Homeless Anarchy in Los Angeles

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American Greatness

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nyone thinking about blaming the police for the anarchy that grips America’s liberal cities is not paying attention. The police know how to do their jobs. The politicians, elected by progressive liberals, do not let them. And often enough, even when there are laws remaining on the books that might permit prosecution, activist prosecutors, also elected by progressive liberals, do not press charges.

Life in California, as usual, epitomizes this dysfunction. In 2014, voters approved Proposition 47, which downgraded many drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. In 2016, voters approved Proposition 57, which released thousands of “nonviolent” criminals. Back in 2006, the ACLU prevailed in the Jones v. City of Los Angeles case; the judgment prohibits arrests for vagrancy unless space is available in a homeless shelter.

The result has been predictable enough. California’s unsheltered homeless population is now more numerous than all the rest of the homeless in the United States combined. And why not? Along with great weather, there are no serious legal consequences for being intoxicated on methamphetamine or heroin, much less marijuana or alcohol, nor are their serious legal consequences for stealing to support your drug habit. And if you want to set up a tent, almost anywhere in a public space, nobody can make you move along until they provide you shelter.

The Crisis of Venice Beach

If California is ground zero for urban anarchy, Venice Beach is one of the epicenters. Well before the COVID-19 pandemic and preelection-planned rioting escalated the anarchy, Venice Beach was already occupied, and terrorized, by well over 1,000 homeless. Today, the homeless population in Venice Beach is estimated at least to have doubled. That is 2,000 homeless in an area of only three square miles. Several factors caused this increase.

[Valin]

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Sept. 16 2020