This page is the second in a series of pages about poverty and dependency in America. If you arrived here from a search engine,
you might want to start at the index page.
Many homeless people are violent and/or insane and should be locked up
...and they were, until a court decision in 1972 (Lessard v. Schmidt) set many of them free, based on
a concern for the bums' civil liberties, which the liberal do-gooders considered to be more important than
public safety.
What
Was This Homeless Guy Trying To Achieve? Maybe he's a researcher and wanted to see if
he can feel burning pain even when high on meth. Looks like he got his answer either
way. [Video clip]
Why
Wasn't He in Jail? Yesterday, a madman on a stabbing spree mortally wounded three New
Yorkers, who succumbed to their injuries. According to the New York Post and New
York Daily News, the alleged perpetrator is a 51-year-old New York City shelter resident with a
troubling criminal history that includes at least eight prior arrests — many for
felonies — and at least one open case. Once again, New Yorkers find themselves
asking the same dismal question suggested by Mayor Eric Adams, who spoke at a press conference
after the attacks: What [...] was this guy doing on the street? After all, per
the Daily News, the triple-murder suspect was booked a month ago for stealing a bowl priced
at nearly $1,500. Rather than getting hit with a felony grand larceny charge and remanded to
pretrial detention, or held on bail, he was charged with petit larceny and released. Before
that incident, he received more than a year's worth of jail sentences in August and September for
prior instances of assault and burglary. So: Why was he on the street?
New
York City Homeless Man Goes on Stabbing Spree - Two Reported Dead. On Monday, in New
York City, a homeless man went on an insane stabbing spree that left two men dead and one woman
critically injured. A homeless man, Ramon Rivera, is in custody as the "person of interest."
Rivera has at least 8 previous arrests[,] and yet he was on the streets. [...] This is not a man
who should be walking around loose[,] and yet, here he was. Not only has New York's justice
system failed to keep this unstable and violent man away from the citizenry, but it would seem
several other, as yet unnamed, jurisdictions have likewise failed. [Tweet]
Without
safe cities, America's prospects are dim. [Subway hero Daniel] Penny is charged with
manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide by one of your favorite president's favorite
prosecutors, New York City DA Alvin Bragg. [...] Given the facts of the case and jurors'
experiences, the likelihood of Penny's conviction seems remote. The Penny trial echoes 1987's
Bernhard Goetz trial. [...] Regardless of whether Penny's jurors represent a random cross-section
of New Yorkers, or reflect his counsel's effort to stack the deck in his favor, when three-quarters
of the jury has witnessed or experienced violence this confirms New York has a substantial, chronic
epidemic of linked crime, mental illness, and street drugs, adding to reasons residents are fleeing
the city. Blame can be laid at the feet of the medical/pharmaceutical industry which decades
ago proclaimed mental institutions obsolete thanks to drugs supposedly able to alleviate mental
illness symptoms. The failure of legislatures and courts to forcibly confine the mentally
ill, for their safety and ours, is the problem. Many afflicted individuals self-medicate with
street drugs, including Jordan Neely, the deceased in the Penny case. Neely abused K2 (aka
"spice"), which causes acute psychotic episodes, dependence, intense hallucinations, severe
agitation, paranoid delusions, and violence.
Resident
Shoots Alleged Home Intruder Twice With Shotgun. An alleged intruder was shot twice
with a shotgun by an El Cerrito, California, resident Tuesday mid-morning and survived to receive
treatment for his injuries. Contra Costa News identified the alleged intruder as 56-year-old
William Nidever. He was "airlifted to a trauma center for treatment of his injuries." NBC
Bay Area described Nidever as "a transient" and pointed out that the resident believed Nidever had a gun.
The Editor says...
If the "intruder" broke into somebody's house with the apparent intent to commit an additional
felony, it doesn't matter if he was armed or not. Put me on that jury!
Black
Homeless Man Convicted in Brutal Murder of White UCLA Student Brianna Kupfer Inside Furniture
Store. A jury convicted 34-year-old Shawn Laval Smith for the brutal murder of
Brianna Kupfer. The UCLA student was killed at a furniture store in Hancock Park two years
ago. This horrifying crime should spark outrage over the growing dangers in Democrat-led
cities like Los Angeles. Smith was convicted for the Jan. 13, 2022, attack on
Kupfer. Jurors confirmed a special circumstance of murder while lying in wait. They
also found that he used a knife during the crime. [Tweet]
Widow
speaks after husband murdered outside California home during fight between homeless men.
This is a tragic, yet all too common, pattern emerging in Newsom's state. Nicolas Gandara, a
father of six children, was killed execution-style outside of his home after trying to stop a fight
between two homeless men. [Tweet with video clip] Why [...] are we allowing these
homeless encampments to exist in California?
Addiction
and the End of Personal Responsibility. There is no more critical tenet of
conservatism than the assumption of individual responsibility. As Dennis Prager wrote in a
summative essay thirty years ago for The Heritage Foundation, "just as I am rewarded for my good
behavior, I am accountable for my bad behavior. This belief was a result of ... individualism
... and of the Judeo-Christian ethic that also animated the founders of this country.
Essential to Judaism and Christianity is the notion that you are accountable for your behavior-to
God, ultimately. This has been under attack." Nowhere is this perspective under attack
more than in the use of addiction and mental illness — namely, to
[#1] excuse and undermine assumed responsibility,
[#2] eliminate punishment for illegal and anti-social behaviors and actions, and
[#3] require "therapeutic" compensatory behaviors on the part of alleged and real
miscreants in the United States and elsewhere.
Five
men randomly slashed by resident at Harlem men's homeless shelter. Five men were
hospitalized after being slashed at a Harlem men's homeless shelter. Officers responded to
multiple 911 calls from the VIP Harlem men's shelter at 170 East 123rd Street around 5:30 p.m.
Friday, police said. The suspect allegedly came through the facility's metal detector with a
large razor and started swiping at people nearby, witnesses told The [New York] Post.
Homeless
Man Who Pushed A Woman In Front Of A NYC Train [is] Found Fit To Stand Trial.
Michelle Go was fatally shoved onto the subway tracks by a homeless man at Times Square on
Jan. 15, 2022[.] Martial Simon, who was previously held in a maximum-security psychiatric
facility, has now passed a mental health evaluation and can face murder charges[.] [Video clip]
Marxist
Health Officials Want You Committed. Bright minds (including the late, great Charles
Krauthammer) have long pointed to changes in civil commitment statutes over the last half-century
that made it more difficult for patients to be committed against their will and the subsequent
closure of government-run psychiatric hospitals throughout the country as being chiefly responsible
for spikes in certain categories of violent crime. A good deal of research on homelessness,
addiction, suicide, and murder suggests that the trend toward deinstitutionalization since the
1960s has produced tragic results. On the other hand, I am extremely leery of returning
certain involuntary commitment powers back to psychiatrists and government health "experts" when
both professional communities pray at the altar of Marx.
Bring
back asylums, and make Britain safe again. Valdo Calocane, the man sentenced today
for the brutal killing of three people in Nottingham last year, will probably spend the rest of his
life in a secure hospital. The question is why he wasn't there already. His story is
almost a case study in why this country should never have committed so completely to getting rid of
asylums. Before killing his victims last year, Calocane was already wanted by the police in
connection with a previous assault on an emergency worker. He had been previously sectioned
four times in the past three years, and reportedly regularly lied to his doctor about taking his
anti-psychotic medication. The word "asylums" conjures images of institutional abuse and
societal neglect, with the mentally ill locked away, out of sight and out of mind. Yet while
there were certainly problems with the previous system that needed correcting, the ideological
fervour with which we moved towards a complete care-in-the-community approach was woefully misjudged.
Nearly
60 Years After Congress Killed Off Mental Hospitals, Complete Breakdown of the System Has
Lawmakers Attempting to Bring Them Back. What people think is compassion sometimes
brings bad results. Fail to confront the slacking employee and other workers have to carry
more of a load. Be a pal to your children and then be frustrated by their disrespect.
Lavish welfare and then wonder why unappreciative people won't work. And then there's the
running away from obligations to protect the mentally ill from themselves and from society.
Perhaps you've had the same thoughts as I — the grand experiment in mental health care
of the past half-century or so has failed. Just witness the aggressiveness of babbling
panhandlers, the general filth of helpless people living on the sidewalks, the destruction of
cities such as San Francisco. Believe it or not, the left-leaning Politico published an
article Monday that gave a nod in the direction of some kind of return to the involuntary
commitment of some mentally ill people.
Tourists
from South America [were] Stabbed at Grand Central Station on Christmas. A peaceful
Christmas Day turned grim at Grand Central Terminal when two tourists, girls aged 14 and 16 from
South America, were unexpectedly stabbed while eating. The assailant, identified as
36-year-old Steven Hutcherson, made racially charged threats before launching the attack, abc7NY
reported. The attack took place around 11:25 a.m. in the Dining Concourse of Grand
Central Terminal while the girls were dining with their parents. Following an altercation
with the staff of Tartinery, who told him he could not sit in the restaurant's area, Hutcherson
redirected his rage towards the young tourists. Reportedly, Hutcherson exclaimed, "I want all
the white people dead," and then said, "I want to sit next to the crackers," before he advanced
towards the victims with a knife.
Teen
tourists stabbed by deranged stranger at Grand Central. A troubled vagrant randomly
stabbed two teenage girls enjoying a Christmas morning meal with their parents at a Grand Central
Terminal restaurant — after ranting that he wanted "all white people dead," authorities
said. The girls, 14- and 16-year-olds visiting from South America, were attacked at Tartinery
in the Grand Central Dining Concourse around 11:25 a.m. Monday and suffered
non-life-threatening stab wounds, police and sources said. "I want all the white people dead,"
the suspect, Steven Hutcherson, 36, allegedly yelled, according to police sources. "I want to sit
next to the crackers." He then allegedly lunged at the unsuspecting teens, plunging a knife
into the 16-year-old's back, nicking her lungs, and stabbing the younger girl in the thigh, police
and a law enforcement source said. Hutcherson — who cops and sources said has a
slew of prior arrests and a history of mental health issues — had gotten into a fight
with restaurant staffers who were trying to kick him out of the eatery shortly before he allegedly
went on his rant and attacked, WABC-TV reported.
Homeless
Man Threatens to Shoot Atlanta News Crew While Taking Them Hostage. A homeless man
allegedly took a news crew hostage outside of a Sheriff's office in Clayton County, Georgia, late
Monday night. The suspect, Brandon Logan, appeared to be intoxicated as he approached
reporter Asia Wilson and photographer Lauren Swaim and threatened to shoot them. They were
able to notify their newsroom for help without Logan knowing. According to the New York Post,
Wilson was able to send text messages to the station newsroom undetected. [...] Unfortunately, the
judge set his bond at a very low amount of $11,000. ANF news station is still waiting to see
why it took officers 90 minutes to arrive at the scene.
Homeless
man allegedly holds Atlanta news crew hostage, threatens to shoot them — before cops
show up 90 mins later. A homeless Georgia man has been charged with making terroristic
threats for allegedly holding two TV station journalists hostage for 90 minutes —
and threatening to shoot them if they called cops or refused to order him food. Atlanta News
First [WANF] reporter Asia Wilson and photojournalist Lauren Swaim were about to go live from a
sheriff's office parking lot in Jonesboro late Monday when they say they were corned by a drunk man
claiming to have a handgun. Despite raising the alarm, it took more than 90 minutes for
police to respond and arrest the suspect, Brandon Logan, according to their outraged station.
During that time, Logan "made verbal threats to shoot the victims if they did not order food" or
"if they called law enforcement," Judge Latrevia Kates-Johnson said at his initial court hearing
Tuesday, WSB-TV reported.
Michael
Latt, social justice strategist with deep Hollywood ties, murdered by homeless woman.
A 36-year-old homeless woman is facing charges in the murder of Michael Latt inside his Los Angeles
home Monday evening in what's being called a targeted attack. Latt was a social justice
advocate with deep ties to Hollywood. Jameelah Elena Michl was arrested at the scene for
allegedly breaking into Latt's home in the Miracle Mile area and fatally shooting the 33-year-old
in the head. Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to the 900 block of Alandele
Avenue around 6 p.m. Monday, where they found Lat suffering from a gunshot wound. Latt,
the CEO of Lead With Love, died from his injuries at the hospital. Police said Michl lived in
her vehicle, which was parked nearby.
NY
Times Identifies 130 Violent Acts Committed by Mentally Ill Homeless People (and Most Could Have
Been Prevented). There's no official tally of how often a member of New York's
homeless population commits a random crime of violence but often when it does happen it makes
news. We've written about some of these stories over the past year. [...] The NY Times
spent a year trying to identify all of the recent examples of such attacks and identified 130 of
them within the past decade, all of them involving homeless people who were mentally ill. In
94 of those cases, the person in question had been released from a facility of some kind shortly
before the crime. [...] Of course no one can predict when a mentally ill person is going to become
violent but in the majority of the cases the Times looked at there were people who are
trained to look out for these things who had all the reason in the world to believe these people
were dangerous. And still they kept putting them back on the street with the rest of us.
Homeless
25-year-old Topeka man arrested in rape and killing of 5-year-old girl. A homeless
Kansas man has been arrested in the rape and killing of a 5-year-old girl, authorities said
Tuesday. Officers responded just before 6 p.m. Monday to a medical call at a Topeka gas
station and found a fire crew attempting to save Zoey Felix, police said in a news release.
She was rushed to a hospital and later pronounced dead. Investigators identified a
25-year-old man as a suspect and booked him into jail Tuesday morning on suspicion of first-degree
murder and rape. His bond is set at $2 million and no attorney is listed for him, said
Timothy Phelps, deputy director of the Shawnee County Department of Corrections.
Homeless
Shoplifter Sets Store Clerk On Fire Who Confronted Him In California. A store clerk
who tried to stop a man from stealing a third time in one day was set on fire during the
confrontation. Surveillance video captured the moment a man poured lighter fluid on the
worker and set him on fire. The attack left Suraj, who declined to share his last name for
safety reasons, with second and third-degree burns on his face, neck, chest and shoulder. He
has been hospitalized since Sept. 22. [Video clip]
Crazy
People Are Dangerous. Everybody agrees Portia Odufuwa is dangerously crazy, and yet
officials keep releasing her to terrorize others: [...] Does the judge have no concern for public
safety? Here's video of the incident that terrorized air travelers last year:
[Video clip] So the judge rules that Odufuwa can't be sent to prison because she was
insane when she committed her crimes, but if she is non compos mentis — a Latin
phrase meaning "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" — shouldn't she be locked up in a psychiatric
ward somewhere? Straitjacket, padded cell, daily Thorazine injections? She has proven
herself to be a danger to the community often enough to justify such treatment.
Bring Back The
Asylums: Half The Homeless And Drug Addicted Populations Have At Least One Mental Illness.
As we watch our city streets become open drug dens, with "zombified" men and women openly shooting up
drugs in public, and soft on crime policies leaving criminals on the street to continue to commit crimes,
and prosecutors backed by money from George Soros groups refusing to bring charges against those committing
crimes, we take note of a few points.
• With deinstitutionalization (shutting down all insane asylums), crimes rose exponentially.
• Later, as bleeding hearts decried the "abuse" of locking away criminals in prisons,
and the insidious liberal policies that followed, accurate statistics on crime became impossible,
because a significant number of crimes went unaddressed and uncharged.
• The "statistics" being used to claim overall crime is down, ignores the in your face crimes
being committed, from theft to looting to openly doing drugs in the streets, because less are being arrested, charged,
and prosecuted.
The downfall of our society as a whole began when the same type of bleeding hearts that created asylums to begin with,
then decided they needed to be shut down, and then decided that prisons were to harsh a punishment for criminals.
The
Societal and Political Decay of Pittsburgh. Some days the Pittsburgh Renewal truck
will pull up to unload a crew to clean up the feces and needles. Today was one of those days;
the crew is an effort by Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a private nonprofit civic organization
formed by local business owners to clean up the city's decay. In short, they are treating the
symptom of a disease the city refuses to address. The problem isn't isolated; it is
everywhere in the core of the city. The homeless problem also is far from harmless:
Less than two weeks ago, just a couple of blocks from here, Larry Gilmore and his wife Shalawrae
had just gotten married and were celebrating their honeymoon at the Even Hotel along Forbes Avenue
when the groom was viciously assaulted by a homeless man. The man came at Larry from behind
at an elevator, put him in a chokehold, banged his head on the floor, then returned several times
to kick and stomp him as he took several items, including his pants.
Homeless
Man Runs Over Man Trying To Help Him In Los Angeles. A Palos Verdes man is lucky to
be alive after he was run over by a homeless man he knew. Ken Teshima, 66, spent a night in
the ICU for cracked and bleeding skull from the horrific incident that took place in Torrance.
"I almost got killed," Teshima said. "My head's cracked and it's bleeding — if he
rolled me over, I'd be dead." Long before the crash, the homeless man had slept in his
car in the parking lot of the office Teshima worked at. Teshima, who is the complex's
president, allowed the homeless man to park in the parking lot as long as he didn't cause too much
trouble. However, the homeless man wore out other business owners' welcome. [Video clip]
Portland
doctor knocked out by a 'homeless' attacker reveals bloody wounds to her face and blames the city
for slow police response. A Portland doctor who was knocked out by a 'homeless'
attacker has revealed the wounds to her face, and blames the city for the slow police response.
Radiologist Mary Costantino was attacked last Friday night shortly after 10:30 in the Oregon city
while walking with a friend. Shocking surveillance footage of the incident shows a man throw
a large silver bottle directly at the 50-year-old, rendering her unconscious.
The
NYC subway is "an insane asylum on wheels". The subways of New York City have been in
the news even more than usual over the past few years and not for the reasons the Mass Transit
Authority might wish. The tunnels have become epicenters for crimes of all types, and we're
not just talking about people hopping over the turnstiles to avoid paying the fare. There
have been shootings, stabbings, and people being pushed onto the tracks. Robberies are
common. And if the random common criminals and gang bangers aren't enough, there are still
armies of homeless people (though somewhat fewer during the summer months when many go above
ground) mixed in with drug addicts shooting up on the platforms. At the New York Post, Steve
Cuozzo appears to throw his arms up in despair and declares that Gotham's subway system is now "an
insane asylum on wheels" and something must be done about it.
Buried
News: Bums, illegals, addicts, and criminals double their assaults in hospitals.
How's this as a consequence of radical leftist policies that coddle society's troublemakers?
As of Sunday, the San Diego Union-Tribune ran a Page One above-the-fold story by Paul Sisson
headlined "Hospitals in County Look for Ways to Cut Attacks on Workers," which is an important
story indeed because it points to the consequences to innocent hospital workers of constantly
coddling bums, illegals, drug addicts and criminals, all of whom were named as perpetrators in the
piece. For some strange reason, the story not there on the San Diego Union-Tribune's website
and I looked and looked.
Homeless
man allegedly head-butted Florida cop after stealing gas station sandwiches. A
homeless man allegedly spat at one Florida cop and then head-butted another officer while being
arrested for swiping two gas station sandwiches, police reportedly said. Andres Ramon Negron
left without paying after he chowed down on two sandwiches inside a Shell station store, according
to an arrest report obtained by WPLG. The 31-year-old suspect ended up returning to the same
Coral Gables station a short time later to grab an energy drink that led to a confrontation with a
store worker, police alleged. He allegedly slammed the drink down and slugged the employee in
the back of the head, according to police, WPLG reported.
Second
murder in three months at Texas homeless camp adds to locals' fears over lawlessness.
Austin's homeless camps have been rocked by two murders in three months, adding to the public's
fear about the tent cities being a breeding ground for drug use, violence and other illegal
activity. An unidentified man was killed after getting into a fight with another man, cops
said Monday, adding a suspect has been arrested but their identity has yet to be released.
The camp in North Austin is just one of several throughout the city, all of which are
illegal. They have been allowed to operate by Texas capital's Democratic leadership, despite
a voter ban on homeless encampments in May 2021.
NYC
Clown World: Solution for Dangerous People Pushing Riders Onto Subway Tracks. In New
York City, crazy, violent, drug-addicted homeless people are pushing people onto tracks or into
moving trains. The politicians in charge aren't going to do anything about these dangerous
people threatening the lives of New Yorkers, but they have a solution. They will structure
platforms at great cost so people don't fall onto tracks. The problem is that these dangerous
people want to kill people. They also have knives and stab people too. If they can't
push, they'll stab them. [...] The MTA is nearing construction on its $100 million pilot project
to outfit three subway stations with platform gates to prevent passengers from falling —
or being pushed on the tracks.
The Editor says...
This problem can be solved for much less than $100 million, and in a way that will benefit
everyone, not just the users of three subway stations. There is already a list of the Top 50
homeless lunatics who are most in need of intervention and treatment, at the very least.
That $100 million would buy a nice hospital/prison for the criminally insane, where the Top 50,
along with the Next 50, could be sequestered for the benefit of everyone else. As
the socialists say... "If it saves just one life, it's well worth it."
Homeless
Illegal Alien Accused of Killing Florida Sgt. Michael Kunovich. A homeless
illegal alien teenager is accused of killing St. Johns County, Florida, Sheriff's Office
Sgt. Michael Kunovich, a 52-year-old officer who served with law enforcement for 26 years.
Virjilio Aguilar Mendez, an 18-year-old illegal alien from Guatemala, has been arrested and charged
with resisting an officer with violence and felony murder for the death of Kunovich.
DA
Bragg to Charge Marine Hero Who Defended Passengers Against Subway Monster. When
Jordan Neely assaulted a 67-year-old woman, breaking her nose and causing injuries to her head, the
system colluded to set the deranged monster loose. [...] He pleaded guilty on Feb. 9 of this year,
in a carefully planned strategy between the city and his lawyers to allow him to get treatment and
stay out of prison. [...] He had tried to abduct a 7-year-old girl, also punched a 64-year-old man
and threatened to kill a gate agent. He was on the list of the 50 most unstable people in the
subway system. And a pro-crime regime in New York City refused to do anything to stop the
monster. Finally, on a F train, a few men, including Daniel Penny, a former Marine, stood up
to him and wouldn't let him hurt any other women or young girls. Now a leftist-BLM lynch mob
working with DA Bragg's office has seen to it that Penny will be charged with manslaughter.
There are at least fifty more of them, and their names are already on a list! Jordan
Neely Was on NYC's List of 'Top 50' Mentally-Ill Homeless People in Need of Urgent
Help. The tragic death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway has shed light on the
difficulty city officials and outreach groups faced getting him the treatment he needed.
Neely was on what outreach workers refer to as the "Top 50" list — a roster maintained
by New York City of the homeless people living on the street most urgently in need of assistance
and treatment. An unnamed employee of the Bowery Residents' Committee, a nonprofit
organization that does subway outreach for the city, told the New York Times that Neely had
hundreds of encounters with social workers and was taken to hospitals numerous times, both
voluntarily and involuntarily. Neely also racked up more than three dozen arrests. Many
of them were offenses like turnstile-jumping or trespassing. However, at least four were on
charges of punching people, two in the subway system.
A city
that permits the seriously mentally ill to roam free is begging for tragic outcomes.
In an incident sadly familiar to many New Yorkers, a man living on the streets with a long history
of mental illness started screaming, acting erratically, and threatening the people sharing his
subway car earlier this week. "I don't mind going to jail and getting life in prison,"
screamed the 30-year-old Jordan Neely, who had 44 arrests under his belt and an outstanding warrant
for felony assault, as he flailed around throwing items of his clothing. "I'm ready to
die!" In response, a 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran put Neely in a chokehold,
incapacitating him and releasing him after he stopped struggling and passed out. A freelance
reporter who took video of the incident, Juan Alberto Vazquez, told news outlets that no one
on the train initially thought Neely was in any worse shape than being unconscious, but by the time
the police who met the train at the station took him to a nearby hospital, Neely was pronounced
dead. Police questioned the young man, whose name they did not make public, but released him
without charges pending an investigation. In the next 36 hours, the usual suspects began
to gin up the outrage machine.
Leftists
Are Calling The Choking Death Of This Homeless Man Murder But Facts Say He's Been Arrested 44
Times, Was Acting Agressive And Threatening People. New York's medical examiner
determined that Jordan Neely, 30, who was put into a chokehold by a fellow subway passenger - a
veteran Marine - on Monday, died from "compresison of neck" and stated that his death was the
result of homicide. DA Alvin Bragg is investigating the incident. The city saw protests
and anger from residents on Tuesday after the news of Neely's death was made public.
Straphangers converged on the MTA stop at Broadway Lafayette Streets in downtown Manhattan to
protest the killing. [Video clip]
Homeless
people read code. Violent behavior is being marketed to the homeless through cultural
tolerance and legal leniency. Coded behavioral marketing, without any link to consumerism of
a product or service, exists in an endless-relentless campaign promoting violence from those living
on our streets. Throughout the 90's and early 2000's, homeless people fit into one of three categories:
[#1] homeless without addiction or mental illness,
[#2] homeless addicts and alcoholics, and
[#3] homeless mentally ill.
Since 2019, at the time of bail reform, there is a modernized major shift to a new additional category
that all types of homeless fit under. This new category is violent homeless. Homeless
people become violent by choice — but this choice is instigated by coded marketing.
