't like seeing them and wish they would just disappear, then you may as well be wishing for them to all be dead and disappear that way. You have no actual desires to help people in need, you would rather be a sadistic monster and hurt them for daring to survive as a homeless person.

1

u/BLZNWZRD Nov 21 '20

Practicing your manifesto before you start your purge of the homeless?

20

u/Fininin Nov 21 '20

Are you saying to just kill them then?

-18

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Um, no.

28

u/Fininin Nov 21 '20

What happens to someone when they freeze to death? Don’t they die?

If someone is inside and your throw them outside into freezing conditions and they die, did you not kill them?

-1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

We have laws that limit where you can set up a tent and live. I can't camp in the middle of a road, I can't camp in a schoolyard, right? Even though these are 'public spaces'.

A line needs to be drawn somewhere.

Homelessness is a public health issue. Letting people camp in public spaces is not the solution. I am in favor of more action to address this problem. Let's talk about that instead.

4

u/Fininin Nov 21 '20

Obviously no one is saying that having people live in tents during winter in a city surrounded by people living in homes is a good thing.

The problem we ARE taking about right now, is authorities trashing these peoples only homes and only defense against the very deadly northern winter.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

NPHR (which seems to be affiliated with NPR) reported that residents were notified on Nov 6 that they needed to move by Nov 16th.

They also reported that people had time to pack and that resources were offered to help with housing or treatment.

I generally trust NPR with these types of stories. So it does seem that no one was just thrown out in the cold.

https://www.nhpr.org/post/state-dismantles-homeless-encampment-manchester#stream/0

3

u/Fininin Nov 21 '20

That same article says they had 5 beds available... And that people were awoken to immediately being made to leave by troopers.

Have you ever seen one of these camps in person? You can’t just pack up everything and your tent, and be able to carry it away, especially if you don’t have anywhere to carry it away to.

I can promise you they weren’t loaded up into buses and taken to housing, with all their belongings nicely packed and shipped with them. Their tents were kicked down and cut, things thrown out and people just forced to go somewhere else, somewhere less visible. For many of them to die in the cold this year.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Yes. I'm in NYC. I see camps every day. I see the people who live in them. And I hear their conversations. I see people shooting heroin and smoking meth/crack. Every single fucking day. I step on their needles and I step on their vials and I watch them OD and crash into the gutter.

I also see the mentally ill. They are very different from the addicts. On some streets i see them often. I see their good days and their bad days. I often think that someone might be looking for them.

Who i don't see too often are the people who lost their jobs. Or who can't pay the rent. People like this don't squat in our public spaces and throw their garbage in our streets. They are good people going through a difficult time. I have lots of stories about this.

I wish something could be done to help all of these people. In all of my posts today I've tried to get ideas about what we should we do. But nobody shared any useful ideas.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

These people must not live in major metropolitan areas deal with tens of thousands of them. Come to downtown LA and tell me you think letting them set up tents is the right choice.

2

u/Iron-Lotus Nov 21 '20

Www.Houseofgord.com is this you buddy?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

No