San
Fran drops charges against crowbar attacker. Earlier this month, former San Francisco
Fire Commissioner Don Carmignani was attacked by a homeless person with a crowbar. The
attacker, Garrett Doty, was one of a group of vagrants who had been blocking Carmignani's mother's
driveway and acting in a threatening fashion. The attack sent the former fire chief to the
hospital for emergency surgery with a hole in the back of his skull. He also had a broken jaw
and required fifty stitches. This looked like a fairly open-and-shut case, but last night the
San Fran District Attorney's office suddenly dropped the charges against Doty and dismissed the
case. How is this happening in a major American city?
Do
We Have A Mental Health Problem? [F]or many years, the country had several
psychiatric hospitals funded by the government. As I grew up, I knew of one in Chicago and
another in Cincinnati. Perhaps you knew of one in your home town as well. They all
served a vital purpose; to help those experiencing mental disorders. However, over the 1970's
and 1980's, these were all shut down for funding reasons, and the patients transferred to jails,
institutions that are not as well suited for treating people than the old psychiatric
hospitals. At least 25% of the inmates in jail today suffer from some form of mental illness,
and I'm told that number is on the rise.
NYC
Subway Attack Victim Slams AOC's Call to Direct Police Funding to Teachers. A woman from Queens,
New York who lost her eye in a violent attack last fall torched Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's
(NY) suggestion that funding for police be given to public schools, parks, and libraries. Elizabeth Gomes,
33, was brutally attacked at a subway station by a "homeless ex-con," 41-year-old Waheed Foster, last year,
according to the New York Post. On Monday, Ocasio-Cortez slammed Democrat Mayor Eric Adams' decision
to give "militarized" police their first raise in seven years. "We are now at a point where officially,
most officers are paid more than a teacher with a master's degree," Ocasio-Cortez said on the show. "We
are defunding safety, defunding our public schools, defunding our public pools, defunding our parks [and]
defunding our libraries."
Woman
Working At Homeless Shelter Is Brutally Butchered By Homeless Woman With An Axe. A
homeless woman fatally — and gruesomely — butchered a homeless shelter worker
before she was seen wiping blood off her hands, Vermont authorities alleged this week. Zaaina
Asra Zakirrah Mahvish-Jammeh is accused of taking a small ax to social worker Leah Rosin-Pritchard
inside a Vermont shelter Monday, police said, according to reports. [Video clip]
Oakland
man, 28, stabs USPS worker, 71, to death. A homeless Oakland man is in custody and accused of stabbing a
beloved mother and United States Post Office worker more than 12 times as she was on her way home from her night
shift. Wilbert Winchester, 28, was arrested shortly after the vicious attack in Dilma Franks-Spruill, 71, in the
early hours of Wednesday morning. Two days earlier, Winchester was accused of stabbing a 59-year-old woman on a
bus in Oakland. He is also the suspect in several other similar attacks involving a metal pole and a box cutter
that occurred in the same area.
Man
chews off another man's face believing he was a killer robot. Early Wednesday morning police responded to
a call for assistance at a nearby MAX train station in Gresham, which is just east of Portland. They were told
their had been a possible stabbing but that's not at all what they found. [...] The suspect gave police the fake name
"El Baker" but they used fingerprints to identify him as 25-year-old Koryn Kraemer, a recent transplant from Georgia.
[...] Kraemer apparently admitted to using alcohol and drugs (pot and fentanyl) prior to the attack. He was
recently kicked out of a room he was renting because his behavior turned destructive. [...] So in the matter of maybe
six weeks he went from having a place to live to being homeless and so out of his mind he chewed a man's face off.
California
dad, 22-year-old daughter stabbed to death by homeless man: cops. A California man and his 22-year-old
daughter have been stabbed to death by a homeless man while they were working on their car outside a Kohl's, police
said. Ken Evans, 54, and McKenna Evans were spending time together around noon Thursday tinkering on their sedan
in Palmdale, just north of Los Angeles, when the man attacked them for no apparent reason, the LA Times reported.
Ken was rushed to a hospital, where he died, while his daughter was pronounced dead at the scene. LA County
sheriff's deputies have arrested a suspect, who they said may be a transient, the newspaper reported.
Homeless
Man Pushes Random Male In Front Of Truck, Truck Stops Inches From Crushing Him. This video gone viral is
reportedly from Brazil. A homeless man is seen in the CCTV footage walking down the sidewalk when he pushes
another man walking in the opposite direction into the street where a box truck narrowly misses turning him into
roadkill. [Video clip]
Torrance
woman brutally beaten, raped by homeless man released from jail hours earlier. A Torrance woman is
speaking out after being tackled, beaten, and raped while walking her two dogs in a nearby park. [...] The alleged
homeless attacker, 46-year-old Darrell Waters, had just been released from jail for a misdemeanor hours earlier.
He is now being held without bail. Marissa is trying to forgive him not only for what he did to her but for the
toll it took on her loved ones, as well.
The Editor says...
[#1] This incident took place almost three months ago, so it isn't
news. [#2] Of course the
attacker is black and the victim is white, but that's not mentioned in this article.
Woman,
33, fears she'll lose [an] eye after being thrown across [a] JFK airport subway station by homeless convicted
murderer. A woman arriving at JFK airport for her job as a security guard fears she'll lose her sight in
one eye after she was savagely beaten by a homeless career criminal at the airport subway station. Elizabeth
Gomes, 33, arrived at the Howard Beach station in Queens, New York City, at around 5:15 am on September 20.
Waheed Foster, 41, tried to start a conversation, but when she ignored him he flung himself at her — dragging her to
the ground then kicking and punching her.
Canal
Street Starbucks closing over safety concerns for staff. Starbucks announced Friday [9/16/2022] that it
would be closing its Canal Street store permanently on October 3 over safety and security concerns for its
employees. Sam Jefferies, a Starbucks spokesperson, called the coffee shop on the corner of Canal Street and
St. Charles Avenue "a high incident store." "Our stores are windows into America, and every day, our partners
witness the challenges facing our communities — challenges to personal safety and security, racism, a growing
mental health crisis, and issues magnified by COVID. These challenges play out within our stores —
affecting our partners, our communities, and our customers alike," Jefferies said.
The Editor says... If I may be permitted to
translate into plain English, the store at issue is located in the ghetto, and a great many violent and/or insane
homeless black people have been entering the store to steal, vandalize, defecate, and disrupt. The store is not a
"window into America." It is a glimpse of Hell.
Seattle
firefighters 'are being assaulted' at homeless encampments. Firefighters in Seattle
have demanded the city take action after they were subjected to more than 40 violent attacks in the
past four months — a string of assaults that have been largely carried out by the city's homeless
population. The attacks, which the city's firefighter's union says began in May, have seen
the protectors repeatedly targeted by the intemperate down-and-outs, often while responding to
fires started at the city's growing number of homeless encampments. One such incident, which
transpired last month, saw one fire official pelted with a rock while attempting to put out a blaze
that originated from an encampment fire.
The Editor says...
Here's a suggestion: Stay in the truck and use a water cannon on every fire. And if a
few tents get knocked over, the other nearby campers will learn to keep the fires under
control. Almost like civilization!
Homeless
man on parole suspected of stabbing NASCAR star Bobby East, 37, to death at California gas station. NASCAR star
Bobby East, 37, died after being stabbed at a California gas station, with his suspected murderer killed in a SWAT raid just
two days later. East was fueling up in Westminster on Wednesday when he was stabbed to death in the chest. East
was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. 'The victim was found on the ground suffering from a
serious stab wound to the chest area,' Westminister Police said in a statement regarding East's murder. 'Officers
attempted life saving measures until OCFA paramedics arrived and transported the victim to a local trauma center, where the
victim succumbed to his injury.'
Police
kill 'transient' suspect in NASCAR star Bobby East's stabbing death. The man wanted for stabbing NASCAR star
Bobby East to death in California earlier this week was gunned down by a SWAT team in Anaheim, police revealed. East,
37, was stabbed while pumping gas in a gas station in Westminster, outside Anaheim, on Wednesday [7/13/2022]. Westminster
PD previously identified the suspect in East's killing as Trent William Millsap, 27, who they described as a "transient and
known to frequent Westminster, Garden Groce and Anaheim motels." Millsap was killed Friday when a SWAT team was serving a
search warrant and shots rang out, police said.
It's
the Mental Health System, Stupid. According to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, "Research shows that
71 percent of people experiencing homelessness have a mental illness or post-traumatic stress. Additionally, 59 percent
are struggling with long- term substance use disorders," the latter often going hand in hand with mental illness in these
situations. If quality mental health care is not available, self-care through street drugs becomes the alternative.
What about mass shooters? As Pew reports: ["]A panel of mental health and law enforcement experts has estimated
that roughly one-third of acts of mass violence — defined as crimes in which four or more people were killed —
since the 1990s were committed by people with a serious mental illness.["] A Stanford study reviewed, "35 mass
shooting cases that occurred in the United States between 1982 and 2019 and involved shooters who survived and were brought to trial."
They discovered, "28 had mental illness diagnoses. Eighteen had schizophrenia and 10 had other diagnoses including bi-polar disorder,
delusional disorder, personality disorders, and substance-related disorders." 80 percent of mass shooters in this study had a
mental illness, undertreated, or not treated at all. It's not only mass shooters, but other random violent crime.
School
Shootings — Beyond the Hype and Spin. How many mass shooters are mentally ill, untreated, or
inadequately treated, due to deficiencies in our mental health care system? A Stanford University team: "Studied
35 mass shooting cases that occurred in the United States between 1982 and 2019 and involved shooters who survived and were
brought to trial." They discovered that "28 had mental illness diagnoses. Eighteen had schizophrenia, and 10 had other
diagnoses including bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, personality disorders and substance-related disorders."
America's mental health system is fragmented due to politics and money. For some administrations, mental health is a
priority and for others a pot of money that can be spent on other initiatives. Inpatient hospitalization has given way
to outpatient therapy, which may not be enough for some. Clearly, those that need help are not getting it.
Woman
On Train Sprays 70-Year-Old Man With Liquid, Sets Him On Fire. A woman set fire to a 70-year-old man Saturday
in Pasadena, California, according to local officials. The woman, who has not yet been identified and appears to be
homeless, said something to the male passenger of the local Metro system, according to Ramon Montenegro, a spokesman for the
sheriff's Transit Services Bureau. He ignored it. She then proceeded to spray him with a flammable liquid and
used a lighter to set him on fire, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Same story as above: Metro
rail passenger set ablaze in unprovoked attack. The two did not appear to know each other. The suspect in
this case was arrested, and the victim was transported to a hospital. He is in serious but stable condition and
expected to survive. The incident is one of a string of cases in which homeless individuals have attacked Metro riders
or workers. Violent crimes have jumped 81% for the first two months of this year on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority's bus and rail system. It comes as the agency has been grappling with a surge of homelessness
on its system as riders return to commuting. At Union Station, the system's main transit hub, workers say homeless
people grappling with mental illness regularly scream insults and threats and have assaulted them.
Homeless
Female Known As 'Lady Gangsta' Shanks A Man For Having Her Tent Too Close To His. Surveillance shows wild
moments before the Seattle encampment stabbing which then lead to the firing of an AK-47-style rifle. A bench warrant
has been issued for the arrest of Arias Beckett Sumpay aka 'Lady Gangster". King County Prosecutors have charged the
28-year-old with first-degree assault. She is accused of stabbing a man several times with a knife over an alleged
dispute over a tent involving a fellow encampment resident. [Video clip]
Florida
woman told to stop panhandling sets gas station clerk on fire: sheriff. A homeless woman told not to panhandle
outside a Florida gas station doused a clerk with gasoline and set her on fire, sheriff officials said. Betty Jean
McFadden, 30, was charged with attempted murder in the gruesome attack at a Circle K gas station in Pensacola, where she was
told earlier Wednesday to leave, according to the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. McFadden left, but returned at
about 1 p.m. Wednesday with a gas can and attacked the female clerk by dousing her with fuel she "panhandled" before
throwing matches at her and setting her on fire, sheriff's officials said. A second gas station employee was also
burned while helping put out the flames. McFadden proceeded to "calmly" walk out of the gas station and was arrested a
few blocks away.
Boy,
6, slammed in head with laptop by homeless man on Manhattan street: 'Didn't even see him coming'. The mother of
a 6-year-old boy slammed in the head with a laptop on a Manhattan street by a homeless man says the oft-arrested suspect
needs mental health help — not more time behind bars. Sara Bonaccorsi, 25, was walking with her son near W.
114th St. and Manhattan Ave., just outside Morningside Park, when a stranger attacked her son Dominic Bonaccorsi-Alvarez
without warning about 2:30 p.m. Sunday [3/27/2022]. "We didn't even see him coming," Bonaccorsi told the Daily
News. "He came up from behind and just totally unprovoked he hit my son over the head with the laptop." Police
happened to be nearby and arrested Michael Johnson, 60, before he could hurt anyone else.
The Editor says...
Perhaps it's true that the "suspect needs mental health help — not more time behind bars." Why can't he have both?
Which option would provide a greater benefit to the public? Long-term incarceration.
People
In California Libraries Aren't Safe From the Homeless. Police in Anaheim are looking for a man they say
attacked a library employee unprovoked. The incident happened at the Anaheim Central Library back on March 3. According
to police, around 6:15 p.m. a male employee was approached by another man, and shoved to the ground. Police say the
employee fell back and hit his head on the tile floor, causing him to cut his head and even lose consciousness. He was
transported to a local hospital. [Video clip]
The
Power of Terrible Ideas. In the 1960s, a mad idea was born, the notion that there is no such thing as mental
illness. Incredibly, it would become the foundation for public policy. The idea sprang independently from two
maverick psychiatrists at opposite ideological poles, on the right U.S. psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, an unsparing libertarian,
and on the left the British Ronald Laing. Szasz disposed of mental illness by verbal sleight of hand: "Mental
illnesses do not exist; indeed they cannot exist because the mind is not a bodily part or bodily organ." (Never mind that
the brain is the bodily organ that malfunctions in mental illness.) [...] The tremendously subversive implications of these
ideas only became apparent in the 1980s. American society was helpless to deal with an enormous social problem
destroying the quality of life of its cities. It still is.
Some people should be locked up. Permanently. 'Psychotic'
suspect in shootings that terrorized homeless in New York and D.C. avoided prison for dozens of alleged crimes over more than
a decade. The man held in the killing of two homeless men and attacks on three others was previously found to
be 'psychotic,' not fit to stand trial, and tried to hide his prison rap lyrics 'in his buttocks'. Gerald Brevard III,
30, was arrested Tuesday for the cold-blooded killings and shootings, some of which were caught on shocking video.
Brevard has a long rap sheet including armed robbery, assault with a firearm, destruction of property and theft. His
father, Gerald Brevard Jr., told DailyMail.com in a statement that his son 'suffers from mental illness' and complained that
'the system has failed regarding the treatment of so many, including my son.'
The Editor says...
The perpetrator is not the victim. He should have been locked up years ago.
Suspect in
lethal attacks on homeless people previously had a sentence suspended after being released from a psychiatric
facility. A 30-year-old man has been arrested as a suspect in lethal attacks on homeless people in New York
City and Washington, D.C. Gerald Brevard was arrested in Washington on Tuesday morning after a multi-state manhunt for the
attacks on homeless people. NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said Brevard was a "strong person of interest" after
numerous tips were sent to law enforcement. Essig said that Brevard was taken into custody by agents of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). No weapon was found, but he said that the suspect was wearing similar
clothing to that captured by security cameras on Saturday in two shootings.
Serial
shooter who allegedly killed two homeless men is also homeless, family reveals. The serial shooter targeting
homeless men in the Big Apple and Washington, DC is also homeless, family revealed Tuesday, as officials announced charges in
three of the cases. Gerald Brevard III, 30, was taken into custody early Tuesday [3/15/2022] in the capital and charged
with first-degree murder in the March 9 shooting and stabbing death of 54-year-old homeless man Morgan Holmes, the Chief of
the Metropolitan Police Department Robert Contee told reporters Tuesday. Brevard was also hit with two other charges —
assault with the intent to kill and assault with a dangerous weapon — in connection with two other incidents
targeting vagrants earlier in the month, Contee said.
Man
Stabbed 2 MOMA Employees — MSM Silent As The Assailant Has Been Identified As A Democrat And Anti-Trump
Lunatic. Video from the Museum of Modern Art shows the moment a man leaped over a reception desk and stabbed
two employees as they tried to flee Saturday [3/12/2022]. The video released by New York City police shows man police
identified as 60-year-old Gary Cabana entering the museum lobby through a revolving door then climbing onto the desk and
jumping over it as a man carrying what appears to be a walkie-talkie looks too scared to stop him. [...] The suspect was
identified as Gary Cabana, 60. Cabana's last-known address was a supportive housing residence in midtown operated by a
nonprofit, Breaking Ground, offering shelter for the homeless, the mentally ill, and those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, police
said, and he had no prior arrests.
Woman
raped at Manhattan church by homeless man: lawsuit. A homeless man beat and raped a woman inside a Manhattan
church — a "sickening" attack that ended only when a hero priest intervened, she claims in a lawsuit. The
terrifying ordeal began Jan. 30, 2019, when the 68-year-old victim, who lives nearby Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Hamilton
Heights, noticed the lights were off, which was "abnormal." So the woman, identified in the legal filing only as "Jane
Doe," went to check, found the Catholic church's doors open, called out, and was suddenly accosted. The alleged
attacker was a man who had hung around the church before and "exposed his genitals to older women," she said in the Manhattan
Supreme Court lawsuit.
Unhinged
man slashes violinist at Brooklyn subway stop. A Brooklyn man was lucky to escape with his violin —
and his life — when a crazed attacker slashed him in the neck in a subway station on Thursday night [2/24/2022].
Stephen Hanson was returning from practice at the Brooklyn College Conservatory Orchestra when he noticed a man following a
woman "really closely" at the Franklin Ave.-Medgar Evers College station in Crown Heights around 8 p.m., he told the Daily
News. The woman, who "was trying to get away" from the attacker, broke into a sprint and dashed up the stairs, Hanson
said. That's when he turned his wrath on Hanson, 35. [...] Transit crews and homeless outreach workers found 29
homeless encampments in subway tunnels and another 89 in stations when they surveyed the system over 12 hours from
Feb. 2 to Feb. 3, the MTA said Thursday.
Breakdancer stabbed on NYC subway
train, suspect arrested. The NYPD says it has made an arrest after a 22-year-old breakdancer was stabbed while
aboard an L train in the New York City subway. 44-year-old Lateef Coleman, who is believed to be homeless, is now facing
charges including assault and criminal possession of a weapon. The victim was reportedly performing on the train when
he was stabbed three times in an unprovoked attack. He suffered two stab wounds to his leg and one to his arm.
Homeless
man forces young woman into stranger's West Hollywood garage where he tries to rape her. Harrowing surveillance
footage captured the moment a homeless Los Angeles man forced a young woman into a residential garage where he 'nearly raped
her' before she was able to escape. Just 20 minutes later, the suspect tried to force his way into another woman's
apartment but fled when she screamed, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. In the first incident, surveillance
footage, first obtained by ABC 7, captured the man gripping the woman by her arm as they walked through the West
Hollywood neighborhood, where homes sell for an average of $1.5 million each.
Woman
fatally stabbed inside NYC apartment after being followed: cops. A woman was stabbed to death inside her
Chinatown apartment early Sunday [2/13/2022] after her alleged killer followed her home — and her final moments
were caught on chilling surveillance footage. Video obtained by The [New York] Post shows the suspect tailing the
35-year-old victim on the street as she enters her Chrystie Street apartment building, following close behind as she opens
the front door and strolls into the hallway. Minutes later, a neighbor across the hallway of the victim's sixth-floor
apartment at 111 Chrystie Street called 911 around 4:30 a.m. after hearing her screams during the brutal stabbing,
law-enforcement sources said. [...] Cops who responded to the 911 call allegedly found the suspect, identified by sources as
Assamad Nash, 25, inside the apartment and covered in blood. [...] Sources said Nash, 25, is a homeless career criminal with
three open cases and a record of several escapes from police custody.
Homeless
man slits woman's throat after she let him into her home for bath: cops. A homeless man in Utah allegedly slit
a woman's throat after she let him into her home to shower, cops said. Officers responded to a call of a woman heavily
bleeding from the neck around 5 p.m. last Sunday [2/6/2022] at her home in Salt Lake City, according to cops. She was
transported to a local hospital in critical condition and underwent emergency surgery. Her condition was later upgraded
to stable, but her current condition is unknown, cops said.
Terrifying
moment Seattle homeless man cracks female Amazon engineer's skull with a baseball bat as she walks home in random
attack. A homeless man with a 16-year violent criminal history has been charged with first-degree assault after
taking 'full body swing' with a baseball bat at a woman in the back of the head, leaving her bleeding with a fractured skull,
before going for a slice of pizza. Wantez Tulloss, 31, has been arrested 11 times going back to 2006 and was wanted by
police in Washington for third degree theft. On Monday January 31, he was filmed taking a swing at Emma Shengnan Wang,
who was named by prosecutors in court documents. He knocked Wang to the ground, hitting her on her skull and back, then
fled, taking his bags with him.
Deranged
and violent homeless men are taking a terrible toll on women. Last Thursday a 70-year-old nurse named Sandra
Shells showed up early at a bus stop near Union Station, not far from Skid Row in Los Angeles. What happened to her
that morning made news throughout the region: ["]Police say they responded Thursday around 5:15 a.m. to a call of an
assault at a bus stop near Union Station. 'Upon arrival, officers discovered that the suspect, later identified as Kerry
Bell, had struck the victim in the face, causing her to fall to the ground and sustain a fractured skull,' according to
LAPD.[" ...] In fact, she was taken to the same hospital where she had worked as an ER nurse for 37 years. Kerry
Bell, the 6'2" 220 pound homeless man who punched the elderly woman for no reason, has been charged with murder.
According to Heavy, he had a prior arrest history in California and other nearby states. One senseless death like this
would have been enough but later the same day a UCLA grad student studying architecture was murdered while working alone at a
furniture store in the middle of the day.
UCLA
grad student, 24, is stabbed to death while working in LA furniture store. A UCLA grad student was stabbed to
death in a random attack in the middle of the afternoon last week while she was working in a luxury furniture store in Los
Angeles. Brianna Kupfer, 24, was alone in the Croft House store on La Brea Avenue in LA's upscale Fairfax neighborhood
when a man walked in around 1:50 p.m. and knifed her. The architectural design student from Pacific Palisades was
discovered 20 minutes later by another customer.
16
Injured after a Homeless Man's Scream Caused Mass Chaos at the Remembrance Day Moment of Silence. The homeless
man in the video who screamed is ironically known locally as 'The Rabbi' because of his attire. The irony is the fact
the man goes around constantly and spews anti-Semitic remarks about Israelis and Jewish people. This time he screwed up
and caused at least 16 people to be injured by screaming like a madman during Remembrance Day celebrations in the Netherlands.
[Video clip]
Democrat
Controlled Philadelphia Looks like Something from a Zombie Flick! Imagine having to explain to a bus full of
children exactly what they're looking out on their field trip to the 'city of Brotherly Love, Philly'. Look at what appears
to be an endless amount of Zombie-like drug addicts covering the streets and sidewalks of the Democrat controlled city, which
eerily resembles many of the other Democrat controlled cities across America such as LA, San Fran, NYC, Chicago, and
more. [Video clip]
Seattle
man arrested after setting up makeshift shooting range in encampment. Seattle police arrested a man in an
encampment who officers say had set up a makeshift shooting range and was firing shots into a tree for target practice.
Around 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, officers were called to the 9100 block of Spear Place South in South Seattle for reports of
gunfire. Officers arrived and found a man in an encampment in a wooded area, where he had set up a makeshift shooting
range. The 44-year-old man told officers he'd been shooting at a tree, and officers found a tree with several bullet
holes in its trunk.
Black
homeless man, 39, arrested for stabbing 14-year-old to death in random attack called Florida deputy 'white
devil'. A homeless black man from Florida who was arrested last week in the stabbing death of a 14-year-old boy
got into a fight with a sheriff's deputy as he was being booked into jail and made several statements invoking race,
including calling the officer a 'white devil.' Semmie Williams, 39, was arrested on December 1 in Miami on first-degree
murder charges for the November 15 slaying of Ryan Rogers, 14, whose body was found alongside an Interstate 95 overpass.
Arrest
made in mysterious killing of 14-year-old boy in Florida. A homeless "monster" with a long rap sheet has been
arrested for randomly stabbing to death a 14-year-old Florida schoolboy who went missing during a bike ride, police announced
Thursday [12/2/2021]. Semmie Lee Williams, 39, was arrested in Miami late Wednesday in connection to the Nov. 15 slaying
of high school freshman Ryan Rogers, authorities confirmed at a press conference. Palm Beach Gardens police chief Clinton
Shannon said that the teen had been "stabbed to death" by a "dangerous monster." "This appears to be a completely random
act. We do not have a motive," Shannon said. "I would best describe it as an innocent child victim having a
chance encounter with a very violent criminal," Shannon said, calling Williams a "homeless drifter."
14-year-old stabbed
and murdered after going on a bike ride in Florida. Police arrest a 'homeless drifter' for the crime..
Police arrested a "homeless drifter" for the shocking stabbing and murder of a 14-year-old boy who had left his Florida home
on a bike ride in the evening. Ryan Rogers was reported missing after he rode off on his bike and didn't return to his
home in Palm Beach Gardens. A day later on Nov. 16, his body was found about two dozen feet away from a sidewalk
near the 1-95 overpass on Central Boulevard. Police initially released few details in the case, saying only that there
was evidence that the boy had been killed intentionally. Palm Beach Gardens police said they found headphones near the
body and were able to obtain DNA evidence that linked the crime to the suspect.
NYC
man predicts he'll dodge bail after 3 busts in 36 hours — and he's right. A Brooklyn homeless man
was busted three times in just 36 hours last week, boasting to NYPD cops that he would dodge bail at each turn because he
"didn't have a record." He proved to be right. Agustin Garcia, 63, was charged with robbing two Manhattan
straphangers — wielding a knife against one of them — and stealing a beer from a Bronx bodega in rapid
succession, prosecutors and law-enforcement sources told The [New York] Post. Manhattan prosecutors twice asked that
Garcia be held on bail amid his alleged crime spree, only to be denied by judges. It wasn't until the suspect was
busted a third time that he was sent to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, although still without any bail to
keep him locked up.
Residents
in Los Angeles have to deal with violent Homeless Daily, Here's an Example. Lifelong residents of California
are fleeing for red states in droves because of what you see in this video. The homeless epidemic has reached levels
unseen in this country since the great depression. While the media continues to claim inflation isn't hurting people
and is actually a good thing (New York Times article) the truth is millions are losing their jobs and ending up homeless
since Biden took over. This video shows just a single example of how bad the homeless are to live around. Once
prosperous areas now look like third world nations. Los Angeles could be considered the capitol of the desperate.
[Video clip]
Homeless
Man Hurls A Brick At Bagel Shop Worker's Head In NYC. The 63-year-old victim had just offered a cup of coffee
and a bagel to a local panhandler when the assault began, with the homeless man — bearded and wearing a black
hoodie — hurling the brick from point-blank range, video released Tuesday by police showed. The violence
escalated quickly, with the attacker first menacing the victim with a chair before hitting the handyman with a sucker punch
and then finally flinging the brick at his backpedaling victim. [Video clip]
Family
of 5 allegedly attacked by two homeless people with machete in Malibu; dad loses eye. An argument between a dad
and two homeless people on a beach in Malibu took an extremely violent turn over the weekend, ending with the father losing
an eye. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department responded to a call on Dan Blocker Beach on Sunday. Deputies
were told a man was with four family members when they were approached by two suspects, both believed to be homeless.
The two homeless people confronted the dad, saying they were not allowed in the area, sparking an argument between the three
people. One of the suspects, later identified as Richard Franck, whipped out a machete and began slashing the dad
multiple times.
Venice
Beach Has Devloved To The Point It Resembles A Scene Out Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Watch as this
group of mentally deranged homeless men go at each other while sane people try to pretend nothing is out of the ordinary on
Venice Beach. Venice Beach has been occupied and destroyed by massive homeless encampments for years now and no one
seems to really tackle the issue. [Video clip]
Homeless
assaults ramp up in San Diego, leftist mayor offers idiotic solution. Every solid blue city has its
horrors — from murders in Chicago to organized thievery in San Francisco. In San Diego, where I live, the
problem is homeless attacks. Seems the homeless aren't just unsightly, unsanitary, or famous spreaders of disease,
they're dangerous, and when you have a lot of them, you have a lot of unprovoked random assaults on law-abiding residents.
The problem is out there, and too bad for those who don't like it. San Diego's new leftist mayor, Todd Gloria, is
de facto advising the victims that he's going to create more of it.
Homeless
man with 90 prior arrests charged with anti-gay slashing of victim standing at Queens taco truck. The arrest of
a hate-spewing homeless man Thursday for his bloody knife attack on a gay man did nothing to calm the still-terrified
victim's nerves. Victim Milton Lobos Salguero, 34, said he was both lucky to be alive and plagued by horrifying
nightmares after the July 6 attack where a suspect with 90 prior arrests began spouting homophobic slurs before gashing him
across the face. Ramon Castro, free at the time of the attack despite a pair of late June arrests, allegedly called the
victim a "Latino [...]" before slicing Salguero's face.
Maniac
punches carriage horse, attacks two others in Central Park: driver. His name is not Mongo but a shirtless
maniac stole a page from "Blazing Saddles" Monday [7/5/2021], punching — and also kicking — three
carriage horses in Central Park before claiming he had a knife, one of the drivers said. The decidedly unfunny and
unprovoked alleged animal abuse took place shortly before noon just inside the park near West 59th Street and Sixth Avenue,
hansom cab driver Henry Kaya, 28, said. [...] They said they recognized the man as someone who hangs out in Times Square, he
said. The NYPD said cops couldn't find the man and the case was marked unfounded because there was no evidence a crime
was committed.
Michelle
Goldberg, Andrew Yang and the mentally ill homeless. Yesterday [6/18/2021], Ed wrote a post about Andrew Yang's
comments on homelessness during the final mayoral debate. The gist is that Yang was the only candidate in the debate
who pointed out that the mentally ill homeless make the streets more dangerous and create a major quality of life issue for
people trying to live there. He said mental health treatment needed to be increased to get these people off the
streets. And of course this was considered heartless and wrong by left-wing critics on social media. One of the
people who thought Yang had gone too far was NY Times columnist Michelle Goldberg.
Total
Scumbag Assaults An 82 Year Old Man During Bodega Robbery In New York City. A suspect is under arrest after
disturbing video released by the NYPD showed the assault of an 82-year-old man inside a Manhattan bodega. The incident
happened just before 6:30 a.m. Wednesday at the deli on East Broadway on the Lower East Side. Police said
Thursday afternoon that 42-year-old Raoul Hyacinthe is under arrest and charged with robbery. Authorities say he is a
panhandler who frequently hangs outside the bodega. [Video clip]
Black
Man Steals 82-Year-Old Man's Cane Inside A Corner Store Assaults Him In The Process. An 82-year-old man was
punched within the head and robbed whereas shopping for espresso on the Lower East Side. It was all caught on a digital
camera shortly earlier than 6:30 a.m. Wednesday inside a bodega on East Broadway close to Clinton Street. Surveillance
video exhibits the suspect increase his fist earlier than putting the sufferer and working off along with his cane.
Riverside
Police Approach Homeless Man During Outreach Program, Homeless Man Pulls Out A Gun And Shoots. Police officers
on a city team providing services to homeless people shot and killed a man who pulled a gun on them in inland Southern
California, authorities said. The shooting happened Saturday morning in an area of downtown Riverside frequented by
homeless residents, the Press-Enterprise reported. The officers were part of an outreach unit that included a code
enforcement officer and two city employees who offer social services such as housing, substance abuse assistance and
counseling, the newspaper said. [Video clip]
Teen
stabbed in 'random attack' while skateboarding near strip mall dies from injuries. A North Dakota teen who was
violently attacked while she skateboarded to her mother's house earlier this week has succumbed to her stab wounds, according
to her family. Daisy Paulsen, who often went by the nickname, Jupiter, died on Tuesday [6/8/2021], less than a week
after what her father, Robert Paulsen, previously described as a "random attack," Valley News reported. He said the
family is working to ensure the 14-year-old's organs are donated and that her ashes are scattered across California's Bay
Area, per her request.
Teen
Stabbed to Death by Drifter as She Skated to Mom's House: Cops. A 14-year-old girl who was stabbed 25
times in a random attack while skateboarding to her mother's house in Fargo, North Dakota, has died from her injuries, her
family said. [...] Arthur Prince Collie, a 22-year-old drifter with no fixed address, was arrested Friday on aggravated
assault, robbery, and attempted murder charges. He will now face a murder charge in light of Jupiter's death, according
to Cass County prosecutors. Collie's attorney, Mark Anthony Beauchene, did not respond to a request for comment.
The random attack occurred the morning of June 4 in the parking lot of a strip mall in the West Acres section of Fargo,
according to a police report obtained by The Daily Beast.
LA
Mayoral Candidate Threatened By Homeless Woman With Knife After Promising To Clean Up Dangerous Homeless
Encampments. A woman with a knife was arrested Monday [6/7/2021] during a Venice Beach news conference at which
a city council member and mayoral candidate was speaking about Los Angeles' homelessness crisis and public safety. Los
Angeles City Councilman and mayoral candidate Joe Buscaino was speaking about the city's homelessness crisis and announcing
his plan for creating a safer city during the morning news conference. A Los Angeles Police Department captain was cut
by the knife while assisting Buscaino's private security team in detaining the woman, according to the LAPD Officer Lizeth
Lomeli, who said the injury was minor. [Video clip]
Homeless
man who was arrested 8 times last year charged in NYC Asian attack, cops say. A homeless career criminal was
charged Tuesday [6/1/2021] with slugging an Asian woman in Chinatown — as the city's fed-up top cop decried a
revolving-door legal system that leaves New Yorkers "at risk." Alexander Wright, 48, was hit with charges
including assault as a hate crime for the unprovoked, caught-on-camera attack Monday that left the 55-year-old woman
hospitalized, cops said. The arrest adds to a rap sheet that includes a staggering 40 prior arrests — with
five, including Monday's, within the past year. "What are we doing in society when we are releasing these people right
back onto the streets?" NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea raged during an appearance Tuesday on NY1. "It's putting New Yorkers at risk."
Female,
Asian Cop Is Assaulted And Nearly Strangled By Racist Hobo Who Was Threatening Other Asians In San Fran.
Surveillance video captured Friday night [5/28/2021] shows a man attacking an Asian San Francisco police officer after she
tried to detain him near Portsmouth Square. The incident happened just before 7 p.m. near Clay and Kearny Streets and
video of the attack was posted to Instagram Sunday morning. Witnesses tell KTVU that the man seen on the surveillance
video had been seen vandalizing rental scooters less than two hours earlier. Police told the man that he needed to
leave, but he showed up again and began yelling racist comments at Asian people as they walked by. When police
responded again, the man attacked the female officer. [Video clip]
NYC
man accused of attacking Asian man and biting off part of victim's finger busted for hate crime. A Chinese
immigrant who was beaten on a Manhattan street and told to go home has a message for the hate crime perpetrator who punched
him in the eye and bit off part of his finger: "America is my country now." Youya Hua, 48, declared his
allegiance Thursday after suspect Lloyd Revell was picked up early Thursday at the Skyline Hotel on 10th Ave. where homeless
people have been staying during the pandemic. Hua, 48, said he was on W. 43rd St. Tuesday morning, talking on the
phone with his mother, when the suspect "walked to my back and punched my eye." [...] Revell, charged with assault as a hate
crime, served prison time for an attempted assault conviction in the Bronx and was conditionally released by parole in April
2019. He has numerous other arrests, a police source said.
Portland
Has Turned Into Such A Dystopian Hellhole, Homeless Men Chase People Around With Knives. According to a video
by journalist Andy Ngo, a man with knives chased another man on Sunday in downtown Portland, Oregon, near the Justice Center
and Central Police Station. Ngo said the police did not respond to the attempted sting. The area in the video has
homeless tents on the sidewalk. The victim and the attacker both appear to be white. The attacker, who seems to
come from the tent area, repeatedly used the n-word while chasing the victim. The victim was able to flee from his
attacker without being stabbed as the attacker had to stop to put on his pants. [Video clip]
Man
arrested for attacking Asian woman later vandalized NYPD car: cops. The homeless man busted for allegedly
attacking an Asian woman in Manhattan late last month vandalized a police car in Queens over the weekend — less
than two weeks after his release, according to cops and prosecutors. Eric Deoliveira, 27, smashed the window of a
police car outside the 109th Precinct on Union Street near 37th Avenue in Flushing around 10:30 p.m. Friday [4/2/2021],
according to authorities and police sources. A station house security officer who was conducting a perimeter check about two
hours later noticed the damage early Saturday [4/3/2021]. The footage revealed that Deoliveira was allegedly behind the
vandalism — and he was arrested when an officer spotted him around 9:30 a.m., according to cops and the sources.
Asian
woman stabbed to death in 'random' attack in California. An Asian woman was fatally stabbed while walking her
dogs in California in what cops are calling a random attack. Ke Chieh Meng, 64, was out with her two small pups in
Riverside around 7:30 a.m. Saturday [4/3/2021] when she was stabbed and left on the ground bleeding, KTLA-TV reported.
Responding officers found her on the ground and took Meng to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the
station. Meng's suspected attacker, Darlene Stephanie Montoya, 23, was identified by police as a transient. She was
arrested near the scene and charged in what police described as a "completely random" attack.
Homeless
Woman Who Was Arrested Just Days Before For Assault Stabs A Random Asian Woman To Death In Riverside. A
64-year-old woman was stabbed to death Saturday [4/3/2021] as she walked her two dogs in the La Sierra neighborhood of
Riverside and a recently arrested 23-year-old transient woman was taken into custody for suspicion of her murder in what was
described as a "random" attack. Police started getting calls about the stabbing just before 7:30 a.m. but the Riverside
County coroner's office reported Ke Chieh Meng of Riverside was wounded just after 7 a.m. on Golden Avenue about 40 feet
north of Stonewall Drive. Meng was rushed to Riverside Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8:39 a.m.,
the coroner said. [Video clip]
Suspected
hate crime attacker who beat Asian woman in NYC arrested. The man who beat an Asian woman to the ground then
kicked her in the head in a brutal, caught-on-camera hate attack in Midtown earlier this week was arrested by police early
Wednesday morning [3/31/2021], cops said. Brandon Elliot, 38, was arrested at about 2 a.m. Wednesday and hit with
a number of charges, including assault as a hate crime and attempted assault as a hate crime, police said. Elliot lives
in a nearby hotel that serves as a homeless shelter, according to cops.
Homeless
man confesses to killing woman at South Street Seaport: cops. A homeless man has admitted to beating and
killing a 19-year-old woman whose body was found wrapped in plastic at the South Street Seaport on Saturday [3/6/2021],
according to cops and police sources. Austin Boehm, 25, made the confession to detectives after he attempted to check
himself into Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric ward Saturday, sources said Sunday. Police identified the slain Fulton
Fish Market victim as Rosalee Sanchez, who was also homeless. The motive for the murder was not immediately
clear. Police said a second homeless suspect, Christian Mercado, 20, also has been charged in the case.
Judge
drops case against homeless woman who stole USPS truck in Brooklyn. A Brooklyn judge dismissed the charges
against the homeless woman who took a stolen US Postal Service truck on a joyride Friday and left "vehicular mayhem" in her
wake, borough prosecutors said Sunday — as they vowed to push to reverse the decision. Brooklyn Criminal
Court Judge Hilary Gingold ordered Martha Thaxton, 21, committed to a psychiatric facility for theft of the mail truck in
Bedford-Stuyvesant after her rampage — and the criminal case against her dropped. The Brooklyn District
Attorney's Office is now pushing to reverse the decision, a spokesman for the office said Sunday [1/17/2021]. "We believe
the dismissal was in error and are working with the court to correct it," DA spokesman Oren Yaniv said in a statement.
'I
just feel like punching someone today': Homeless man charged five times in six months for socking strangers. To
hear law enforcement tell it, Jose Gonzalez likes to talk to strangers with his fists. "Don't shout!" Gonzalez is accused
of screaming at his most recent victim. "I just feel like punching someone today!" Gonzalez's Jan. 5 attack on
a 74-year-old straphanger at a Bronx subway station was the latest in a string of five random attacks he carried out against
strangers since August, cops said. His arrest record got attention from Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on Tuesday
[2/16/2021], who used Gonzalez's case as an example of the court system's inability to put violent predators behind bars.
Man
busted for series of attacks on women in NYC subway station. A [black] man suspected in a string of random assaults on [white] women at
a Brooklyn subway station was arrested Tuesday [1/5/2021] and charged with a slew of hate crimes, authorities said. Khari Covington, 29, is
accused of attacking nine women in separate instances in East Williamsburg since last August, according to police. Seven of the alleged assaults
occurred in transit — mainly at the Morgan Avenue subway station — while two were committed nearby on street level, police
said. Covington targeted light-skinned women, sources said.
The Editor says...
Hmmm... He "targeted light-skinned women." Is that a gentle way of saying he's a violent racist, and that he
has committed a number of racially-motivated hate crimes?
Man,
29, is charged with hate crimes for 'beating nine light-skinned women in random attacks over six weeks' in a New York City
subway station. A man has been arrested after carrying out a suspected string of random assaults on
'light-skinned' women at a Brooklyn subway station. Khari Covington, 29, was arrested and charged with a slew of hate
crimes on Tuesday [1/5/2021]. He is accused of attacking nine women on separate occasions in East Williamsburg since last
August. Seven of the alleged assaults occurred within the Morgan Avenue subway station. Two other assaults
happened on the streets above. Covington lives at a homeless shelter two blocks from the train station.
Homeless
man set free after slugging woman in random subway attack. A homeless man with 77 prior arrests sucker-punched
a 68-year-old woman in a random attack inside a Manhattan subway station — and was only issued a desk appearance
ticket before being set free, according to cops and police sources. The victim, Rosella Trombetta, was heading home
from her job as a designer for a clothing company, on the northbound R train platform of the 34th Street-Herald Square
station, just before 8 p.m. Tuesday when John Chappell, 64, suddenly clobbered her in the face, breaking her nose,
according to police and her boyfriend Bob Edis, 77. "She was the only one on the platform, standing in the middle, and
she was reading her Kindle," Edis told the Post Wednesday at the couple's Upper East Side apartment. "The guy just came
up on her and punched her in the face. It threw her back, so she has whiplash now. He was going to go after her
again, but she started screaming because she was hurt. He walked off."
Homeless
'Woman' With A Knife Is Taken Out With Beanbag Rounds, K9 Cop In San Diego. San Diego police shot a woman with
beanbag rounds and used a police dog to take her into custody in downtown Tuesday after she allegedly stabbed a man and
refused to drop the knife, police said. The arrest was recorded by a bystander, and the video was circulated on social
media. Police said a 911 caller reported seeing a woman stab a man about noon on Ninth Avenue near Broadway. The
caller gave a description of the assailant and said the victim was walking away. Officers found him suffering from a
stab wound to his left arm. He was taken to a hospital. [Video clip]
Homeless
man charged with killing taco shop worker who fed him 'every day'. A homeless man is accused of fatally
stabbing a Las Vegas taco shop worker who befriended him and regularly gave him food, police and relatives said. Ciro
Vasquez, a 31-year-old Army veteran who worked at his family's Taqueria Del Paisano, was stabbed Sunday [10/25/2020] outside
the Mexican restaurant by Angel Martinez, 29, after the homeless man went inside and asked for "money and food" from the
owner, according to an arrest report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Vasquez then escorted Martinez outside,
where a fight between the pair ensued, leaving the taco shop employee stabbed in the chest and the homeless man with a stab
wound to his shoulder, police said.
Homeless
man charged with arson over massive fire at East Harlem building. A 61-year-old homeless man with a lengthy rap
sheet was hit with a slew of charges Sunday over a huge blaze at his ex-girlfriend's East Harlem apartment building that left
several injured, according to police. Willie Manning is accused of sparking Saturday's inferno at the six-story
building on East 135th Street and Fifth Avenue after allegedly barricading himself in to avoid being taken in for violating
an order of protection. [...] Manning — who has a criminal record of more than 30 priors — was charged
Sunday after first being treated at a hospital, the NYPD said.
Manhattan
subway train derails after 'laughing homeless man throws metal clamps onto the tracks'. Police in New York have
arrested a homeless man who placed metal clamps on subway tracks and watched, laughing, as a train derailed, injuring three
people. The incident occurred in the West Village, as the uptown A train was entering the 14th St - Eighth Avenue
station at 8:17 am. The homeless man had found a pile of tie plates, which are normally used to secure the train tracks
to the foundations, on a pile of construction materials at the 14th St. station, police sources told the New York Daily News.
How
Bad Is The Homeless Problem In Southern California? This Bad!. Watch as this tweaked out homeless woman
terrorizes a random home in Southern Californa in the middle of the night. The woman first asks for food and a blanket
but then goes full zombie after the woman offers to call the police to take her to a shelter. [Video clip]
Retired NYPD detective beaten by homeless
man. A retired NYPD detective was mercilessly beaten and knocked unconscious by a Manhattan homeless man in a harrowing
attack caught on camera. The 56-year-old retiree was at a deli on W. 39th St. near Ninth Ave. at 9:10 a.m. on
Aug. 11 when he asked 20-year-old Masterjardin Roman to stop panhandling in front of the store, police sources
said. The ensuing clash between the two men was caught on surveillance video obtained by the Daily News. After
about a minute of arguing, Roman, who lives in a shelter on W. 41st St., threw a bottle at the former detective who
then chased after Roman. As the two struggled on the sidewalk, Roman tackled the older man to the ground, causing the
retired cop to briefly lose consciousness, officials said. [Video clip]
Las
Vegas man arrested for attacking roommate with 'medieval' hatchet: cops. A Las Vegas vagrant nicknamed "Cutty"
cracked his pal's skull using a "medieval looking" hatchet when he was asked to leave the man's home, police said. Tali
Jackson, 54, was arrested Sunday [5/17/2020] on charges including attempted murder with a deadly weapon in an April 30 attack
that left his roommate "bleeding profusely from the head," according to an arrest report obtained by the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. [...] Once the victim was able to speak to police the following day, he said he let his friend "Cutty" and
the man's brother stay at his apartment because they were homeless. "Cutty," who was later identified as Jackson, and
his brother were allowed to stay with the victim for two weeks after paying him $200. But the man later kicked the pair
out after they began using drugs and inviting other people over, police said.
NYC
subway operator confronted by 'defecating' straphanger on 2 train. A veteran subway operator said she witnessed
a homeless man openly "defecating" on a No. 2 train Monday — a sign the homeless have "taken over" the subway
system during the coronavirus pandemic. Angelina Malave, 46, who missed a month of work after catching the virus, said
the sight of the man — kicked back on a subway bench with his legs raised in the air over his head so his full
rear end was in view — was "one of the worst things I've seen in my 18 years as a train operator." "He was
definitely defecating. I was shaken and upset," she said. Malave said she snapped a photo of the distressing
scene, which later circulated on Twitter and on worker Facebook groups, at the Flatbush Avenue 2 train terminal around
10 a.m.
Carson
to Democratic congressman: Transgender rights don't supersede rights of abused women in shelters. Ben Carson
argued during a congressional hearing this week that the rights of transgender individuals in federally funded homeless shelters
do not override the rights of abused women. The secretary of Housing and Urban Development was speaking during a
congressional hearing Wednesday [3/4/2020], where Democratic Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley challenged HUD's stance that
federally funded homeless shelters have the right to install bathrooms and sleep areas based on biological sex.
On Leaving
the Golden State. The fabled Ventura Highway is all that separates my artist loft from the beach where surfing
first came to the United States. [...] Living here and not going to the beach every day would simply be a crime but going to
the beach puts me face to face with some people that should, by all accounts, be in an asylum. The asylum crowd is easy
to spot as they tend to wear everything they own even when it is warm outside. Another sign is how filthy they
are. Now, you might be saying that of course they are filthy because they are homeless but that shouldn't be the case
as there are quite a few charities that gives clothes to the homeless or allows them to use a laundromat for free. I
have a neighbor that plays guitar to entertain the homeless the first Tuesday of every month at a laundromat that serves the
homeless and does so for free. Also, there are free public showers all up and down the beach.
Ajla
Zekan, Suspect in Jeff Co Cabbie Stabbing, Arrested in St. Louis County. A 21-year-old woman was charged
over the weekend with stabbing a cab driver in Jefferson County. Ajla Zekan was arrested on Saturday [2/8/2020] during a traffic
stop in St. Louis County, authorities say. Police had been searching for her since Tuesday when, they say, she
attacked the driver "without notice," stabbing him eleven times. [...] In her past court cases, she has listed an address at
a Sappington condo complex, but the Jefferson County Sheriff's detective described her as homeless in the probable cause statement.
Homeless
woman goes on carjacking spree before crashing near City Hall. A homeless speed demon with a millionaire's
taste carjacked four different rides — including three Mercedes-Benzes — as she burned rubber down an
eight-mile stretch of Manhattan's east side, causing multiple crashes along the way, cops said Saturday [2/1/2020].
Aludein Marks had no weapon, but plenty of attitude, as she boozily bullied her way past the drivers of each luxe vehicle,
cops said. When she smashed one car up, she simply shoved away a new driver and commandeered their steering wheel,
police said. It took just 30 minutes for the high-octane 25-year-old to steal and crash four cars and smash
into nearly 20 others — amazingly only causing minor injuries to four victims, cops said.
Homeless
man busted in slaying of Brooklyn philanthropist L. Antonio Litman. A homeless man faces murder and arson
charges in the death of beloved Brooklyn philanthropist L. Antonio Litman. Police on Tuesday [1/28/2020] arrested
Dondre Richardson, 33, who lives in a shelter on Wards Island, charging him in Litman's Jan. 20 slaying. Firefighters
found Litman's body after responding to a fire at his four-story brownstone on Adelphi St. near Dekalb Ave. in Fort
Greene. He had suffered puncture wounds to his neck and chest before the fire, authorities said.
Man Tries to Kidnap a 6-Year-Old
Girl in California, a U.S. Army Vet Steps in With the Takedown of a Lifetime. A family was checking out the
famed hippie haven for the first time when a homeless man tried to snatch their 6-year-old girl from her mom's lap.
Uncle Chris — that would be, U.S. Army vet Uncle Chris — didn't appreciate it none. Therefore,
he took the guy down. When cops arrived, it took six officers to subdue the aspiring abductor.
Serial
slugger busted for punching out woman's teeth has long rap sheet. A man was arrested Thursday for allegedly
slugging a 23-year-old woman so hard it knocked out two of her teeth — and he has a history of similar "completely
unprovoked" attacks against women, law enforcement sources told The [New York] Post. Eugene Webb, 26, allegedly ran up
to a 23-year-old woman who was walking on West Houston Street near Sullivan Street around 6 a.m. on Wednesday and punched her
in the face, authorities said. The blow knocked out two of her pearly whites, but Webb — who police say is
homeless — continued to clobber the woman, shoving her against a parked cab and then running off, police said.
Gunman
[had been fed by Texas church before shooting. The Texas shooter who opened fire at a church service had been fed by the
congregation on several occasions before he gunned down parishioners in a deadly rampage, church leaders said. [He] had visited
the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement before to receive food handouts prior to the shooting Sunday [12/29/2019] that
killed two congregants, The Christian Chronicle reported. "We've helped him on several occasions with food," minister Britt
Farmer told the outlet. "He gets mad when we won't give him cash. He's been here on multiple occasions."
The Editor says...
Christians often feel an obligation to feed wandering bums, because of Matthew 25:40.
But there's a lot to be said for wisdom and discernment.
Oregon
beggar sentenced to jail after causing over $9,000 in damage because no one was giving her money, report says.
An Oregon panhandler was sentenced to 20 days in jail on Wednesday [12/11/2019] after wreaking havoc on five businesses in Portland
because she said no one was giving her money. Marlena Rochelle Neely, 30, told authorities she was homeless and had been
asking people for $5. Neely said she would shatter a window every time they failed to give her money because she was tired of people
not helping her out, the probable cause affidavit stated, according to The Oregonian.
Detroit's comeback is a myth. The Social Security
office in Detroit is a dispiriting place done up in industrial grays. It is filled with the long, glum faces of those
who molder in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy waiting for some faceless bureaucrat to help them. Take a
number. Sit down. No loud noises. No food. No phones. Into this purgatory enters Gus Malone, a
raggedy 52-year-old homeless man, along with his invisible dog Timmy. Gus parades Timmy up and down the gray carpet of
the waiting room as if it were the competition floor of the Westminster Kennel Club.
Judge
closes Third Avenue entrance to King County Courthouse, citing security concerns. A judge ordered Monday
[12/2/2019] that the Third Avenue entrance to the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle will be closed for the rest of
the year, citing safety concerns. The court has received continued reports of assaults outside the courthouse,
Presiding Judge Jim Rogers wrote in the order. Rogers, who has long been outspoken about what he perceives as a lack of
security in the area, said litigants, jurors, attorneys and employees have reported being attacked.
Portland
homeless man who menaced a woman and child gets probation despite 220 previous arrests. A homeless man named
Brian Ray Lankford who threatened a woman and her son with a large tree branch in 2017 was given a break this week.
Instead of putting Lankford in jail, the prosecutors cut a deal which gave him probation and mandatory drug treatment.
That might not seem so bad until you learn how many laps Lankford has already made around this particular block.
Homeless
man accused of attacking Queens boy was a 'ticking time bomb'. The homeless man who randomly attacked a
6-year-old Queens boy, leaving the child in critical condition, was a "ticking time bomb" with a violent past, according to
police sources and court records — and even his own family says he should have been off the streets.
Laurence "Larry" Gendreau, 35, was charged with assault Friday for grabbing and picking up the boy outside the child's
grandfather's home in Kew Gardens on Thursday evening [10/10/2019], slamming the 6-year-old face-first onto the ground
and leaving him with horrific injuries, authorities said.
Homeless man brutally
attacks six-year-old boy in front of horrified parents in New York City. A harrowing scene reportedly unfolded
in Queens, New York, when a six-year-old boy was brutally attacked by a homeless man in front of his horrified parents.
Police say the child was walking with his parents when the homeless man grabbed him and body-slammed him, hitting his head on
the concrete sidewalk. The child was rushed to a hospital with serious head and face injuries, and is listed as
critical. He is expected to survive.
Vagrant
attacks and seriously injures 6-year-old boy in Queens. A homeless man with a history of mental illness
randomly attacked a 6-year-old boy in front of his grandparent's house in Queens on Thursday afternoon, seriously injuring
the boy, police and sources said. The child was sitting on the steps of his grandparent's house on Metropolitan Avenue
near 123rd Street in Kew Gardens at about 5 p.m. when the vagrant walked into their driveway, said Rabbi Naftali Portnoy, the
boy's grandfather. The 35-year-old vagrant then grabbed the child, picked him up and threw him to the concrete, slamming
his face on the ground, police said.
Chinatown
murders are proof liberal policies put us in danger. If the weekend slaughter in Chinatown, where one homeless
vagrant allegedly beat four others to death, shocks the conscience of decent New Yorkers, that's a good sign. Now the
goal must be to instill sanity — and common sense — in public health and criminal justice
policies. Because instead of making the streets better, the city is on a course to make them worse. And more
dangerous. The weekend horror proves again that the decision to empty the state's mental hospitals was one of the great
social mistakes of the last 50 years. But as Stephen Eide points out in Tuesday's [New York] Post, deinstitutionalization
wasn't a one-off. It continues to happen today, despite being an obvious disaster.
Florida
man says he smashed car windows because 'Trump owes me 1 trillion dollars'. A homeless Florida man went on a
vandalism spree smashing the windows of at least 20 cars parked at a hotel in Fort Walton Beach, claiming President Trump
owes him money. Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies arrested Justin James Wilson, 30, on Monday after allegedly using rocks
and a belt buckle to smash windows and beat cars parked at a Holiday Inn Resort. He caused at least $30,000 in damage.
San
Francisco shopkeeper considers closing his store after being bitten by a homeless person for the second time in four
months. A San Francisco shop owner who was been bitten by a homeless man for the second in time in months says
he will close his store rather than put up with the 'nuisance'. Gilles DeSaulniers, 67, said he was trying to subdue a
homeless man who had pushed his sister after she tried to eject him for the second time that day from their South of Market
store. But while holding onto him, the man 'twisted his head' and bit the shopkeeper's arm in an attempt to escape.
Homeless
man who beat up a musician [is] out of jail after 10 days with no bail. Last November I told you about a man
named Ryan Georg who was brutally beaten by a homeless criminal. The perp lived in a nearby homeless encampment and was
part of a group that attacked Georg with a baseball bat, beating him within an inch of his life. Georg is now in a
wheelchair and get seizures.
Suspect
shot by off-duty officer arrested for allegedly assaulting officer with a rock. El Cerrito police have arrested
a man, armed with a rock, for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. The man, described by police as a transient,
was shot and injured by an off-duty San Francisco police officer during the incident. Thomas Vincent Whalen, 44, allegedly
used the rock against the off-duty officer in a residential neighborhood Sunday night [8/25/2019].
Homeless
man suspected in Manhattan 'hate spree' smiles in court. A homeless man smiled during his arraignment Sunday
morning on a series of "hate crime" attacks this month on random Manhattan pedestrians. Todd Lyons, 33, had been free
on two previous assaults in The Bronx and Manhattan when cops suspect he committed as many as seven new attacks; all the
victims in the new attacks are white. He appeared happy as he learned he'd been charged with felony and misdemeanor
assault for three of those latest attacks.
San
Fran Woman After She is Savagely Beaten by Homeless Man Released From Prison by Liberal Judge. The terrifying
video shows a woman being savagely beaten by a homeless man outside of her luxury condo complex off the Embarcadero near
Beale and Bryant Streets. Security footage shows the homeless man blocking the woman from entering the building, while
another woman working the front desk springs into action to help. The victim, Paneez Kosarianfard called for the
liberal judge who released the homeless man from prison to be recalled.
Homeless
man violently attacks woman outside San Francisco condo. Terrifying video shows a woman being violently
attacked by a homeless man outside a luxury condominium complex in San Francisco. Paneez Kosarian was trying to get
into her apartment building when she was assaulted by a man who was trying to keep her from going inside without him.
Naked, Angry, and Alone.
Early last month, 29-year-old Christopher Morisette rampaged through the streets of Seattle, stabbing three pedestrians with
a steel folding knife, then stripped off his clothes and ran naked across a freeway interchange, where he was arrested.
In the past six months, three similar "random stabbings" occurred in Seattle's downtown commercial district. Despite
the police department's repeated efforts — including a block-by-block strategy targeting open-air drug-dealing and
violence — crime and anti-social behavior stubbornly persist. In 2018, just in the downtown precinct,
Seattle police received 44,246 calls for service, including 7,215 reports of violence, 3,861 reports of narcotics and public
intoxication, and 1,069 reports of mental health crises and suicidal behavior.
63-year-old
woman in critical condition after random attack by homeless man in California. A 63-year-old woman taking a
break at work was beaten in an alley so badly that she was unrecognizable. She was admitted to a hospital in critical
condition. The attacker was identified by witnesses and arrested. He is 51-year-old Hector Manuel Ulloa, a
homeless man who had recently been released from jail and who has many prior convictions. NBC 4 reports he has
now been charged with attempted murder.
Hero
Citizen Tackles Suspected Arsonist Setting Wildfire in Los Angeles. Legal Insurrection readers may recall that
in the autumn of 2017, a series of wildfires broke out in Southern California. One of those blazes threatened the famed
Getty Center Museum. On Easter Sunday this year [4/21/2019], a suspected arsonist, who set off fires in the Sepulveda
Pass near the Getty Center, was taken into custody after a an alert citizen saw the man lighting the fires and tackled him.
[...] The suspect has been identified as Steven William Adkison, a 31-year-old transient.
A
Seattle Judge Sent A Homeless Man With 72 Convictions To Jail, The City Attorney Was Furious. A 55-year-old
homeless man named Francisco Calderon punched a complete stranger in the mouth one day in November, giving him a bloody
lip. The victim called 911 and Calderon was arrested and charged with assault. He pleaded guilty to the
crime. That turned out to be his 72nd time being convicted of a crime, fourteen of those convictions were
felonies. And yet, City Attorney Pete Holmes worked out a plea deal with Calderon's public defender which would keep
him out of jail. Instead, he would get probation and drug treatment. Enter Municipal Court Judge Ed McKenna whose
job it was to sentence Calderon. McKenna wasn't convinced no jail time was appropriate in the case and questioned the
plea deal.
Arizona
man, 23, killed after homeless man punches him in face, causing him to fall into oncoming traffic: police. An Arizona man
was killed Monday after a homeless man punched him in the face, causing the 23-year-old to fall into oncoming traffic, police said.
Aaren Shivers, 37, was arrested and booked into jail on one count of second-degree murder. Officers were called to the scene in
Phoenix just before 10:30 a.m. Monday [3/25/2019] on a report of a person being hit by a vehicle, FOX 10 Phoenix reported.
We Shut
Down State Mental Hospitals. Some People Want to Bring Them Back. Prisons and jails are filled with
inmates who exhibit symptoms of mental illness. So do many of the homeless people crowding the streets of cities like
Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. Violent episodes, like the Webdale murder and some recent mass shootings,
have brought renewed calls to entrust the state with more authority to force psychiatric care on patients against their will.
Seattle:
Homeless Man Arrested For String Of Arsons Had A Long History Of Arrests. Earlier this week I wrote about a new
report commissioned by Seattle business leaders which found that 100 homeless people in the city were responsible for more
than 3,500 criminal cases. These so-called "prolific offenders" all had drug habits and about a third of them also had
mental problems. But because they were homeless and their crimes were usually petty burglaries or theft, they were
cycled through the justice system and released back onto the streets time and time again. The problem with that
approach was put in stark relief this week by the arrest of Matthew Hooper, a 38-year-old homeless man who police say is
responsible for a string of arsons.
Suspect
in UWS home invasion is a homeless man on parole: cops. The knife-wielding suspect who tied up an Upper West
Side family was a homeless man out on parole, police said. Daniel Omolukun, 30, was living on the streets while on parole
for burglary charges when he attacked a 24-year-old woman and her mother as they walked into their apartment building on West 78
Street near West End Avenue about 3 p.m. Thursday [1/31/2019], cops said.
Upper
West Siders hire private security over homeless crisis. This isn't just "spare change." The city's
homelessness crisis is so out of control that Upper West Side residents are shelling out $120 a month each for private
security guards to patrol their neighborhood seven days a week, The [New York] Post has learned. A dozen apartment
buildings are part of the desperation effort that's costing a total $140,000 a year, and they all surround the former Hotel
Alexander that the de Blasio administration recently turned into a homeless shelter.
One percent of the population commits one eighth of the aggravated assaults in a city of four million. Los
Angeles Doubled its Homeless Budget, Doubled Homeless Crime. It wasn't all that long ago that the nation watched
transfixed in horror as fires tore apart California, destroying homes and claiming lives. In all the debates about global
warming and forestry management, one singular cause of the fire was left unaddressed. Global warming wasn't starting the
fires. People were. [...] This November, the Los Angeles Zoo had to evacuate its animals over a fire in yet another homeless
encampment. That fire not only endangered lives, but diverted resources from fighting the much more serious fires in Ventura
County. But instead of shutting down the encampments, Mayor Garcetti, who has done more to legalize and subsidize homelessness
in Los Angeles than any of his predecessors, sent "outreach workers" from the expanding behemoth of the LA Homeless Services Agency
to ask them to please move. That worked about as well as expected.
Olympia
homeless tent camp debate heats up. Frustrations flared Tuesday [12/11/2018] at the Olympia City Council
meeting as the issue of homelessness causes more anger in that community. The fight has already been to court with a
judge issuing a temporary ruling telling the city not to allow any more people to move into a city-sponsored tent camp.
There's no doubt the homeless camp has become a very divisive issue. Businesses owners told the City Council Tuesday
[12/11/2018] that they were concerned for their businesses and the safety of their employees.
Transient
arrested after pushing man under moving truck in downtown L.A.. A transient has been arrested after shocking
surveillance video showed him shoving a man underneath oncoming traffic in an unprovoked attack in downtown L.A. Wednesday
morning. It happened around 10:45 am in front of the Sultan restaurant near 6th and Broadway, and was caught on the
restaurants surveillance video. [...] This horrific attack isn't the only one to happen in this area recently. FOX 11
obtained exclusive video back in June after a transient armed with a a 2x4 with a nail in it used the weapon to gash a mans
face open as he walked his dog.
This homeless man
is getting evicted. The city's homeless crisis has gotten so out of hand that officials are handing out formal
"eviction" notices to people who hunker down and sprawl out in some spots for too long, The [New York] Post has
learned. One-legged vagrant Thomas Harris, who's been living rent-free outside a Brooklyn subway station, is scheduled
to get the boot on Wednesday [12/5/2018], according to flyers taped around his makeshift hovel of shopping carts and plastic
sheeting. The notices, which went up on Friday, say city workers — accompanied by police — will
clean up the plaza at Parkside and Ocean avenues where he's camped out. "As of the date of the clean up, you must
leave this location along with your belongings," the flyers warn in bold letters.
NYPD
sends 20 cops to 'evict' one-legged homeless man. A contingent of NYPD officers spent two hours Wednesday
morning kicking out Thomas Harris, 61, from the Brooklyn plaza where he'd been camped out for weeks. Cops tore down the
hovel Harris built from shopping carts and plastic sheeting outside the subway station at Parkside and Ocean avenues, and
hauled away about half of his possessions, including some of the hand drums he peddles on the street. The ordeal also
involved a pair of FDNY ambulances staffed with EMTs, and several outreach workers from the Department of Homeless Services
and Breaking Ground, a non-profit city contractor.
Seattle
Homeless Camp Closed After Resident Beats Man With A Baseball Bat. There are an estimated 400 unsanctioned tent
encampments in Seattle. One of those camps is being closed down after a man living there attacked a passerby who was
performing at a bar across the street, putting him in the hospital with a fractured skull.
Transit
cops: Homeless sweeps are 'not a solution'. The MTA's new policy of clearing messy vagrants out of
stations comes just as the city is cracking down on transients camping on the street level. As the weather grows
colder, the city recently directed cops to stop homeless people from erecting tents, encampments and other structures on the
pavement, law-enforcement sources told The [New York] Post. City Hall acknowledged the new street sweeps. [...] The
move comes just as cops underground are expected to start sending more homeless people up to the street level, where the hope
is they'll go to shelters.
Government
fails the seriously mentally ill. They live on the street, often foraging through dumpsters. Some
threaten us. Occasionally, they assault people. Thousands of mentally ill people cycle in and out of hospital
emergency rooms. They strain our medical system, scare the public and sometimes harm themselves. Most, says DJ
Jaffe, are schizophrenic or bipolar and have stopped taking their medication. Jaffe gave up a successful advertising
career to try to improve the way America deals with such people.
The Editor says...
Instead of prioritizing the well-being of the insane, perhaps our elected officials should protect the general public
instead, and lock up the crazy people who are roaming the streets.
Denver
removes outdoor storage containers after reports of homeless people living in them. An experiment that was
supposed to help Denver's homeless population came to an abrupt end this week. City officials were forced to remove
large outdoor storage containers that were meant to give homeless people a safe place to store clothing and other possessions
after discovering that people were living inside them. Chris Conner, director of the city's Denver Road Home homelessness
agency, told The Denver Post that they started seeing people remaining inside the 4-by-6-foot cabinets. He said there were
also unconfirmed reports of people selling narcotics and allegations of prostitution inside the storage lockers[.]
Cops
arrest drifter, 22, with scratch marks on his face who said he had an 'urge to rape and kill'. A 'homeless' man
has been charged with murder after he allegedly stabbed to death former Iowa State University golf champion, Celia Barquin
Arozamena, and dumped her body in a pond on a golf course. Barquin, 22, was found dead at Coldwater Golf Links in Ames,
Iowa, Monday morning. Police were called to the golf course at 10.24 a.m. after golfers found an unattended golf bag.
Officers discovered a body some distance from the bag. A criminal complaint says Barquin, of Spain, died after being
repeatedly stabbed at the course, which is near her university campus. Police arrested 22-year-old Collin Daniel Richards
and charged him with first-degree murder.
Why
Washington Square Park is still riddled with drug addicts. Ever wonder why Bryant Park and Union Square are
junkie-free but not always Washington Square Park? That's because New York University, which owns most of the buildings
surrounding the park, has a love/hate relationship with the community. In the early 1980s, junkies and the homeless
were splayed all over and sandboxes were filled with cigarette butts, glass and worse. Today, things have changed —
but not by much. As The [New York] Post recently reported, crackpipes are now busting out all over.
SF Mayor Says Her City
is Drowning in Poop: 'There's More Feces - Than I've Ever Seen'. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the
streets of her city are flooded with the excrement of the homeless in an interview Friday [7/13/2018]. Breed, a Democrat
who was inaugurated as San Francisco's mayor Wednesday [7/11/2018], urged homeless advocacy groups that receive money from the
city to teach homeless people to "clean up after themselves." "There is more feces on the sidewalks than I've ever seen
growing up here," Breed told KNTV. "That is a huge problem and we are not just talking about from dogs —
we're talking about from humans."
Handing them out like candy. Seattle
authorities luring homeless off the streets with plane tickets, rent payments. It's been almost three months since homeless
tents began to crop up on the streets surrounding Seattle's famous Space Needle, but now teams of city employees have begun clearing out
the encampments near the tourist attraction today [7/4/2018], after a homeless man recently attacked a tourist visiting the site. It wasn't
the first such incident this summer. Earlier in June a family from Arizona was attacked by a man with a rope from one of Seattle's homeless
camps as they stepped out of their car which was parked near a large group of tents. The homeless man had a rope and tried to strangle
and punch a father after reports said the man confused one of the family members with TV star Ellen Degeneres.
Video
shows bystander taking out violent homeless man with impressive flying kick. A Good Samaritan's impressive
flying kick is being credited with taking out a homeless man who was allegedly attacking another person in Los Angeles.
The martial arts move — like one would see in an action movie — was executed flawlessly Monday
[6/25/2018] in downtown Los Angeles after the transient went after a man walking his dog in an unprovoked attack, Los Angeles
police told Fox 11.
Starbucks
Effect? Homeless Black Man Stabs White Man To Death In Nice Restaurant Because Police Failed To Arrest Him. Jamal Jackson is a
homeless black madman who stabbed Anthony Mele, [a] white man who was eating in a nice restaurant, the kind of place you normally don't meet black
homeless men. You know, like Starbucks used to be. The Ventura police, alerted to the presence of a black madman "yelling and being
disruptive" had pointed a camera at him briefly, but then decided to let him rave.
Couple's
anniversary night out in NYC turns into nightmare. A couple's 10-year wedding anniversary celebration turned
into a nightmare in Midtown when a crazed man walked up to the pair, spit on the woman and then punched her husband in the
face, police said Wednesday. Jeremy Goldberg and his wife Paola, 35-year-old restaurateurs from West Orange, NJ, had
just finished seeing the hit Broadway musical "Dear Evan Hansen" when they were attacked while walking along Eighth Avenue
near West 35th Street at around 9:55 p.m. Tuesday. The assailant, identified as 40-year-old Derrick Boyce,
suddenly spit at Paola — and then beat Jeremy in the face, leaving him with a bloodied mouth and bruising on his
right cheek, police said. The attacker fled the scene, but was nabbed by cops about 10 minutes later. He was
charged with assault.
NYPD
sergeant blames beatdown on Starbucks feeding homeless. An NYPD sergeant urged a Midtown Starbucks to stop
giving free food to the homeless after dozens of disturbance calls at the location. But the coffeehouse, not far from
the Port Authority Bus Terminal, ignored the warning and that same cop wound up being assaulted by a vagrant — who
was angry over the quality of his free croissant, the officer charges in a lawsuit. "I warned that someone would end up
getting hurt — it was an unsafe environment. It turned out to be me," Sgt. Timothy Wall told The [New
York] Post.
Homeless
man 'bursts into a steakhouse and randomly stabs father to death. A father has died after being stabbed in the
neck while his five-year-old daughter sat in his lap, allegedly by a homeless man who is said to have attacked him at random
during a family dinner. Anthony Mele, 35, was having dinner with his daughter and his wife in the Aloha Steakhouse in
Ventura, California, on Thursday night [4/19/2018] when homeless suspect Jamal Jackson, 49, came into the restaurant at around
9.20pm. Someone had called police three hours earlier to report Jackson being disruptive in the area but police did not
respond, claiming they did not have the resources at the time.
As waves
of homeless descend onto trains, L.A. tries a new strategy: social workers on the subway. The Metro system has
been a refuge for homeless people for decades. But as Los Angeles County's homeless population has surged, reaching
more than 58,000 people last year, the sanitation and safety problems on trains and buses are approaching what officials and
riders say are crisis levels. People looking for warm, dry places to sleep have barricaded themselves inside emergency
exit stairwells in stations, leaving behind trash and human waste. Elevator doors coated in urine have stuck
shut. Mentally ill and high passengers have assaulted bus drivers and other riders.
Guns,
Violence And The Mentally Ill. A significant subset of people with severe untreated mental illness are walking around. Rather
than finding a solution to this problem, we continue to hear that it's time to ban guns or shut down the National Rifle Association.
Those are patently absurd solutions to the problem. What one can deduce is that there are hundreds of thousands of people who are walking
around that are severally mentally ill. Many are frequently in and out jail. Their symptoms are not controlled by medication, either
because they do not take it, have access to it, or they abuse drugs and alcohol. Currently, they cannot be held against their will until
they commit a major felony and are determined to be not guilty by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial, at which time they can be
retained for long-term care in a state psychiatric facility. Others are just arrested for a variety of crimes after the fact, held and
released again until they either die on the street, commit another crime or kill someone or themselves.
Forget
Gun Control: Bring Back Mental Hospitals. After another inexplicable act of violence in Parkland Florida
claimed 17 lives, the usual chorus (and some of the not so usual chorus) is screaming for gun control. We don't need
gun control; we need nut control. With the first one constructed in 1773, our country has a history of building and
maintaining mental hospitals. In 1955, the United States had more than 100 mental hospitals with a population of over
560,000 people. The U.S. population in 1955 was around 165 million. Today, with a population around 323 million,
we can safely assume more than 1 million people would be institutionalized by 1955 standards. Where are these millions
of people who should be in mental hospitals? Living in our communities, wandering the streets while arguing with imaginary
figures, or in prison having been declared to be insane, but competent after having committed a crime.
Another
Liberal-Created Failure. According to professor William Gronfein at Indiana University-Purdue University
Indianapolis, by 1955 there were nearly 560,000 patients housed in state mental institutions across the nation. By
1977, the population of mental institutions had dropped to about 160,000 patients. Starting in the 1970s, advocates for
closing mental hospitals argued that because of the availability of new psychotropic drugs, people with mental illness could
live among the rest of the population in an unrestrained natural setting. [... But] shutting down mental hospitals didn't
turn out the way advocates promised. Several studies summarized by the Treatment Advocacy Center show that untreated
mentally ill are responsible for 10 percent of homicides (and a higher percentage of the mass killings). They are
20 percent of jail and prison inmates and more than 30 percent of the homeless. [...] Many innocent people have
been assaulted, robbed and murdered by mentally ill people. Businesspeople and their customers have had to cope with
the nuisance created by the mentally ill.
'National
disgrace': Community fights back as California overrun by homelessness, human waste, needles. The specter of
homeless encampments steadily expanding across the downtown streets of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco —
bringing with them a public health crisis — has one southern California community taking tough action to dismantle
a two-mile-long camp just a short drive from Disneyland. In a departure from the approach taken by other local
governments in the state, officials in Orange County, Calif., have started to clear out the camp — by moving
occupants and hauling away literally tons of trash and hazardous waste.
Mother of four gave
homeless man a helping hand. Police say he stabbed her to death. Family and friends are not surprised
that Jeanna Leslie offered a helping hand to a stranger. But they are shocked that the stranger, a man described as
homeless, stabbed her to death with kitchen knives in a bloody attack in her own home, according to police. She had
just moved to Denver from Texas a few months ago.
To
Protect Illegals from Deportation, Denver Decriminalizes Pooping on the Pavement. What's confusing for those
who regularly use restrooms is that a better life was supposed to be the excuse undocumented travelers gave for coming to
America, to begin with. How does permitting people to leave human excrement on the sidewalk cultivate an environment
unlike the one migrants came from? And if the culture illegals left behind ends up being foisted upon
America — how does that improve anyone's life? Yet pro-illegal immigrant activist-types seem to believe it
is "soft bigotry" to insist illegals assimilate by finding their way to a restroom like the rest of the civilized
world. Ironically, by allowing in Denver what is common for 40-million people in Pakistan, the left not only encourages
unsanitary conditions, they also tacitly insinuate that people from certain countries are incapable of learning to use the
bathroom. And who's the bigot?
Lawmakers
Close Homeless Camp Of 700 Near Disneyland. On Monday [1/22/2018] in Anaheim, California, Orange County
officials will begin to dismantle a Disneyland-area tent city of about 700 homeless people who have created an environmental
crisis along a riverbed. They will leave behind tons of trash and hazardous waste along the Santa Ana River channel
which feeds into the ocean next to multi-million dollar homes in Newport Beach. The camp stretches 1.4 miles.
Denver
Decriminalizes Public Defecation To Make Life Easier For Migrants, Homeless. The Denver City Council voted Monday
[5/22/2017] to approve major sentencing reform (in other words, making penalties more lenient) on Class I and II
offenses. The latter cover crimes like public defecation, panhandling and camping out on the sidewalk.
A
robot security guard is terrifying homeless people in San Francisco. The San Francisco SPCA, a non-profit whose
mission is "to save and protect animals ... and enhance the human-animal bond," is reportedly doing just the opposite with
its latest robot security guard. It is terrifying homeless people that hang out near the SPCA building in the Mission
section of the city, which was part of its objective, but it is freaking out residents as well. According to San
Francisco Business Times, the robot — dubbed K9 — was put into place to try and deal with the number of
needles, car break-ins and other crimes that have reportedly come from a nearby encampment of homeless people.
Portland's
Disgraceful Anarchy. The disorder that has long dominated the streets of Portland, Oregon reached a new low
earlier this month, when Columbia Sportswear, a major retailer headquartered just outside of nearby Beaverton, had to close
its flagship store downtown for a day after protestors blocked shoppers from entering. The protestors were reacting to
an op-ed by Tim Boyle, Columbia's CEO, in which he confessed that relocating his company to downtown Portland may have been a
mistake, citing the crimes and indecencies his employees have endured, including "daily defecation" by transients in the
store's lobby. Certain repeat offenders of the city's vagrant population, along with other agitators, have issued death
threats and broken into cars; one Columbia employee had to run into moving traffic after a stranger followed her and
threatened to kill her. Boyle, who is considering closing his store permanently, was right to call these events
"outrageous and unacceptable," yet Portland mayor Ted Wheeler has offered excuses rather than confronting the issue. On
Thursday [12/14/2017], Wheeler blamed his city's wave of homelessness on the federal Department of Housing and Urban
Development, attacking Secretary Ben Carson for failing to "provide solutions." Meanwhile, the city has been reluctant
to deploy the crime-prevention resources that it already has at its disposal to address the homelessness wave.
A
Homeless Camp Sparked The Fire That Ravaged LA's Wealthiest Zip Code. An illegal cooking fire at a homeless
camp started the blaze that engulfed more than 400 acres in Bel Air and the surrounding area, according to the Los Angeles
Fire Department. LAFD investigators said the Skirball Fire started at a homeless camp just north of Bel Air, which is
ranked as Los Angeles' wealthiest zip code. The blaze engulfed 422 acres and destroyed six structures, damaging
12 more since it began about six days ago.
Cooking
fire at a homeless encampment sparked Bel-Air blaze that destroyed homes, officials say. The blaze that swept
through the hills of Bel-Air last week, destroying six homes and damaging a dozen others, was sparked by a cooking fire at a
homeless encampment in a nearby ravine, Los Angeles officials said Tuesday. The encampment was nestled in a canyon
several hundred feet from Sepulveda Boulevard and the 405 Freeway, hidden from passing cars. For several years, it had
been home to an unknown number of people, officials said. Investigators said the fire had not been set deliberately and
they have not found any of the people who lived there. The camp — one of scores of makeshift communities
that have grown along freeways, rivers and open space across Los Angeles — was largely destroyed in the fire,
leaving authorities with little evidence.
Homeless
people defecating on LA streets fuels horror hepatitis outbreak, as city faulted. An outbreak of hepatitis A is
spreading through Los Angeles County after leaping from a large homeless contingent in San Diego, threatening thousands of people
and fueling criticism that local officials have not done enough to contain the deadly liver disease. Hundreds of cases have
turned up in southern California as well as Michigan — but conditions in Los Angeles, where roughly 50,000 people
live on the streets, have prompted deeper concerns. Reports compiled by volunteer organizations have faulted city officials
for not providing enough accessible toilets as the homeless population sharply increased by 23 percent this year.
Homeless
Crisis in Los Angeles Worst Since Great Depression. The number of homeless people living on Los Angeles's Skid
Row is the worst the city has seen since the Great Depression. This year, nearly 2,500 homeless and near-homeless men,
women and children were served Thanksgiving lunch on Skid Row and in Pasadena and Canoga Park. "We haven't seen numbers
like this since the Great Depression," Georgia Berkovich, the director of The Midnight Mission's public affairs department,
told the Los Angeles Times.
Kakaako
Waterfront Park to close indefinitely as homeless population grows. Kakaako Waterfront Park will be closed to
the public indefinitely — starting at 10 p.m. Sunday [10/22/2017] — because park officials say
they can no longer ensure the safety of park users following a recent series of dog bites, fires and vandalism attributed to
an estimated 180 homeless people living along the Kakaako shoreline. There is no timetable for when the park will reopen.
Miami
removes homeless from streets as Irma nears. As the window started to close for evacuating Florida before
Hurricane Irma arrived, police and social workers took to the streets of Miami in search of the city's estimated 1,100
homeless people. Their goal: Convince the homeless to willingly enter a storm shelter — or let them
know they can be held against their will for a mental health evaluation.
The Editor says...
Why can't this be done every day of the year in every city?
San
Diego starts washing down sidewalks, streets to fight hepatitis A outbreak. Crews working for a private
contractor began power-washing sidewalks with a chlorine solution in downtown San Diego on Monday [9/11/2017], part of
an effort to stop the spread of hepatitis A among homeless people. The crews cleaned sidewalks around 17th
and Imperial avenues, where hundreds of homeless congregate and live in tents and other shelters.
County
declares health emergency for hepatitis outbreak. San Diego County declared a local health emergency early
Friday night, adding a new level of urgency to a hepatitis A outbreak that has hit the homeless population hardest, killing
15 people and hospitalizing hundreds. [...] It has been clear for some time that the local outbreak is far beyond
ordinary. With 378 cases confirmed to date, it's the largest surge seen in at least 20 years. The first
cases linked to the outbreak occurred in November 2016, but there weren't enough of them until about March for local
epidemiologists to know for sure that infections were spreading more quickly than usual. Most hepatitis A outbreaks
are associated with specific foods picked or processed under unsanitary conditions. The virus that causes the condition
lives in human feces and is spread when people don't wash their hands thoroughly enough after using the bathroom.
Orange
County Residents Want Homeless Encampments Cleared Out Of Public Recreation Area. The Santa Ana River in Orange
County, California doesn't look like most people's idea of a river. It looks more like the concrete spillways you see
in movies shot in Los Angeles, at least most of the time. Along the Santa Ana River is a bike path that allows people
to ride all the way from Prado Dam past Angels Stadium in Anaheim to the ocean. Next to that path is a dirt shoulder
that has increasingly become home to hundreds of homeless people living in makeshift tents. Some OC residents are
afraid to jog or ride the trail and are demanding authorities do something.
Fountain
Valley residents say encroaching homeless encampment needs attention. Jonathan An, a homeowner in the New Chase
condominiums off Harbor Boulevard, points to a jacuzzi in the gated community. "They bathe here a lot," he said,
referring to his new neighbors who live in a large homeless encampment that has sprung up on the banks of the Santa Ana River
bordering his complex. Another condo resident points to a roll of toilet paper and makeshift bathroom within three feet
of a gate the residents have for accessing the river trail — which most now avoid.
Homeless
booted from subways so de Blasio could have 'clean' ride. Mayor Bill de Blasio ventured into the city's
decrepit subway system Sunday — but didn't have to face the foul-smelling and often crazy vagrants whom ordinary
New Yorkers are forced to contend with every day. That's because police were ordered to roust all the homeless people
from two stations ahead of the mayor's four-stop press event as he rode from his Park Slope gym to his new re-election
headquarters in downtown Brooklyn, law enforcement sources told The [New York] Post.
De Blasio's
Homeless Hypocrisy. Remarking on the rise in homelessness on the streets of New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio
sounded uncharacteristic of a progressive fighter for the poor and disenfranchised. He condemned people sitting outside
begging for money, "who are bluntly just panhandlers, who are not even homeless," but scrounge for handouts "because somehow
they think it's fun." [...] De Blasio seems angriest at what are commonly called "crusty punks" — lavishly
tattooed men and women in their twenties, often with dogs in tow, who populate the corners and parks of lower Manhattan,
panhandling during the day and sleeping rough at night.
Honolulu
lawmaker proposes bill to have armed park rangers to deter homeless. A state lawmaker is proposing stationing
armed park rangers at Honolulu city parks, where homeless encampments are common, because of a growing amount of trash and
safety concerns. Residents have taken issue with piles of trash and smell they claim come from homeless encampments,
the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Sunday [7/9/2017]. Honolulu city Councilman Trevor Ozawa wants residents to vote on
a 2018 City Charter amendment to place armed park rangers in the city's biggest parks. The rangers would be able to
address illegal camping, littering and vandalism and enforce no-smoking policies should the bill come to pass.
The Editor says...
This proves my point: If the "campers" aren't mentally unstable and potentially dangerous, why do the park rangers suddenly need to be armed?
NYC
Mayor Bill de Blasio So 'Frustrated' with Panhandlers He Wants to Make It Illegal. New York City Mayor Bill de
Blasio said [7/7/2017] he is so fed up with the city's panhandlers begging for money on the street that he wants to ban the
practice. [...] "I just wish it didn't exist," he added. "I am just expressing a frustration because I think it hurts the
quality of life in many ways." De Blasio tried to backtrack on his statement during the interview, saying that he is aware of
Constitutional protections in place that bar him from implementing a panhandling ban.
Chronic
criminal assassinates NYPD officer. Alexander Bonds, an ex-con with a long rap sheet, shot and killed New York
City police officer Miosotis Familia, a mother of three, as she sat in a patrol car in the Bronx. The attack was
unprovoked. It was an assassination.
NYPD
cop assassin was a drifter who once beat up an officer. The 34-year-old man who shot an NYPD veteran in the
head early Wednesday was a drifter whose rap sheet included a 2001 bust for beating up a cop in Queens, police sources
said. Alexander Bonds allegedly used brass knuckles to pummel the cop from the 111th Precinct. Four others joined
in on the beating, sources said. The outcome of that case was not immediately known. Bonds was paroled in 2013
for a robbery in Syracuse when he shot Miosotis Familia, 48, in the Fordham Heights section of the Bronx.
Crews Build Controversial
'Homeless Wall' In San Jose. Caltrans is building a taller, stronger wall in San Jose to stop homeless
individuals from returning to an encampment. Caltrans has repeatedly cleaned up the large encampment under I-280, but
the homeless keep returning. While this new solution has some homeowners pleased, it is generating a lot of anger in
the community.
Why
you might see more people peeing on the streets of NYC this summer. New Yorkers should prepare for a loud,
smelly summer. As of Tuesday, scofflaws who commit certain quality-of-life violations — including urinating,
boozing or blasting loud music in public — will get little more than a slap on the wrist. The change is the
result of the City Council's controversial Criminal Justice Reform Act, which allows law breakers who've been cited for those
and other low-level offenses to face justice in administrative hearings rather than in criminal court.
NYC:
"Allahu akbar" shouting Muslim threatens to blow up Times Square Church, kill Christians. A homeless man
shouting "Allahu akbar" busted a Midtown church's door with a wrench and threatened to return and shoot all Christians,
police sources said Wednesday [6/7/2017]. The drama began when Noel Droni asked a 37-year-old homeless man outside the
interdenominational Times Square Church, on W. 51st St., if he was a Christian on Monday [9/12/2017], cops said. When
the man told Droni he was Christian, Droni allegedly pulled a red wrench from his backpack and smashed the church's glass door.
Homeless
man with lengthy rap sheet is prime suspect in fatal beating of transgender woman. A homeless man with a
lengthy criminal past is the prime suspect in the fatal beating of a transgender woman in Chelsea, the [New York] Daily News
has learned. Medics found Brenda Bostick, 59, on the ground with severe head trauma on Seventh Ave. near 29th St. at
10:30 p.m. on April 25. The homeless woman was discovered just a few blocks from the W. 25th St.
shelter where she had been staying, sources said. She died Thursday [5/18/2017] at Bellevue Hospital, and her death has
been ruled a homicide.
3
arrested in Atlanta fire underneath interstate bridge. Three people have been arrested in connection with the
raging fire that collapsed a portion of Interstate 85 a few miles north of downtown Atlanta, crippling a major traffic artery
in a city already known for dreadful rush-hour congestion.
Suspects
connected to I-85 fire, collapse identified. Three people have been arrested after a massive fire under I-85
caused a huge chunk of the roadway to collapse Thursday, multiple officials confirm. The fire began in the middle of
rush hour and brought Atlanta traffic on both sides of the busy Interstate to a complete standstill, as giant flames and
plumes of black smoke billowed. It left motorists stranded on the the Interstate for hours as Georgia State Patrol
Troopers worked to divert traffic and clear the roadway.
Atlanta
bridge fire suspect was smoking crack before blaze began, warrant says. The homeless man accused of starting a
fire that caused a section of a major Atlanta interstate to collapse was smoking crack before the blaze erupted, his arrest
warrant shows. Basil Eleby, 39, was charged with first degree arson and criminal damage to property in connection to
the fire, and is being held in Fulton County jail on a $200,000 bond. Eleby has been arrested 20 times since 2000,
mostly on drug possession and drug trafficking charges, according to Fulton County jail records.
Homeless
'Spitting Lady' had $19K on her when arrested. The homeless woman who has been spitting on Upper East Side
residents was carrying more than $19,133 in cash on her when she was arrested Thursday for allegedly attacking a child,
sources said. Hilda Barrion — nicknamed "The Spitting Lady of 77th Street" — was picked up around
7 a.m. on East 78th Street and told officers she had amassed her fortune by collecting bottles and cans, the sources
said. Besides the cash pile, Barrion, 65, was hauling around a load of random possessions that included a spaghetti
strainer and sewing needles.
'Spitting
Lady' has no plans to stop. The crazed crooner tormenting residents of an Upper East Side high-rise is just the
latest example of how Mayor de Blasio has turned over the streets to unhinged vagrants. Another is a woman known to
Upper East Siders as "The Spitting Lady of 77th Street." Confronted by The Post last week, the homeless woman —
who locals say has been spitting on passers-by for years — shouted: "I'm calling the cops! I know my
rights! I live in the streets!"
Homeless
man's nonstop drunken singing is driving people crazy. Residents of an Upper East Side high-rise are being
driven out of their minds — and apartments — by a homeless man who drunkenly sings at the top of his
lungs all day and night. The caterwauling crank has been plaguing the Saratoga condo tower at East 75th Street and
First Avenue, where he sits on the edge of a cement planter and screams out freestyle lyrics of a decidedly personal nature.
Ohio
panhandler, cited by police 250 times, refuses to back down. Cleveland police and a persistent panhandler have
been engaged in a war of wills for years at a homely west side intersection, a conflict that appears to subside only when the
man is in jail.
Hawaii
lawmaker says homeless using war memorial as open latrine. A Hawaii state lawmaker is looking to add more
protection to a Korean and Vietnam War Memorial that had been desecrated by some of the homeless population. State
Rep. Bob McDermott, R-Ewa Beach, said Friday the memorial, which stretches 100 feet in its Honolulu location, that some
homeless residents were using it as an open latrine, according to Hawaii News Now. "The homeless are nesting there and
defecating there because it provides a degree of concealment. It's human waste — several piles along with
clothing and needles and other trash. It's just terrible," he said.
Homeless
woman arrested for pushing stranger into oncoming subway train in Manhattan. A 50-year-old woman was lucky to
avoid serious injury after a vagrant shoved her into the side of an oncoming subway train in Manhattan, sources said
Wednesday [10/26/2016]. The homeless assailant, Patricia Abraham, 62, was busted Tuesday less than 24 hours after the
unprovoked attack at the Prince St. station, sources said. The victim was waiting on the northbound platform at about
4:50 p.m. Monday when Abraham hurled her into the train, sources said.
Homeless
Couple Having Sex In Public Last Straw: Denver Residents Moving Out. A young couple in Denver's West City
Park neighborhood have put their home up for sale saying problems with Denver's homeless population are driving them out of
the city. "It makes us extremely uncomfortable and we don't want to live here any longer," said the woman, who asked not
to be identified. "Increasingly every day it's the number one reason I want to sell is because of the homeless situation."
A
scene of homeless misery greets patrons trying to use Santa Ana's award-winning library. Haley Flores grew up
poring over history books at the Santa Ana Public Library while her little brothers built up their vocabulary there and read
tales about alien attacks and outer space. But a visit to the downtown library has become, on many days, a walk through
a gantlet of misery: Homeless men and women sleep in the lawn while others plead with visitors for change. Inside
the building, signs warned people to avoid restrooms where some homeless use sinks and even toilet water to bathe themselves
and wash their clothes. Some of Santa Ana's down and out used the study carrels to look for jobs — others
shot up drugs, with syringes found discarded in planters and even a box of toilet seat covers.
Doughnut
shop under fire after blaming closing on city's homeless. A Grand Rapids doughnut shop has closed and their
reasoning is not going over well. Propaganda Doughnuts was in business for nearly 3 years on South Division
Avenue. The shop posted on their Facebook page that they are closed as of last Sunday and thanked customers for their
business. The post went on to explain that they were "unable to find answers and overcome the problem of the increasing
amount of homeless and disadvantaged people who now frequent the street in front of our location."
College
graduate, 21, fighting for his life after 'random stabbing attack' in Santa Rosa movie theater. The California
college graduate who was stabbed repeatedly in the neck in a 'random' cinema attack tried to fight off his assailant, his
brother has revealed. Adam Lucero, 21, or Pasadena, California, was watching The Shallows at the Roxy Theater when the
man sitting behind him began stabbing him with a chef's knife. Lucero — was left with a punctured lung and injuries to
his neck, arm and ear — is in a heavily sedated state in hospital following a lengthy surgery.
Poopy pants attacker
has struck before. A second woman was attacked with feces on the Upper East Side by a homeless man already
suspected of shoving excrement down another woman's shorts, cops said on Thursday [6/30/2016]. "Really disgusting
attacks," NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. Cops Thursday night were questioning a suspect at the 19th
Precinct station house. In the first attack, a 33-year-old woman was walking when a man threw feces at her, striking
her face and torso at about 4:30 p.m. Monday [6/27/2016] in front of 67 E. 91st St.
The Editor says...
Victim: white. Perp: black. Hate crime charges? Not a chance.
NYC
monitoring of some mentally ill sparks rights concerns. The program — apparently unique among American cities —
keeps tabs on a roster of people with psychiatric problems and a history of violence, hoping to help them before they reach a breaking point.
Illegal
alien charged with five horrific murders in LA. The man charged burning five people to death in Los Angeles is
an illegal alien from Honduras. He was caught by the border patrol in 2012. However, the Obama administration
ordered the border patrol to release him into the public. The Obama administration has a "catch and release" policy
because the goal is to transform the US electorate via open borders and 3rd world immigration.
Homeless
Man Charged Fire Deaths Was In US Illegally. A homeless man charged with setting a fire that killed five people
at a vacant Los Angeles building was in the country illegally, and was arrested for drug possession days before the blaze.
Suspect
in fire that killed 5 was here illegally, fought with another transient before slayings. A Honduran citizen
charged with murdering five homeless people in an arson fire was in the United States illegally and had been arrested three
times in the months before the blaze in a vacant Westlake building where transients were squatting, officials said Friday
[6/17/2016]. Johnny Josue Sanchez, 21, started the fire to avenge a beating he took in a dispute over occupying a room
in the building, a law enforcement source said.
Homeless
Man Stabs Times Square Worker in Neck, Police Say. A homeless man asking for money nearly killed a worker in
Times Square after stabbing him in the neck with a scissors during a fight, officials said. Zaki Smith, 26, stabbed the
Times Square Alliance sanitation worker after the victim refused to hand over cash and a fight ensued, the NYPD said. [...]
Cooper suffered "severe lacerations" to his ear and neck and bled "extensively, to the point where he was losing
consciousness," the DA's office said.
Homeless
man stabs victim in the neck with scissors in Times Square: NYPD. When a passerby refused to give money
to a homeless man in Times Square, the transient allegedly pulled out a pair of scissors and stabbed the man in his neck,
police said. [...] Zaki Smith, 26, allegedly approached a man in his 50s and demanded money, police said. The older man
refused and Smith allegedly stabbed him in the neck with a pair of scissors he had been concealing.
Senior Brutally
Beaten In Downtown Los Angeles Attack Dies. An elderly man who was brutally beaten in broad daylight in downtown
Los Angeles earlier in April has died, according to Los Angeles police. [...] LaFawn Parker, a 46-year-old transient said to be
mentally unstable, punched and kicked the elderly man several times as he was walking down the street, police said.
Black
thug Meechaiel Khalil Criner 'allegedly' kills UT Austin white woman. Chalk up another one for black lives
matter and the progressive extremists. Meechaiel Khalil Criner a black 'homeless' man allegedly killed UT Austin
student Haruka Weiser. Meechaiel Khalil Criner has been charged with murder. As is typical when a black thugs
murders a white, the media goes out and tries to make the killer the victim. The media in Texas whines about how Criner
was bullied and in foster care as a child.
Homeless
Teen Arrested in Killing of University of Texas Student Haruka Weiser. The suspect — identified as Meechaiel
Criner — was arrested Thursday and booked in the Travis County Jail, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said at a news
conference. Student Haruka Weiser, an 18-year-old dance and theater major, was last seen alive on the Austin campus Sunday night
before she was reported missing the following morning. Her body was discovered near a creek on Tuesday, and investigators declared
her death a homicide — setting off a manhunt on the campus of 50,000 students.
Two people slashed
by vagrants in separate attacks. Panhandlers slashed two men in Manhattan subway stations in separate attacks
on Friday — one for refusing to fork over money, and the other because he didn't give enough, cops said. The
first attack took place at the Chambers Street station around 5 a.m. when a straphanger on the A platform was
approached by a beggar and then slashed across the face when he declined to give the vagrant any money. The slasher then
fled, cops said. The injured man left the train station and went to his workplace where he called 911. He suffered
a minor cut to his face and refused medical aid at the scene.
Seattle
Underbelly Exposed as Homeless Camp Violence Flares. So dangerous is this city's biggest homeless camp, called the Jungle —
three ragged miles stitched along the underbelly of Interstate 5 — that if a fire broke out there today, firefighters would not be
allowed in without an armed police escort. State lawmakers are considering a razor-wire fence around the camp, separating it from the
city at a cost of $1 million.
San
Francisco homeless remain in 'unhealthy' tent city despite order to vacate. About 30 tents remained in place
Friday [2/26/2016] as the deadline for homeless people to vacate a San Francisco tent city came and went without any action.
The homeless living in the encampment had until 5 p.m. Friday to clear out, Sam Dodge, the mayor's point person on homelessness,
said. City officials and the San Francisco Police have not said what they intend to do with the tent residents.
Woman
slashed in face by homeless man in Manhattan furious he was on the streets despite 32 prior arrests. A mentally ill man, off
his meds and free to roam the streets, victimized at least six women — even before cops say he randomly slashed a woman in the
face in Chelsea. The family of 41-year-old Kari Bazemore told the Daily News the accused Chelsea slasher has been in and out of
psychiatric institutions for at least the last five years. Bazemore began showing signs of psychiatric problems 15 years ago,
his sister Dana Bazemore said. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and was hospitalized at least three times
following arrests.
Outsourcing
the Mentally Ill to Police. The police are our de facto front-line mental-health workers — "armed social
workers" in the pungent phrase of one observer — and jails are our de facto psychiatric-hospital system. In
its analysis of 2015 police shootings, the [Washington] Post found dozens of cases in which the police were called as a
means of getting treatment. Shirley Marshall Harrison called the Dallas police when her schizophrenic, bipolar son was out of
control. He was shot down while allegedly charging police with a screwdriver. "I didn't call for them to take him to
the morgue," she said of the cops. "I called for medical help." It's a poignant lament, but why do the families of the
severely mentally ill need to rely on the police for medical assistance? When someone has a heart attack or gets cancer, we
don't call the police.
Woman
driver intentionally plows into crowd leaving one dead, six critical and 31 injured. Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of
Buckeye, Arizona, died in the crash on Sunday night [12/20/2015], after Lakeisha N. Holloway, 24, of Portland, allegedly hit
pedestrians on two different sections of the sidewalk while heading north on Las Vegas Boulevard near Bellagio Way. [...]
She did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol, police said, but a drug recognition expert on the scene determined
Holloway was under the influence of a 'stimulant,' although blood test results are pending. Holloway told authorities that
she had been in Las Vegas for around a week, Lombardo added, and police believe she was living in her vehicle with her daughter.
1 dead, 36 injured after
intentional crash on Las Vegas Strip. Police have now confirmed that the crash was intentional. [...] Witnesses reported
that people tried to stop the driver and that her windshield was completely smashed. She fled the scene and police caught her at
Flamingo Road and Koval. She was briefly barricaded in her car and refused to come out for a while before she was arrested.
Her vehicle has Oregon license plates and it is believed that she has been in Las Vegas for about a week.
Police:
Driver in Vegas crash was seeking estranged partner. Suspect Lakeisha N. Holloway, 24, resided in Oregon and
had been in Las Vegas for about a week in her 1996 Oldsmobile sedan, parking it at garages throughout the city, Clark County
Sheriff Joe Lombardo said.
Pentagon
probes how civilian lived for months in Fort Bragg barracks. Army officials are trying to figure out how a
civilian managed to live for several months at Fort Bragg, eating and bunking with special forces operators despite not being
a member of the military. The unidentified man, who a source told FoxNews.com is mentally ill, was found out last month,
and has been questioned. The source said the man told the real soldiers he lived among that he was a demolition specialist
and exempt from the daily activities they took part in.
Homeless
Man Allegedly Lived In Army Barracks As Soldier For 8 Months. A homeless man in North Carolina allegedly posed
as an Army soldier and lived in a special forces barracks at Fort Bragg for eight months before being caught, according to a
popular military Facebook page. The incident was first reported on the Facebook page [...] in a detailed post.
The Fayetteville Observer has confirmed the hidden civilian's discovery, but otherwise military officials have yet to confirm
or deny the report.
Accused rapist at Miami-Dade
assisted living facility no stranger to justice system. A mentally ill drifter with a history of sexual violence,
Eric Fields stands accused of savagely raping an employee at a South Miami-Dade assisted living facility in June. He is no
stranger to the criminal justice system. Time and again, the system could not safeguard against his behavior —
underscoring the challenges authorities face in dealing with sex offenders suffering from severe mental illness.
City
subways are a pervert's paradise. Sex crimes on the city's subways have soared by nearly 20 percent this year,
due to a surge in the number of gropers, flashers and voyeurs, NYPD officials said on Monday [12/14/2015]. [...] In the past five
months alone, the rate of increase has more than doubled — with a total of 699 incidents reported, or 106 more than
the 593 recorded for the same period last year, authorities said. The most common offenses are forcible touching, lewdness
and unwanted surveillance, NYPD Deputy Chief Vincent Coogan told MTA officials at a meeting.
Homeless reign over LaGuardia to come to an
end: Port Authority. The Port Authority said Friday [12/18/2015] it will turn La Guardia Airport into a bum-free zone -- but not until after
the holidays. The agency made the move following an exposé in The [New York] Post showing that at least 50 homeless squatters had moved into
the busy airport, sleeping on vents, stealing food from shops and getting naked to wash themselves in the bathrooms. The homeless have also been
taking up chairs meant for passengers while snoring under blaring televisions. Some hang around during the day, arguing with cleaning crews
and bothering shop workers.
Homeless
squatters are taking over LaGuardia Airport. Vice President Joe Biden once compared it to a "Third World
country" — but LaGuardia Airport has become so riddled with homeless that it could now even make some of those
nations look good. The number of derelicts living at the airport has increased dramatically in the past year, turning the
main terminal into the city's most popular de facto flophouse, where they sleep, eat and wash up while competing for space
with passengers, according to Port Authority sources.
The
Left And The Mentally Ill: A Band Of Lunatic Brothers. The Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, which
had been a goal of the Left since the late 1960's, one that was fully realized by the late 1970's, has brought about nothing
buy misery, violence, and death for both the sane and those people the Left supposedly sought to help. [...] Releasing the
Mentally Ill into our Society and forcing us at the point of a gun to not be able to take effective measures to prevent them
from causing harm, the Left is ensuring that our Society will begin to totter and will eventually fall into Mayhem and Disorder.
Crazy People Are Dangerous, Part 4. If only we were
more compassionate and understanding, liberals say, we could alleviate the suffering of these pathetic nutcases. Yet these pleas for
compassion and understanding have an effect of blinding us to the fact that mentally ill people may pose genuine risks to public safety.
Think about the Creepy Little Weirdo who committed the Sandy Hook massacre. Think about the Creepy Little Weirdo who committed the Isla Vista
massacre. It was after Gus Deeds stabbed his father, Virginia state Sen. Creigh Deeds, in November 2013, that I put it bluntly:
Crazy People Are Dangerous. And since then we have seen numerous stories that confirm this basic truth, including the German co-pilot
who killed 150 people when he crashed a plane into a mountain.
Bums
declare war on Christmas. Vagrants are urinating in the street, hassling passers-by for cash — and
now they've ruined Christmas in The Bronx. The annual outdoor Christmas tree lighting in the borough's famed Little Italy
section was canceled because the soaring panhandler population forced the sponsors to spend so much on security that there
was no cash left for the celebration.
Crazy People are Dangerous,
Part 8. Liberals tell us it is heartless and "mean-spirited" to suggest that public safety would be best served if mentally
ill people with histories of dangerous behavior were locked up in psychiatric wards. Americans are told that it's OK to let delusional
and antisocial freaks roam around free in our society, because what could possibly go wrong? When one of these dangerous kooks who
roam among us finally commits an act of crazy violence, however, liberals quickly rush to tell us that his insane actions have some kind of
political significance and that the proper response to this atrocity is [...] more liberalism.
Michael
Jordan's Steakhouse: We're overrun by bums! The city's homeless plague is so rampant that it's threatening to
put Michael Jordan's Steakhouse out of business, according to a new lawsuit. The entryway to the Grand Central Terminal
eatery is being overrun by bums, thanks to a long-term construction project on Vanderbilt Avenue that has created a festering
enclave of vagrants, restaurant owner Matthew Glazier says in court papers. And business is so bad as a result that
revenue has dropped 24 percent, according to the suit against his landlord, the MTA.
L.A.
lawmakers to declare 'state of emergency,' commit more than $100 million to fight homelessness. Los Angeles
elected leaders announced Tuesday [9/22/2015] that they will declare a "state of emergency" on the growing homelessness
problem in the city and commit $100 million toward housing and other services for homeless people. The proposal,
which was presented at a City Hall press conference attended by City Council members and Mayor Eric Garcetti, coincides with
a Garcetti administration proposal, issued late Monday, that aims to free up nearly $13 million in newly anticipated excess
tax revenue for short-term housing initiatives.
The Editor says...
Homeless people in the streets is a chronic problem, but it's not an emergency.
It is a condition that has developed over several decades, as a
result of left-wing nanny-state policy, driven by emotion rather than reason.
Those Yellow-Stain Blues.
It's a lucky thing the driver wasn't crushed when a three-story-tall lamp post fell on top of a car stopped on the corner of
Pine and Taylor Streets in San Francisco on a Monday evening last month. The base of the lamp post had been corroded
after countless soakings with urine from San Francisco's ubiquitous homeless, prompting a spokesman for the city's Public
Utilities Commission to encourage people and dogs alike to water fire hydrants rather than light poles because the fire
hydrants are made of stronger cast iron. That collapsing lamp post is a perfect metaphor for urban Democrat governance.
If you want to know what inevitably results from allowing the Far Left to run cities cleared of middle-class voters over decades,
picture vast armies of homeless bums gleefully micturating on public infrastructure, while public officials merely beg for more
clichéd choices amid terror of alienating a prominent, if noisome and not quite sane, constituency, until that
piddle-drenched infrastructure inevitably topples. That is, after all, what Democrat cities ultimately put on display.
'Homeless by Choice' in New
York. Mohamed Rasul is homeless in New York City. But don't feel too sorry for him, he's "homeless by choice."
He's got a free laptop and free Wi-Fi in Bryant Park. According to Mohamed, he's "never been as comfortable as under de Blasio"
because no one forces him to leave the park where a miniature carousel spins children around on painted horses and a yoga lesson takes
place on the main lawn. These things, the carousel, the yoga lesson and the free Wi-Fi, only exist because the park was restored
from its old days as a drug dealing hangout known as Needle Park.
Big Apple Versus Big Toilet. Not long ago,
I asked [San Francisco] Mayor Ed Lee what he sees as contributing factors to San Francisco's high P.U. quotient. His answer:
The drought means less rain to wash away human waste. Other cities have winters that prompt street people to move to better
climates. Development has claimed space that used to house homeless encampments. He also credited "historic levels of
drug use" from "people who don't get held responsible for their behavior." Lee has a solid point on each of those factors.
I would add another: pride. San Franciscans are proud of the city's vaunted tolerance. Lest they seem intolerant, many
locals have been reluctant to complain about the pervasive smell of urine and occasional glimpses of public defecation until conditions
become impossible to ignore.
Bums Bury San Francisco in Feces. San
Francisco is also a center of leftism. The liberals running the city have laid out a red carpet for dysfunctional street people,
who come from all over the country to collect their freebies and crap on the sidewalk. Combined with the policy of no longer
incarcerating any but the most obviously violent lunatics, this has reduced the city to a cross between a mental institution and a sewer.
Angry
cops post pictures of vagrants online. NYPD cops fed up with vagrants making life
miserable in the city are taking matters into their own hands — by snapping photos of
quality-of-life scofflaws and posting them online. The Sergeants Benevolent Association is
spearheading the effort, emailing a letter to members Monday [8/10/2015] urging them and their
families and friends to take pictures to document the decline of the city.
Justice
Department asks judge to block enforcement of homeless camping ban. The U.S. Justice Department on
Thursday [8/6/2015] urged a judge to block enforcement of an anti-camping ordinance in Boise, Idaho, by employing
the rationale from a seminal Los Angeles homeless-rights case. The outcome in Boise could reverberate in
Los Angeles — where officials are considering resuming enforcement of the city's own anti-camping
ordinance, considered among the strictest in the country. It bans sleeping, sitting or lying on sidewalks
and other public property.
Lamp
post destroyed by urine falls in street, just misses driver. Concerns about San Francisco's decaying
light poles were ignited Monday night [8/3/2015] after one corroded by urine toppled onto a car, narrowly missing
the driver. The three-story-tall lamp post at Pine and Taylor streets snapped around 6:30 Monday and landed
on a nearby car, almost crushing the driver. No one was injured. A perfect storm of conditions
rusted out the base of the pole, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials say, and caused it to fall.
At the time, the lamp post, which was already old, was damaged by urine and weighed down by an oversized banner.
Photos
Show Homeless Man Taking Bath In Columbus Circle Fountain. It was a shocking scene at
one of the city's most visited landmarks. CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer obtained exclusive
images of what some call the latest public insult of Mayor Bill de Blasio's New York City. Pictures
were snapped of a homeless man taking a bath in the fountain at Columbus Circle, a popular city landmark
that is now the bathtub of a bum. The man who took the photo called the incident simply appalling.
"This, for me, was the tipping point on quality of life. This man is actually lathering up with
a bar of soap," Ken Frydman said.
Bums
are running amok in New York City and it needs to stop. One day last week, a deranged,
apparently homeless man screamed bloody murder outside the Marriott hotel in Downtown Brooklyn.
"I need a dollar!" he shrieked. "I need two dollars! I need to feed my kid!" There was no child
present. But the man, who appeared to be in his 30s, bore the unmistakable aroma of cigarettes and urine.
He singlehandedly drove the horde of lunchtime pedestrians from the hotel's plaza. There was no cop in sight.
On Smith Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, one afternoon, a disheveled man who looked to be in his 20s demanded spare
change, but not from people exiting the F subway train station. He targeted women pushing small kids in strollers,
causing his vulnerable marks to scatter as if avoiding a virulent disease.
Apparently
it's now OK to pee on the streets of New York City. Here's an up-close look at a quality-of-life
offense the City Council wants to decriminalize. This urinating vagrant turned a busy stretch of Broadway into
his own private bathroom yesterday — an offense that would result in a mere summons if Council Speaker
Melissa Mark-Viverito and her pals get their way. Wrapped in rags and a Mets blanket the hobo wandered into
traffic at around 10:30 a.m. and relieved himself as cabs, cars and buses whizzed by between West 83rd and
84th streets on the Upper West Side.
Avert Your Eyes
and Hold Your Nose. Downtown San Francisco feels like a large public toilet without
enough janitors. More than once this year, I've seen men drop their pants in public
places — including at Fifth and Market — to leave a smelly mess on the
sidewalk. You can walk for blocks and never escape the stench of stale urine. At
lunchtime, I see street people passed out on high-traffic sidewalks, and I am afraid to walk around
them. The homeless have been a problem in San Francisco for as far back as anyone remembers,
but to me it seems this year is the worst.
Woman who tries to
sneak onto planes arrested twice in 2 days. A woman who has repeatedly tried to sneak aboard airplanes has been arrested
in Chicago twice in as many days, the latest incident while trying to get through security without a ticket at O'Hare International Airport.
The Editor says...
Two obvious questions arise: Why hasn't she locked up for a long time, and how many times has she successfully flown without a ticket?
Hmmm... Ban machetes, or lock up insane homeless people. Which would make more sense? Politicians
call for tougher machete laws after park attack. Lawmakers on Wednesday [6/24/2015] demanded tougher
regulations to prevent a repeat of the wild machete attack in Bryant Park. "It is disturbing," said state Sen.
Tony Avella, a day after a foreign tourist was slashed with an easy-to-get and hard-to-ban machete. "They are
deadly weapons," he said. Smaller knives such as switchblades and gravity knives are already banned. But
machetes are considered tools, the same as butcher's knives.
Man
Slashes Woman With Machete in Bryant Park, Authorities Say. A man wielding a machete
struck a 31-year-old woman in the arm in Bryant Park on Tuesday in what the police said appeared to
have been a random attack. [...] The man, identified by the police as Frederick Young, 43, was
charged with assault. [...] Mr. Young has 23 previous arrests, Chief Boyce said.
The Editor says...
How do I know he's a homeless man? Just turn to the British press. They're not afraid to say so.
Machete-wielding
homeless man slashes woman, 31, in New York's Bryant Park. A machete-wielding homeless
man has slashed a stranger in a New York City park after she left a nearby yoga class. Frederick
Young, 43, was allegedly carrying the large blade through Bryant Park in Manhattan around 11.30am
when he approached the woman and sliced her arm.
Cops shoot
hammer-wielding suspect in Midtown. Dramatic video released by the department shows
career criminal David Baril, 30, strike Police Officer Lauren O'Rourke three times with the weapon
before her partner opened fire around 10 a.m. on Eighth Avenue and West 37th Street. [...] Baril had
eight prior arrests, including once for assaulting a police officer trying to hand him a summons in
Riverdale Park in 2013, officials said. He's also been arrested for possessing cocaine, a stun gun
and a razor. Aubry said Baril suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia and has been living on the
street since he voluntarily left a mental health facility in upper Manhattan.
The
Trans Ex-Convict Who Crashed The NSA. The individual who was shot at and apparently
killed by federal police on Monday at the entrance to the NSA's main campus identified as
transgender and had a long history of run-ins with the law, including charges for prostitution,
robbery, and assault. Ricky Shawatza Hall of Baltimore was identified by the FBI on Tuesday [3/31/2015]
as the driver of an SUV that police fired on after it refused to yield to orders from officers to stop at the
entrance to Fort Meade, Maryland.
Transgender
woman who was shot dead trying to ram SUV through NSA gate was a 'homeless prostitute who was facing
prison time'. The FBI has identified two people who were shot outside the National
Security Agency's headquarters on Monday after allegedly stealing an SUV they were driving from a
motel. Kevin Lamont Fleming, 20, and his friend Ricky 'Maya' Shawatza Hall, 27, were allegedly
picked up in Baltimore by another man on Sunday night before 'partying' at nearby lodgings in Howard
County. The unidentified 60-year-old Baltimore driver went to the bathroom on Monday morning and
discovered that both his passengers and his Ford Escape SUV had gone, he told police.
Homeless
man sets [him]self on fire during St. Pat's bar crawl. Hoboken police received a call
about 11 p.m. that a man was trying to set himself on fire and found him with is jacket ablaze,
Chief Kenneth Ferrante told NJ.com. Officers shouted for him to get to the ground so they could
extinguish it, but he refused.
'Serial
stowaway' Marilyn Hartman arrested at Chicago's O'Hare. Marilyn Hartman, who became
known as the "serial stowaway" after numerous attempts to sneak onto airplanes, was arrested at an
airport twice last month — this time in Chicago — after she was spotted in a
restricted area without a ticket, authorities said. [...] In August, she sneaked onto a plane from
Mineta San Jose International Airport and was arrested when she landed at Los Angeles International
Airport, authorities said. Hartman told reporters she was drawn to airports because she was
homeless, and they were safer than the streets.
Nationally
known 'serial stowaway' arrested in Nassau County. The woman who is known nationally
as the "Serial Stowaway" was arrested Monday [2/9/2015] in Nassau County. Marilyn Jean Hartman,
63, is charged with fraud/impersonation, defrauding an inkeeper and trespassing after she was found
to have checked into the Omni Amelia Island Plantation under another person's name, according to a
Nassau County Sheriff's Office arrest report. An online search of Hartman's name will yield
dozens of mugshots and stowaway arrests from all across the country.
'Infamous
serial stowaway' Marilyn Jean Hartman strikes again. Marilyn Jean Hartman boarded a plane in Minnesota
and arrived in Florida on Sunday [2/8/2015], she told authorities. There, at Jacksonville International Airport,
she claimed to have hopped on a transportation van to an island resort. [...] The arrest report says Hartman is homeless.
More
homeless camps are appearing beyond downtown L.A.'s skid row. Over the last two years,
street encampments have jumped their historic boundaries in downtown Los Angeles, lining freeways
and filling underpasses from Echo Park to South Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Homeless Services
Authority, a city-county agency, received 767 calls about street encampments in 2014, up 60% from
the 479 in 2013. Some residents believe the city is exporting its downtown homeless problem to
their neighborhoods. But social service agencies and volunteers say it isn't that simple.
They say that although downtown development and skid row cleanups are squeezing out some homeless
people, many camps are filled with locals.
San
Jose begins closing down 68-acre homeless encampment. San Jose on Thursday [12/4/2014]
is shutting down a sprawling homeless encampment, known as the Jungle, that has become a major
embarrassment to the city. Hundreds of homeless people turned 68 acres along Coyote Creek into a
shantytown with lean-tos and underground bunkers, even a treehouse. The Jungle had become a symbol
of Silicon Valley's rampant homeless problem, and officials decided to close it down for good.
Conflicts
in New York City Parks as Homeless Population Rises. In Harlem River Park in
Manhattan, homeless men can be seen sleeping on benches around the basketball courts and sprawled
out on a soccer field by day, then hunkering under an overpass at night. In Brooklyn, dog owners
in Fort Greene Park have had ugly confrontations with homeless people after their dogs woke them up
in the early morning when they are allowed off-leash. And in the Bronx, there are so many homeless
people in one small park, Devanney Triangle, that the community board and parks department are
discussing the removal of all benches.
'Squeegee Man' busted for 226th
time. The "Squeegee Man" of Midtown was busted again — his 179th arrest — for
illegally washing car windows Friday evening [9/5/2014], a law-enforcement source told The [New York] Post.
Gregg Washington, 40, was caught washing motorists' windshields at the corner of West 42nd Street and 9th Avenue
around 4:30 p.m., a source said. "It appears as if he moved towards the West Side because of the heat
he was getting [on the East Side]," another police source said.
The Streets of San Francisco.
If you want to film a zombie movie on the cheap, San Francisco offers a ready-made location overflowing with extras.
The mentally ill, addicted, and homeless find a home in the City by the Bay as they do nowhere else in North America.
In this walkable Western metropolis, one walks a gauntlet of down-and-outers betraying that unmistakable drug gait and
displaying lights out upstairs through their windows' 100-watt stares.
The Editor says...
The article above gives a fairly good description of Hell. Unfortunately the writer is describing San Francisco.
Squeegee
men are back terrorizing NYC streets. They were the ultimate symbol of the lawlessness
and blight of the 1980s and early 1990s — and now they're making a comeback. Squeegee
men are menacing motorists across New York City, including spots near the Holland, Lincoln and
Queens-Midtown tunnels, as well as the Queensboro Bridge, The [New York] Post has learned.
Residents and drivers who pass through the areas said the panhandlers are spraying and wiping
windshields without permission to shake down drivers for cash.
Dart:
Up to 9,000 inmates signed up for Obamacare to help with mental health treatment. Cook
County Sheriff Tom Dart, attempting to cope with what he says is a growing mental health crisis
among inmates at the county jail, said up to 9,000 people who have been incarcerated have signed up
for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act in an attempt to get the care they need. [...]
The sheriff said that the process of closing mental health institutions under the goal of putting
the mentally ill into community-based treatment has led to 3,000 of the jail's 10,000 inmates
requiring treatment.
$1M
bond set for suspect in slaying of Phoenix priest. Bond was set at $1 million for a
54-year-old ex-convict arrested in the shooting death of a 28-year-old Phoenix priest. Phoenix
police confirmed Monday morning that Gary Moran, a homeless man with an extensive criminal record,
was arrested about 9 p.m. Sunday [6/15/2014], almost exactly four days to the hour after the crime.
Moran was jailed on suspicion of shooting the Rev. Kenneth Walker multiple times at Mother of Mercy Mission
Catholic Church in south Phoenix on Wednesday, June 11. Police believe the motive was burglary.
NY Subways overrun with homeless.
It's an express train — to the bad old days. Cops are giving homeless people and panhandlers in the subways the kid-glove treatment,
arresting subterranean scofflaws far less frequently than just two years ago, data show. The ranks of the homeless, meanwhile, have swelled to
1,841 this year — a 13 percent increase over last year's tally, the city's Department of Homeless Services says. For straphangers,
it has created an atmosphere of fear.
Man Wielding Scissors
Stabs 5, Including Toddler. A man wielding scissors stabbed and slashed a 1-year-old boy, his father and three other people in a series of random
attacks in less than 10 minutes along a popular running and biking path on Manhattan's Upper West Side Tuesday morning [10/1/2013]. [...] Police have
a 43-year-old suspect in custody who is described as a homeless man from Texas suffering from psychological problems.
S.F. library's main branch bathrooms [are] a
mess. Located in the heart of the city's Civic Center area, the modern building attracts a large transient population — on top of
thousands of other visitors each day. The steady flow means the restrooms are frequently overrun, Mathews said. He said the custodial
staff does what it can to keep things tidy, but is understaffed and struggles to deal with the homeless, who often suffer from mental illness and
use the restrooms as private spaces.
Student, 21, hit by train
after homeless man pushed her on the tracks because 'she refused to give him money'. The homeless man accused of shoving a student in front
of a train yesterday appeared in court this morning rambling incoherently about people trying to kill him and seeing 'colors and darkness'. Hunter
College student Maya Leggat, 21, received horrific injuries after she was allegedly shoved on to the tracks at White Plains station in New York after she
refused to give money to Howard J. Mickens, 39. [...] According to The Journal News, Mickens has 11 previous arrests with a criminal record
dating back more than two decades.
What's he doing outside? Police: Man with ax shot by
officer had history of mental issues. Once, he tried to kill himself by jumping in front of a car. Another time, by jumping
into Mirror Lake. On a different occasion, he broke free of restraints at St. Anthony's Hospital and tried to strangle himself with
one of the cords attached to a machine monitoring his condition. Since the beginning of the year, Kenneth Sprankle, a 27-year-old homeless
man, run across police officers in St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park 10 times because of his mental condition, according to both
agencies. That doesn't include the eight additional occasions when police arrested Sprankle, [...]
Arrested 396 times, woman knows
how to work the system. [Officer Tom] Rolon recognized Shermain Miles because he's seen her more times than he can
count — drunk, half-naked, cursing and, on one occasion, lunging at another woman with a dinner fork. Since 1978, Chicago
Police alone have arrested Miles 396 times, mostly on the North Side — under at least 83 different aliases.
Those arrests include 92 for theft, 65 for disorderly conduct, 59 for prostitution-related crimes and five for robbery or attempted robbery.
Today's public library could be mistaken for a halfway house,
homeless shelter, or federal penetentiary. Shush! I write from the public library, which doubles as my
city's daytime homeless shelter. I spend four hours a day there reading and writing. Other patrons, often accompanied by all of
their worldly possessions, go there to sleep, masturbate, and stare blankly at the lights. Isn't this what the local Greyhound
terminal is for? A diversion program for juvenile delinquents apparently meets daily on the first floor. [...] A visit to the Boston
Public Library invites the question: what good is a beautiful building that smells like urine?
The coming homeless die-off.
A national study out of Pennsylvania says the median age of single adult homeless people is now 53 — and that without a big push
toward getting older indigents into housing and medical care, huge swaths of them will be dying off in the next decade.
The Editor says...
The article above is, in my opinion, an effort by the San Francisco newspaper to generate unwarranted sympathy for homeless people, most
likely for the purpose of building up a public outcry for more (spending on) homeless shelters.
In New York City alone... Beware: 11,000 psychotics on streets.
The city streets are teeming with thousands of mentally ill homeless people capable of psychotic acts of random violence if left untreated,
experts warned yesterday [12/29/2012]. As many as 11,000 of the city's 33,000 homeless adults have some form of mental illness, said
D.J. Jaffe, executive director of the Mental Illness Policy Organization.
Fewer Guns, More Crime. Liberal
deinstitutionalization policies have liberated the mentally ill to roam the streets, giving rise to the homeless problem as well as to more mass
murderers. [...] Violence-drenched movies and video games contribute to disrespect for life in our culture. The breakdown of the family and
widespread out of wedlock births give rise to more violence and crime as well. The airhead liberal policy of piously declaring certain public
areas "gun free zones" very directly contributes to mass murder.
The
roots of mass murder. Why do you think we have so many homeless? Destitution? Poverty has declined since the 1950s. The
majority of those sleeping on grates are mentally ill. In the name of civil liberties, we let them die with their rights on. A tiny percentage of
the mentally ill become mass killers.
Five-Point Action Plan for
President Obama to Reduce Violence by the Mentally Ill. [Point #5] Eliminate the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA).
SAMHSA is the epicenter of what is wrong with the American mental-health system. SAMHSA actively encourages states to engage in mission creep and send the most
seriously ill to the end of the line. They provide massive funding to organizations that want to prevent mentally ill individuals from receiving treatment.
They have nothing positive to show for their efforts in spite of a massive bureaucracy that meets and meets and meets and never accomplishes anything.
Madness, Deinstitutionalization & Murder.
[Scroll down] Neither a right to treatment nor a more demanding application of due process alone was particularly destructive, but in combination
they made hundreds of thousands of seriously mentally ill people homeless, where many died of exposure and violence. They fell through the cracks,
living shorter, more miserable lives, and often greatly degrading the quality of urban life for everyone else. A fraction became something quite a bit
more unsettling than the mentally ill person begging on the street or disrupting the public library: they became the mad mass murderers of the modern age.
NYC subway train kills man
pushed off platform. A 58-year-old man died Monday [12/3/2012] after he was pushed off a subway platform in Midtown Manhattan and hit
by a train pulling into the station, according to news reports.
Fiend watched his victim die: Homeless man
arrested in Times Square subway murder. A homeless drifter was arrested and charged this morning for allegedly tossing a Queens
dad onto a Times Square subway track, where he was fatally crushed by a Q train, law-enforcement sources told The [New York] Post. Naeem
Davis, 30, confessed yesterday while being grilled in the grisly death of Ki Suk Han, 58, who was struck in front of horrified onlookers Monday
after trying desperately to scramble back to the platform. [...] He was charged with murder in the second degree and depraved indifference.
Muslim New York Subway
Killer Calm After His Murder. Everybody is talking about the New York Post cover photo showing Ki Suk Han about to be killed by
the subway train, but the real story here is yet again being ignored by the mainstream media. The real story here is that Naeem Davis is
clearly a devout Muslim, and one who displayed behavior characteristic of jihadis after he committed murder.
This man should be institutionalized for his own well being. Homeless Man Shoeless Again In NYC Despite Boots.
Asked about the $100 all-weather boots Officer Larry DePrimo gave him on Nov. 14, Hillman says he's hidden them because "they are worth a lot
of money."
"Homeless man" not
homeless — lives in rent-free apartment. The barefoot homeless man who was photographed being given a pair of
winter boots by a New York City police officer on a cold November night has actually been living rent-free in an apartment since late last
year, the city said Tuesday [12/4/2012]. Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond had no doubt that the man captured in a tourist's
picture receiving the boots from NYPD Officer Larry DePrimo was the same Jeffrey Hillman who had been on the city agency's radar for a while.
The Mysterious Stranger.
We are learning more about Hillman as time goes by. He is not homeless. The New York Daily News reports
that the 54-year-old lived from 2009 to 2011 in transitional housing sites called "Safe Havens." Owing to his status
as a veteran, he then secured his present apartment through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans outreach
services have continued to try to help but apparently for naught. A spokeswoman for the city's outreach services
reported that Hillman "has a history of turning down services." Doubtless some day he will become ill, and the city
will put him in some government program to recuperate, possibly Medicaide, possibly Obamacare.
Update: Give him the boot.
So it now turns out that Jeffrey Hillman, the barefoot beggar who famously received a free pair of boots from a big-hearted police
officer, not only has an apartment but pockets as much as several hundred dollars a day while pretending to be homeless.
Charges
in stabbing at restaurant along Mag Mile. A man who listed his address as a homeless shelter has been charged with stabbing a 67-year-old man who
was dining with his family at a restaurant on North Michigan Avenue, police said. Jimmy Harris, 56, was charged with attempted first-degree murder,
aggravated battery with intent to do great bodily harm and aggravated unlawful restraint, police said.
The Killers Within. A
time bomb began ticking in the mid-1970s, when the psychiatric and mental health professions went politically correct
and identified the mentally ill as "victims" who required advocates. While patients in general do need assistance,
the activists turned caring into political action that changed the American cityscape and endangered our well-being.
Announcing in the mid-1970s that confining mental patients violated their civil rights, a cadre set to work to release as
many patients as they could, resulting in the huge homeless phenomenon of the 1980s that remains with us now.
Suddenly the streets of major cities and small towns hosted a permanent population of vagrants who harassed passersby
and businesses.
Mental Illness and Mass Murder.
For the last three years, I've been trying to find a publisher for a book about the deinstitutionalization of
the mentally ill and the destructive effects on our society that it has caused. I keep getting told that
no one is interested in the topic. The tragedy in Tucson on Saturday — like dozens of other
such incidents over the last three decades involving mentally ill persons who made headlines — is
the reason that people should be interested.
Deranged
homeless man goes on violent rampage in Zuccotti Park. A deranged homeless man who
has been squatting among the Occupy Wall Street protesters in lower Manhattan went on a violent,
early-morning rampage yesterday [11/3/2011], cursing incoherently and kicking down tents. The only thing
that could stop Jeremy Clinch from his Godzilla-like rampage was a left hook to the face delivered
by a paranoid fellow protester who claimed to be an ex-Turkish diplomat — and charged that
his assailant was carrying out a plot hatched by Mayor Bloomberg.
Homeless suspect
held in fatal assault on man. A homeless man with a history of violence has been arrested for
allegedly attacking a stranger on Market Street who died hours after being assaulted, San Francisco police
said Monday [1/18/2010].
The Real Cause of the
Arizona Killings. Serving as chairman of a downtown advancement committee in the early and
mid-'80s, I assigned a subcommittee to make an inventory of the homeless population that was thwarting our
effort to lure people back to the city core after 25 years of white flight and a negative image that
seemed permanent. The homeless were assaulting passersby and congregating wherever they chose —
and the police would not act. The report was startling: of the 85 homeless in the downtown
area, 80 were mental patients. And the reason the police could not act to control their behavior
with arrests was also shocking. Concomitant with new rules passed in 1978 that released the mentally
ill into the streets across America, a nationally linked cadre of activist law professors managed to have
vagrancy and loitering laws expunged.
A Predictable
Tragedy in Arizona. A 2007 study by the U.S. Justice Department found that 56% of state
prisoners, 45% of federal prisoners, and 64% of local jail inmates suffer from mental illnesses. A
2008 study out of the University of Pennsylvania that examined murders committed in Indiana between 1990
and 2002 found that approximately 10% of the murders were committed by individuals with serious mental
illnesses. There are about 16,000 homicides a year in this country. Using the Indiana study
as a guide, roughly 1,600 of them are likely committed by people with serious mental illnesses. ... State
governments have been very effective in emptying the hospitals in an effort to save money but remarkably
ineffective in providing treatment for seriously mentally ill individuals living in the community.
Obama's Tucson
degradation: [Scroll down] Beginning in the 1960s, liberals stressed that the mentally
ill should not be institutionalized against their will. Many people who suffer from serious psychological
disorders are allowed to roam our streets. They cannot be committed to a psychiatric ward to get necessary
help and treatment without their consent. Most of the homeless are in this sad situation. Many of
them are not destitute because of dire economic circumstances. Instead, they are plagued by severe mental
illnesses. Thousands have died because of the callous — and negligent — policies of
deinstitutionalization.
The Real Danger
of the Madman. The horrific shooting in Arizona has brought several cauldrons to a boil,
but it has also called some new attention to a rather old fact: in modern society, those with
potentially dangerous mental illnesses are subject to extremely little governmental control.
In addition to the direct hazards posed by this state of affairs, most conservatives are well aware
that it is a major contributing factor to any number of other serious social difficulties, including
the "homeless problem."
Outwitting Lethal
Government Policies. Over the past fifty years, at least a half-million Americans, and perhaps
many more, have died prematurely due to ill-designed and badly executed liberal programs. The causes, as
I reveal in detail in Death by Liberalism, range from the criminal justice "reforms" of the 1960s, which
triggered a crime wave that that killed up to 268,000 Americans, to government-mandated fuel standards
responsible for up to 125,000 lives. At least a thousand people are murdered each year by the derelict
insane, with many deinstitutionalized lunatics dying as well, giving us a total of as many as 70,000 deaths.
Deinstitutionalization
of the Mentally Ill. In 1998, a census states that 238,800 people in America's jails are considered
mentally ill. In truth, this number is likely to be much higher because the census was conducted by jail
wardens who cannot properly diagnose a person as mentally ill or not. The cost for caring for a
mentally ill person in a psychiatric hospital is estimated to be $40,000 per year. A mentally ill
prison inmate will cost the government approximately $60,000.
Mandating Treatment for the Mentally
Ill. In 1972, this watershed case [Lessard v. Schmidt, 349 F. Supp 1078 (1972)], brought on by
civil libertarian lawyers, declared Wisconsin's civil commitment statute unconstitutional. Nationwide,
states followed the Lessard decision and commitment statutes changed so that commitment became more difficult,
and tragedies involving individuals with severe psychiatric disorders increased significantly.
Deinstitutionalizing the Mentally Ill.
[Scroll down] The solution to the problem of the Larry Hogues and the Christopher Battistes lies not in
communities already deeply frayed by the homeless mentally ill, but in the reconstruction of the total care
institutions for the long-term treatment of the seriously and violently mentally ill. For patients with
serious drug-aggravated mental illness, intensive long-term treatment is the best hope for improvement.
Sending such patients back into the community not only ignores their medical needs, but destroys the public
life of the city as well.
The Crisis That No One Talks About.
[Scroll down] I've read that in 1960, there were about 550,000 people in mental hospitals in the U.S.; today
there are about 100,000 — even though our population has grown by almost 50%. ... Sadly, much of that
drop in mental hospital patients wasn't because the system is doing so much better of a job. We can see
where at least some of those people went — suffering squalid, filthy, and miserable lives under
overpasses, pushing all their worldly possessions around in shopping carts, begging in our streets, catching
tuberculosis and pneumonia.
How the
homeless, mentally ill land in Atlantic City. With The Who's "My Generation" playing on his earphones, dressed in
crocs and plaid pajama pants, Keith Stell, 57, was happy to tell how he got to Atlantic City two months ago, a paranoid
schizophrenic off his meds, a long rap sheet of drug and other arrests, just out of a Gloucester County jail. "A
cop car," he said, sitting on a bench in the yard of the Atlantic City Rescue Mission with several other men who all
attend the Atlantic Behavioral Health program.
Human waste on the
rise in city streets, alleys. City officials [in Seattle] say there's been a huge spike in the amount of human waste
showing up in Seattle, and now neighbors and community groups are working to clean up those dirty streets, sidewalks and alleyways.
The numbers are as staggering as they are disgusting. Since 2007, clean-up calls for urine, vomit and fecal matter have jumped
an astounding 130 percent in Pioneer Square alone.
Down and out in Santa Monica.
There were bums galore, enough of them that I thought if only they could get their stuff together, they would make up
an impressive Occupy Santa Monica encampment. It might even get them off the beachfront — a win-win
for all involved. Incidentally, I learned from observing the bums of Santa Monica that wheeled luggage is the
bums' state of the art gear. A bum plying his trade with a shopping cart in Beverly Hills inspired Mazursky's idea
for the film, he recalls in Show Me the Magic, but the shopping cart seems to be passé.
Homeless
men sue over US begging ban. Five homeless men are suing a city in Virginia, claiming that a
new law against begging violates their right to freedom of speech under the US constitution.
Nude Woman Bathes On NYC Subway
Train. In this week's crazy NYC subway video series, a woman, nude from the waist down, sets up
a wash station on the blue bench of a subway car and proceeds to take a camping-style shower.
Top 10 Examples of San Francisco Silliness.
After it offered generous benefits and an elaborate support system to care for its transient population, San
Francisco shouldn't have been surprised when problems with the homeless arose -- like the smell of urine
permeating the Tenderloin. Voters took care of having to walk around drunken hobos by passing a
measure banning sitting or lying on city sidewalks.
New London's whale fountain shut
off for sanitary reasons. The city turned off the water at the new whale tail fountain over the
weekend after someone reportedly defecated in the water. "People are using the tail as a latrine,"
Evelyn Louziotis said. "It's an $11 million bathroom." ... Buscetto said since water started
flowing in the whale fountain last month, police and fire officials have been called for people urinating,
defecating and washing themselves off in the fountain water.
Taxpayer Dollars Being
Used to Fight for Homeless People Living in Illegally Parked Vehicles. The taxpayer-funded Legal
Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) is suing the city over its efforts to bar homeless people from illegally
living in campers, trailers, and cars on the streets of the city's Venice neighborhood. Some homeless people
say they're being targeted because of who they are. "Stop the haters," said one protest sign carried by a
homeless man in Venice during a protest march in December.
Amazing Hypocrisy Alert on the
Upper West Side. This story tells of a demonstration staged by Democratic politicians on the Upper
West Side of Manhattan on the issue of homelessness. In attendance: Rep. Charlie Rangel, Manhattan Borough
President Scott Stringer, Councilwoman Gail Brewer, and others. What they're all doing, though, is protesting
against the creation of a homeless shelter.
Ann
Arbor struggles with homeless influx. This progressive city, long known for embracing the poor
and destitute, is learning that its support has a price. For several years, homeless from around the state
have descended upon the city because of a largesse that ranges from social services to the generosity of U-M
students toward panhandlers, said city police, social service agencies and transients.
Hawaii
exports its homeless problem to mainland US. When tourists arrive in Hawaii, they're greeted
with flowery necklaces and cries of "Aloha!". But when those people turn out to be down-and-outs, the
warm island welcome swiftly disappears. Politicians in Honolulu, whose economy now revolves squarely
around the tourist trade, are considering legislation that would see thousands of the city's homeless
offered free one-way plane tickets back to their home states.
Obama's
five-year plan for homelessness. ["]On Tuesday, June 22, the United States Interagency
Council on Homelessness (USICH) will release the nation's first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end
homelessness.["] Now, don't laugh. I know we've never solved homelessness, but we've never had
anyone as smart as Barack Obama try to tackle this problem before.
Homeless
numbers up in Montgomery area. [Scroll down] Not everyone is homeless by accident or wants
to live in a shelter. "I became homeless by choice," said Matlock, who earns $30 for every five hours he
holds business signs on street corners. He carries with him an identification — a "Homeless
ID" card he received in North Carolina.
The
high cost of sheltering a single homeless family in D.C.: According to a study released today [3/25/2010]
by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and reported by USA Today, it's cheaper to put homeless
families in real homes than it is to house them in shelters.
Confessed
child murderer spends days in downtown Lauderdale park. Gary Kerpan confessed years ago to snatching
a 12-year-old girl, raping her, stabbing her and killing her. Now that he's out of prison, he hangs out in
Fort Lauderdale's Stranahan Park. He is one of Fort Lauderdale's homeless.
'Welcome
to Obamaville' Sign At Homeless Tent City, Media Mum. A sign reading "Welcome to Obamaville
Colorado's Fastest Growing Community" appeared at a homeless tent city in Colorado Springs this week. You
probably didn't hear about it because outside of two Colorado television stations nobody found this newsworthy.
Sex
Offenders Live in Village Under Miami Bridge. No, it's not an adventurous form of urban
camping or a recession-fueled shantytown. Instead, there is a distinctly permanent feeling to
this scruffy encampment. And it's clear many of its residents don't want anything to do with
inquisitive reporters.
NYC sending homeless to Georgia, South Carolina.
New York City is buying one-way plane tickets for homeless families to leave the city, and dozens of the families have landed in
Georgia and South Carolina. The New York Times is reporting that it's part of a Bloomberg administration program to
keep the homeless out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family.
Mayor Defends One-Way
Tickets for Homeless. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended a city program to send homeless families out of
New York on planes, trains and buses on Wednesday [7/29/2009], saying it "saves the taxpayers of New York City an enormous
amount of money." Speaking in the Blue Room in City Hall to announce a new finance commissioner, Mr. Bloomberg was
asked if the program simply shifts the homelessness program to a different place, as some critics of the program have
suggested.
Massachusetts
is housing homeless in motels. A record number of families are being put up in motels in
Massachusetts. High unemployment and the rising number of home foreclosures is the reason the state
is taking this action. Housing Massachusetts' homeless is costing tax payers around $2 million per
month. It costs an average of $85 per night to have families, including nearly 1000 children, stay in
motels.
Stimulus
funds to aid homeless. The U.S. expects to send $1.5 billion in stimulus money today to hundreds of
communities around the country to prevent homelessness, including $1 million for Fresno to dismantle tent cities
and move residents into privately owned apartments.
Bureaucrat scuffs
dream of homeless shoe shiner. He sleeps under a bridge, washes in a public bathroom and was
panhandling for booze money 11 months ago, but now Larry Moore is the best-dressed shoeshine man in the
city. When he gets up from his cardboard mattress, he puts on a coat and tie. It's a reminder of
how he has turned things around. In fact, until last week it looked like Moore was going to have saved
enough money to rent a room and get off the street for the first time in six years. But then, in a
breathtakingly clueless move, an official for the Department of Public Works told Moore that he has to fork
over the money he saved for his first month's rent to purchase a $491 sidewalk vendor permit.
NYC Turns Luxury Units Into Shelters For
Homeless. There's controversy swirling around how much New York City is paying to rent luxury
condos for homeless families. ... By all accounts it's the nicest homeless shelter in the city and some
non-homeless neighbors are feeling pretty inhospitable. "The apartments are beautiful. They're
living better than a lot of people around here and they don't have to pay for it," neighbor Maria Brown
said. When the building went up the idea was to sell the units, some of them for more than $300,000.
But now, even though apartments sit empty, you can't even rent them.
Mayor Bloomberg to homeless: Don't get too comfy in luxury condos. Don't
get too comfortable! That was Mayor Bloomberg's message to dozens of lucky homeless families who scored a
posh pad at a luxury condo that has been turned into a homeless shelter in Brooklyn. "We're not going to let
people just sit there. This is a transition thing. We want to move them out," Bloomberg said Friday [6/5/2009].
"And if they say, 'Oh, I love this here, I don't want to try something else,' I'm sorry, that's not the whole intent here."
In Washington, beggars can be choosers. Let Them Eat
Arugula. Last month, Michelle Obama visited Miriam's Kitchen, which serves the homeless in
Washington, D.C. ... But the first lady's visit wasn't just about the needs of the homeless; it was also very
much about the food itself. In a Washington Post article covering the visit, one Miriam's Kitchen
official explained, "If anyone brings us donuts, Steve [the chef] throws them away. ... It is not good food
for our guests. We care too much to give them anything but the best. Steve wants our guests to have
the same experience as if they were paying $30 for the meal."
The Editor says...
If you want to consider freeloading homeless bums as your "guests," and feed them nothing but the
very finest food, go ahead — but don't take money out of my paycheck to do it!
NYC
Starts Charging Rent at Homeless Shelters. Even the homeless can't escape the high price of a night in New
York City. City officials this month began charging rent to some families staying in homeless shelters. The
policy applies only to shelter residents who have income from jobs.
Maryland
becomes first state in nation to protect homeless people under hate-crimes law. Maryland
granted a new safeguard to its most downtrodden residents Thursday, becoming the first state in the nation
to extend hate-crimes protection to homeless people. ... California, Texas and Ohio are considering similar
bills, and legislation has been introduced in Congress.
What's In a Number? That Depends on How You Define
'Homeless'. A well publicized report this week that an estimated 1.5 million American children
experienced homelessness in 2005-06 did not use the federal definition of homelessness. Instead, it used a
different definition that grossly inflated the actual number.
Atlanta
'giving meters' program off to slow start. Six months after Atlanta business leaders
set up parking meter-like machines to accept spare change donations and discourage panhandling, just
$500 has been deposited — not much help for beggars who say they can sometimes raise $300 in
a day on their own.
The Editor says...
And that's $300 dollars a day tax free because it's all cash and they don't bother to
file tax returns. How many readers of this page bring home $2000 a week after taxes?
Mean Streets. It is not unusual for me
to get hit up for change a half dozen times between the time I leave my downtown [St. Louis] office to grab a bite to
eat and return. The record is ten. By and large, these panhandlers are not the noble economic victims the
mainstream media likes to romanticize on the six o'clock news ... Rather they are largely single men with chronic drug
and alcohol habits, and a miscellany of mental illnesses.
San Francisco blames out-of-towners
for endless homeless problem. City officials are finally admitting what others have been saying for years:
San Francisco is attracting huge numbers of homeless people from all over. Thousands of transient people, arriving
from other counties, states and even countries, are overwhelming the city's homeless system. Facing a crippling budget
shortfall, officials at San Francisco's homeless agencies are proposing a radical idea — take care of the city's
own first, and require newcomers to show proof of residency for aid.
The Editor says...
The people of San Francisco established a system to accommodate freeloaders, so they can't be surprised when
vagrants and bums come from miles around to take advantage of the system. I have some questions for
San Francisco's officials: (1) If someone is homeless, how can residency be proven or disproven?
(2) How long would I have to live in San Francisco before I became a "resident" and could apply for city
services?
NYC Churches Ordered Not To
Shelter Homeless. City officials have ordered 22 New York churches to stop providing beds to
homeless people. With temperatures well below freezing early Saturday, the churches must obey a city
rule requiring faith-based shelters to be open at least five days a week — or not at all.
Good News on
the Homeless: The "homeless" are a population with severe to extreme mental health problems,
substance-abuse problems, or other unusual challenges. They need housing plus some other kind of
support — and in recent years, under new Bush administration policies that emphasize treatment as
well as housing, those needs have been more and more successfully met.
U.S. homelessness on
decline. Some 1.6 million people were forced to use an emergency shelter or transitional
housing at some point between 2006 and 2007, but the number of people who are chronically homeless dropped
nearly 30 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to a report made public Tuesday. "We can all be
encouraged that we're making progress in reducing chronic street homelessness in America," said Steve Preston,
secretary of Housing and Urban Development, which released the findings.
The Editor says...
People in an emergency shelter are not necessarily homeless. Some are sent to shelters as a
result of mandatory evacuations.
Homeless Get Cleaned
Up With Free Haircuts For DNC. The City of Denver has been working to make sure everything is
in tip-top shape for all the visitors coming to town for the Democratic National Convention, and now a local
salon is helping in that effort. It seems to be a first — don't move the homeless, clean
them up.
Homeless
say DNC diversions not for them. Debbie — and this is merely a hunch — will probably
be going to jail next month. Unless they are giving away free booze and marijuana at the movies, the zoo or the
Nature & Science museum — along with the free tickets to those venues they plan on giving the homeless during
Democratic National Convention week — I can't see Debbie budging from the dirt beneath the Speer Boulevard
bridge she has called home the past 26 years.
Denver's
High-Class Homeless: The area around the convention center where Democrats will gather is home
to many of the city's 5,000 or so vagrants, so city officials have hatched a plan to, er, get them out of the
way. For their own good, of course. But rest assured that Denver isn't going to confine them to
shelters or anything. No, indeed — while the Democrats are crowning Barack Obama, Denver's
street people are going to be treated to a cultural renaissance. Free movie tickets. Free passes
to the Denver Zoo.
S.F. parking meters
retooled to aid homeless. Rather than tossing loose change into a panhandler's empty cup, San
Francisco officials want you instead to slide your spare quarters and nickels into a homeless meter. … A
handful of cities around the country, including Denver and Baltimore, have installed homeless meters in
recent years. And while the programs haven't necessarily been lucrative, some cities have seen
less panhandling as a result.
End
to homelessness. [Baltimore] Mayor Sheila Dixon unveiled yesterday [1/17/2008] a 10-year plan
to end chronic homelessness, a goal she said the city is moving toward with the recent establishment of a
large well-run winter shelter and by setting aside 100 housing vouchers for homeless adults and children.
Dixon described the plan, which was created by a committee of city business and social service leaders, as a
"blueprint for a society where homelessness no longer exists."
The Editor says...
I predict that every bum on the east coast is about to head for Baltimore.
Homeless
activists will always be with us? On the face of it, hats off to Eric Montanez, age 21, who aims
to feed the homeless. But instincts are not enough. Montanez was arrested — not for feeding
the poor as such, but for feeding the poor in a public park. Public parks are for the "public," but not
for certain members of the public to turn into homes. Houses are for homes. Parks are ... Well, parks
could be said to be for the "homeless," these days. That's where many homeless people like to sleep.
She gave him burger; he
gave her beating. The homeless man, David Craig, 41, was outside of the fast-food chain after being told to
leave a nearby liquor store. MacLaren gave Craig the cheeseburger as he was lying down in a parking spot outside the
restaurant. Craig shouted he didn't want the burger, just money….
Orlando's homeless
laws spark debate. At Lake Eola park, there is much beauty to behold: robust palms, beds of
cheery begonias, a cascading lake fountain, clusters of friendly egrets and swans, an amphitheater named in
honor of Walt Disney. Then there are the signs. DO NOT LIE OR OTHERWISE BE IN A HORIZONTAL
POSITION ON A PARK BENCH...
Ottawa's homeless fight
for right to sleep in underpass. A panhandlers' rights group in Ottawa is preparing a human
rights complaint against the City of Ottawa after it put up a fence to stop them from sleeping in a downtown
pedestrian underpass.
The Editor says...
What's this? There's a "panhandlers' rights group in Ottawa"? Who bankrolls an
organization that promotes and defends Canada's parasites?
New York Times
lowballs homeless numbers. Estimates of the number of homeless have a long history of politics
trumping accuracy. When President Reagan was in office, the American media often quoted made-up figures
from "advocates" along with the mantra that many of us were "one paycheck away" from living on the streets
ourselves. But yesterday [1/2/2007], the New York Times published a surprisingly low estimate of the
number of homeless. But this time, the estimate was for the number of homeless in France.
Study shows 744,000 homeless people in U.S..
There were 744,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005, according to the first national estimate in a
decade. A little more than half were living in shelters, and nearly a quarter were chronically homeless,
according to the report Wednesday [1/10/2007] by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, an advocacy group.
30th Anniversary
for the Homeless. Thirty years ago, in the case of Lessard v. Schmidt, ... the
Supreme Court ruled that mentally handicapped individuals who were not dangerous could not be held
against their will in mental hospitals. So those hospitals emptied, then closed, sending untold
numbers of mentally handicapped folks onto the street.
Liberal or not, Austin
ponders a ban on panhandling. John Henry Smith insists he makes an honest living begging
for money at intersections in the state's capital. In a few hours, with his swollen left leg exposed,
he can make $70 or $80. "It helps to be sick," said the 49-year-old Lubbock native, who was shot
in the leg 30 years ago.
Enough is enough,' San
Francisco says of the homeless. San Francisco — the liberal, left-coast city
conservatives love to mock — could be undergoing a transformation when it comes to homeless
people. Although the city would still be a poor choice for a pep rally for the war in Iraq, indications
are that residents have had it with aggressive panhandlers, street squatters and drug users.
Los Angeles introduces
$100 million effort to combat homelessness. It was a special day for the "friends and
neighbors" of the Los Angeles Mission, a center for transients near Skid Row, because lunch was being
provided by the In-N-Out Burger chain. The shelter's "friends and neighbors" are about 1,200 of
the estimated 90,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County, the largest concentration of homeless
in the nation.
A Whiff of Truth. These
poor people aren't on the street because of mean old conservatives, the economy or stingy taxpayers. You
could hand them a rent-free apartment and a simple job requiring no more than a few hours of their time per
week and it wouldn't do any good. The apartment would be trashed or abandoned within days, if not
hours. The job would be more than their shattered brains could handle. Sick people are
wandering our streets, whether the reasons are mental illness or addiction.
Is
this any way to help the homeless? Mary Baker and Ruth Neikirk love to cook. What's more,
they love to cook for poor people. They do it frequently, preparing meals at home and bringing them to
their church in Virginia. … The people they cook for love it too. But there's a problem. It
was "criminal activity." The Fairfax County health department points out that —
horrors — Mary and Ruth are actually preparing food and serving it to people! Without
a license!
Bunks for drunks. An experimental social-service
project rewards chronic alcoholics with room and board, no strings — or help — attached.
Apartments
Welcome Homeless Alcoholics. When Brian Steik lived on the streets, the government spent tens of
thousands of dollars on emergency room visits and other services to keep the alcoholic alive. Now
social-service agencies are conducting an experiment: Offering Steik and dozens of other homeless
drinkers subsidized apartments where they can keep boozing at a fraction of the cost.
Airport geese to be cooked for poor.
New York City plans to capture pesky geese that threaten planes departing area airports and send them to
Pennsylvania to be cooked for meals for the poor, city officials said.
Fort
Lauderdale to homeless: Here's a one-way bus ticket... don't come back. The homeless of Fort Lauderdale are
eligible for a one-in-a-lifetime gift from the city fathers: A one-way bus ticket out of town. The free seats,
funded by $25,000 confiscated from criminals, are intended to reunite the Sunshine State homeless with their friends and
families, city officials said.
The Road to Hell. [The San Francisco Chronicle] was practically
drooling over a bizarre, new program being launched in San Francisco. The city will be giving a homeless person a four-legged friend to foster:
a homeless pup from the pound. But the transient won't get the pick of the litter, but a "problematic" dog. And since California is
overflowing with money (LOL), the city will generously throw in a stipend to care for the pet. What could possibly go wrong here? First off,
raise your hands if you think that many of these street people will actually use the added income for the benefit of their new best friends? When
the call of booze and cocaine beckons, what will happen to Rover's Purina?
Human waste shuts
down BART escalators. When work crews pulled open a broken BART escalator at San Francisco's Civic Center
Station last month, they found so much human excrement in its works they had to call a hazardous-materials team. While
the sheer volume of human waste was surprising, its presence was not. Once the stations close, the bottom of BART station
stairwells in downtown San Francisco are often a prime location for homeless people to camp for the night or find a private place
to relieve themselves. All those biological excretions can gum up the wheels and gears of BART's escalators, shutting them
down for long periods of extended repairs, increasing station cleaning costs and creating an unpleasant aroma for morning commuters.
America is Burning.
Two weeks ago, I visited New York City with my wife, who was interviewing at a local medical school located
in the Bronx. I dropped her at the school. Since I was lacking a car, I hopped on a public bus,
intending to take it to the local subway station. I have never been so frightened for my country in my
life. The bus itself was fine; all the people on it had places to be. It was the subway station
that was truly scary. The station itself looked like a bomb had hit it. Debris covered the
shattered tile floor. The stench of vomit and urine permeated the place. Rust layered the
tracks; wooden boards between the tracks moldered into dust.
New Orleans homeless hole up in Hurricane
Katrina's abandoned buildings. There are roughly 40,000 such buildings, some still bearing the search-and-rescue markings
that indicate whether dead bodies were found inside after the flooding. [...] A team of homeless-outreach workers searches the city's
abandoned buildings in the middle of the night, looking for those who need help. They come across people living in filth, using
plastic buckets in the hallways for bathrooms, sweating in the heat and humidity with no electricity or running water. The team,
from Unity of Greater New Orleans, finds people in desperate shape or sometimes lying dead on bedrolls.
Public Library in SanFran Installs
Privacy Hood on PCs for Porn Watchers. Chick-fil-A becomes a huge national controversy, and is accused of hatemongering and crimes against
humanity, because an executive opines that marriage is between a man and a woman. Meanwhile, the San Francisco library, supposedly a repository of
human knowledge and wisdom, degenerates into a ----ing station for perverts.
The Editor says...
An offensive slang term was masked by The Editor to preserve website standards. If you click on the link, you can see what the writer said, but remember,
you didn't read that word on this web site.
Most SF sit/lie tickets to older drunks.
When they're sober, Justin O'Brien and Roland Dequina are two of the jolliest tourist sights on Haight Street. They're just the sort of rangy,
tie-dyed old-hippie types visitors expect to see along this hippie-est of streets, and they draw smiles as they greet strollers with high-fives and peace
signs. When they're drunk, though, the smiles disappear. The pair lurch about with sloshing beer cans, get into fights and sprawl snoring on the
sidewalk.
Obama Requests $542 Million In Housing
Aid for Drug Addicts. President Barack Obama has requested over half-a-billion dollars for Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) programs that provide housing assistance to homeless or HIV-positive people in drug treatment. For the Fiscal
Year 2013 National Drug Control budget, Obama has requested $25.6 billion, including $542.4 million to fund HUD programs that
provide housing to individuals in drug treatment, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), which
is charged with developing that budget. According to the ONDCP, the requested FY 2013 budget will "reduce drug use and its
consequences in the United States."
Record numbers living in NYC homeless
shelters. City officials have had to open nine new shelters in two months as the number of homeless seeking a place to
stay jumped 18 percent in only a year.
ACLU Begs
Colorado Springs to Rethink Panhandling Proposal. Visitors to downtown Colorado Springs are besieged by panhandlers,
according to city officials. So they drafted an anti-solicitation law that prohibits begging in a designated area.
Quicker than you can say "Got a quarter?," the American Civil Liberties Union issued a warning that the proposal may violate
the First Amendment.
Homeless people spread disease. Los Angeles
in the grip of tuberculosis outbreak, homeless particularly at risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
has dispatched a team of scientists to Los Angeles to try and help contain an outbreak of tuberculosis being spread among the city's
homeless population. Sixty of the 78 people identified with the potentially deadly disease were homeless people who
live on and around Skid Row, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Homeless people clutter up public property. L.A. to ask high court
to overturn ruling on homeless belongings. Citing an immediate public health threat, the city of Los Angeles will
ask the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday 2/28/2013] to overturn a lower-court ruling preventing the random seizure and destruction of
belongings that homeless people leave temporarily unattended on public sidewalks. If the court takes up the matter, the case
could have broad implications for cities nationwide grappling with how to keep streets clean and safe while respecting the property
rights of those who live there.
Honolulu
Shores Up Tourism With Crackdown on Homeless. This tourist mecca has had a surge in
its homeless population, which is up 32 percent over the past five years. The explosion has
prompted one of the toughest police crackdowns in the nation, sounded alarms among civic leaders
that aggressive panhandlers are scaring off tourists, and set off an anguished debate on how to
deal with the destitute in a state that prides itself on its friendly and easygoing ways.
Editor's note:
The "poor" seem to always have money for cigarettes, beer, multiple tattoos, lottery tickets,
purple hair, elaborate manicures, satellite dishes, and expensive sneakers for the kids.
Even the poorest of the poor sometimes buy wine.
Empire
State madness: Medicaid blob keeps growing. Created in the 1960s to serve the
truly poor, the state-federal Medicaid program has gradually expanded to cover those with somewhat
higher incomes; with its Essential Plan, New York aims to enroll anyone up to 250% of the poverty
line. But the state's been beyond careless in policing enrollment. As of this
September, 44% of the Empire State's population is covered — 20 points above the
national average and seven points above the closest state. That includes 60% of New York City
residents. The mismatch has been building over the years, Hammond finds:
Over-enrollment reached 1.6 million in 2019, then zoomed to 3.6 million, thanks to
Democrats' ban on checking eligibility during the pandemic. Yet the state's failure to check
since that rule expired still has the excess at about 3.4 million.
We
don't have a homeless or mass shooter problem, we have a mental illness problem.
After the Maine massacre, we are hearing the familiar response to a mass shooting by a mentally ill
man, which is to deprive everyone of their civil rights. The reality is that if you have
violent and dangerous people on the loose, they will get their hands on guns or other weapons,
regardless of whatever laws there are. Gun control doesn't stop killers, it stops people from
protecting themselves. If you want to stop mentally unstable mass shooters, institutionalize
them. [...] There's a persistent bias against institutionalization in America, as opposed to
Europe, fed by movies featuring patients being abused within the system. As a result, we have
crazies wandering the streets and other crazies shooting up bowling alleys.
'Glam
migration:' The illegal immigrant wore Versace. A U.S. senator was stunned during his recent border trip when
he saw an illegal immigrant who'd just jumped the boundary in a Versace dress. Sen. James Lankford, fresh off a
Memorial Day trip to the border in Yuma, Arizona, reported back to colleagues this week on the piles of wall-building
materials he saw rusting in the elements, just a mile down the road from a gap in the border wall where migrants could pour
through with ease. The Oklahoma Republican said illegal crossers will step over the boundary and wait for Border Patrol
agents to come to pick them up, figuring — usually correctly — that they'll be processed and quickly
released into the U.S. to go on to their destinations.
Las
Vegas homeless man admits to killing three on Labor Day. A homeless man in Nevada suspected of killing three
men and shooting a dog in a 90-minute spree on Labor Day told cops "anything without a home gets terminated," police
said. Tristan Tidwell, 35, was arrested early Tuesday [9/7/2021] in North Las Vegas, where he told police he was
homeless and targeted the three victims and a dog because he thought they were also transients, according to an arrest report
obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Tidwell told investigators he had to "put down" the men, who were shot
between 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Monday. Two of the victims have been identified as Jorge Godoy-Lua, 43, and
53-year-old Oliver Hillman — both of whom died from gunshot wounds to the back and neck, respectively, the
newspaper reported. Tidwell is also accused of gunning down a third man near East Cheyenne Avenue and Civic Center
Drive who had yet to be identified as of Thursday. Video from the three crime scenes showed Tidwell calmly walking the
streets prior to the slayings, the report indicates.
The
homeless may not be homeless. He went on to tell me he had done five years in state prison before being
released. I asked him if he was receiving Social Security benefits for the loss of his leg, and he acknowledged that he
was receiving about $1,350 per month. I asked him where he lived, and he told me about five miles from the
intersection. He pointed out his Monte Carlo that he drove to the location. He told me he received subsidized
housing, electricity, internet, rent, and utilities. I asked him how often he was at the location on the median, and he
told me about 360 days a year. He said that Christmas Day was always "very good" and that he never missed "working"
that day. I asked him how much money he generated begging for donations, and he told me about $2,500 [to] 3,500 a month
in the slow summer months, but about $3,500 [to] 4,000 per month during the good months. He also told me that since he
is unemployed, the State of Arizona gives him about $300 per month in food stamps. He also receives full medical care
through the program the state runs for indigent persons. His net income is between $35,000 and $40,000 from
panhandling. About $3,600 in food stamps, and about $16,200 in SSI disability. He is pulling in about $55,000 tax
free, every year, and he gets subsidized everything. He was not ashamed of what he did; rather, he was proud.
Time
to Set the Record Straight on Slavery. The poorest people in America are better off than people in most other
nations. A recent study found that when you include the myriad welfare programs available to Americans, the bottom 20 percent
of income-earners in the U.S. are better off materially than everyone in most of the nations of Europe. Another study found
that the bottom 10 percent in the U.S. do better than the top 10 percent in Russia and that our nation's poor do better than
virtually everyone in India and better than 85 percent of those living in China. The Left media ignore all this.
America's
Poorest Are Richer Than 60 Percent of Developed Countries. A new study debunks liberal claims about grinding
poverty in the U.S. compared to other developed countries. [...] On average, a person among the poorest 20 percent of
Americans consumes more goods and services than the average person in Canada, Greece, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia,
Spain, Portugal, Japan, Denmark, Iceland, New Zealand, Slovenia, Slovakia, Israel, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Poland, Chile, Hungary, Turkey, and Mexico.
Police
chief: Non-homeless, non-handicap man making $1,000/weekend panhandling. An Abilene man — who
appears to be homeless and handicap — is making a good living by panhandling on weekends, according to the police
chief. Chief Stan Standridge said the man panhandles every Saturday and Sunday at the intersection of Hwy 83/84 and
FM 707. He sits in a wheelchair and the police department has gotten calls from people concerned about the man
thinking he's homeless.
Do
You Understand that Democrats will Destroy America? Virtually all of the Democratic candidates have advocated
for opening the border to all who want to come. All the Democratic candidates on the second night of the debate
supported free health benefits for illegal immigrants and several have advocated for free college for all. But even
without these additional incentives, the level of living available in the US, even to the poorest Americans, far exceeds what
many of the world's peoples can hope for in their own countries. No one starves in America. Our poor have cars,
large screen TVs, air conditioning, video games for their kids and eat better than the average GI in World War II.
Many ostensibly poor people, especially street corner beggars, are too lazy to work. Panhandler
refuses man's offer of money for work. So man returns with his own sign — and panhandler loses it. Ryan Bray
told WTVT-TV he was in his vehicle recently at an intersection in Bradenton, Florida, when a panhandler approached him for cash. [...]
Bray — who works for Bray Remodeling, his family's business — offered the panhandler work for money as opposed to a
handout: $15 an hour to do yard work, WTVT said. Bray told the station the panhandler didn't take too kindly to his offer.
"He said, 'Absolutely not,'" Bray recalled to WTVT. "Started getting belligerent and cursing." He added to the station that the
panhandler kicked his Jeep and told him to leave.
Homeless
beggars are making £200-a-DAY: Adventurer and world record holder Ed Stafford reveals what tramps earn.
An adventurer and Guinness World Record holder has revealed that living on the UK's streets was 'more lucrative' than he
imagined. Ed Stafford, a former army captain and amazon trekker, spent two months being homeless in Glasgow, Manchester,
and London. He found that as well as gaining 11 [pounds] because passers-by kept giving him fast food, sandwiches,
and burgers, he could also make up to £200 a night.
Homeless
Man Connected to $400,000 Alleged GoFundMe Scam Arrested in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Police Department
said Wednesday that Johnny Bobbitt Jr., the homeless man linked to an alleged GoFundMe scam that raised more than $400,000,
was arrested after he failed to appear in court in New Jersey the previous day. A spokesperson for the Philadelphia
department, Jeff Chrusch, confirmed the arrest to CBS News, which reported that Bobbitt would be processed before being
transferred to the custody of authorities in New Jersey.
Annoyed
Baltimore Drivers Want City To Crack Down On 'Squeegee Kids'. When 17-year-old Jaylen Brown found himself in
need of extra cash last summer, he did what many of his classmates had begun doing years ago. He stuck a tree branch
into a sponge and started to squeegee. Now a seasoned window-washer, Brown has traded in the contraption for a
Mallory — a sturdy-handled squeegee with a thick, spongey top. In between school and his 6 p.m. shift
at Burger King, Brown will walk the median of President Street in Baltimore with his cousin Tony Jackson. If they get a
nod from a driver, the teens will give the windshield a quick scrub and pocket whatever bills get dangled out the window.
"We catch hundos, 20s, 50s sometimes, fives, and dollars," says Jackson. On a good day, the cousins each head home $200 richer.
The Editor says...
And all that income is tax-free, because they are paid anonymously in cash.
Prosecutor:
GoFundMe story about helpful homeless man was a hoax. A New Jersey prosecutor says the story that launched a
GoFundMe campaign that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for a homeless veteran was all a hoax. In a news
conference on Thursday, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said the tale was "fictitious" and "formed the basis of a
scam." Coffina said it was, "concocted to compel kind-hearted individuals to contribute to the cause." "The
entire campaign was predicated on a lie," said Coffina. The couple and the homeless man are all under arrest.
Headlines
claim "one in eight" Americans live in poverty. But is that true? An officially poor family of four has
income of about $25,000 or less. That's not much. But that measure fails to take into account taxes. The
poor mostly don't pay taxes. In fact, many get money back through the Earned Income Tax Credit and other income-support
programs. Food stamps, housing support and other aid likewise enable officially poor households to boost their incomes,
in most cases significantly. The fact is, when the very same households that the federal government considers to be
poor are questioned, they report roughly $2.40 in spending for every $1 of income that Census says they have. So that
family of four earning $25,000 is likely consuming as much as $60,000 a year in goods and services.
California
city council candidate is caught dropping off his wheelchair-bound mom, 86, so she can panhandle. A nonpartisan candidate
for city council in Southern California has been accused of dropping off his elderly, wheelchair-bound mother to panhandle for the last
decade, even though they're not homeless. David Chey has been caught on camera leaving Soon Chey, 86, in her wheelchair in the
downtown district of Laguna Beach with a sign that reads, 'please, help me.' 'They have a brand new car, live in a condo in Irvine,
yet beg for our help,' local business owner Heidi Miller told DailyMail.com.
James
Madison doesn't want your dead cat to vote, and maybe not you either. Today's poor live a more luxurious life
than yesterday's royalty. They enjoy comforts that had not even been imagined just a 100 years ago, including air
conditioning, inoculations, the internet, airplane travel and over 130 non-working days a year. And food. Oh,
food. Rich and poor alike have so much inexpensive food that consuming too much of it is our biggest health problem.
This
NYC panhandler only accepts high-quality food. Meet New York City's pickiest panhandler. Ron Clarke, 51,
regularly positions himself in front of Union Market, the snooty Park Slope grocery spot that a local realtor nicknamed
"Millionaire Market." The discerning Clarke, often seen holding a cup full of coins at the chain's Seventh Avenue outpost,
would not disagree. Last Tuesday morning, shortly after blowing part of a previous day's proceeds on a pair of lottery
tickets ("I buy them once in a blue moon," Clarke insisted), he told The Post, "By standing in front of Union Market, I get
nice groceries."
How Support
For Socialism Arises From Ingratitude. The free market took off at about the time the American experiment in
liberty got going. Before that time, life for virtually everyone was like a bad dream they could not wake up
from. People lived tired, dirty, hungry, downtrodden, and at the mercy of their circumstances. You don't have to
trace very far back in your family line to reach a time when your own people would have found the ease, affluence, and
expansiveness of the life you lead totally astonishing. Would they also be astonished by your lack of gratitude for
what the free market has given you? Or would they find you celebrating the free market and the gifts it provides?
Before
and After Welfare Handouts. There is virtually no material poverty in the U.S. Eighty percent of households the Census Bureau
labels as poor have air conditioning; nearly three-quarters have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more. Two-thirds have cable
or satellite TV. Half have at least one computer. Forty-two percent own their homes. What we have in our nation is not material
poverty but dependency and poverty of the spirit, with people making unwise choices and leading pathological lives, aided and abetted by the
welfare state.
How
to stop the West from committing cultural suicide. The key factoid animating "Suicide of the West" is
this: For 2,000 years, everywhere on earth, the large mass of humanity lived on the equivalent of $1.90 a day.
"Near subsistence living," Goldberg writes, "defined human habitats for almost all of human history." Then something
happened. In the 18th century. In Great Britain. It was a complex phenomenon Goldberg calls the
Miracle — a new way of thinking about humanity and human achievement and personal liberty that unlocked a hidden
door in the possibilities of the species. The results of the Miracle are astounding. Where once 94 percent
of the people on earth survived on less than $2 a day, today only 9.6 percent does.
Do 5 Million Americans Really
Live in Third World Poverty? Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton recently published an op-ed in the New York Times
titled "The U.S. Can No Longer Hide from Its Deep Poverty Problem." Deaton asserted that 5.3 million Americans (or 1.7 percent
of the population) live on less than $4 per day and "are as destitute as the world's poorest people. ... [Their] suffering, through material
poverty and poor health, is as bad [as] or worse than that of the people in Africa or in Asia." But measurements of poverty and deep
poverty based on income are seriously flawed, because U.S. government income surveys:
• omit or severely undercount most of the $1.1 trillion that the government spends on means-tested welfare assistance
each year;
• omit or undercount off-the-books earnings, which are prevalent in low-income communities;
• omit the incomes of cohabiting partners and parents; and
• ignore assets acquired in prior periods.
The omission and undercounting of welfare aid is particularly troubling. For example, in 2016, federal, state, and local
governments spent $223 billion on cash, food, and housing benefits for low-income families with children, an amount three times
that needed to eliminate all official poverty and ten times that needed to wipe out deep poverty among them. But the Census
Bureau's income surveys counted only $7.6 billion of this spending for purposes of assessing poverty or deep poverty.
Homeless
Man Arrested by Police With $750K on Him. A Swedish beggar has made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The unnamed 55-year-old man was arrested outside a train station after he was harassing bypassers to give him money.
Some of the witnesses claimed he was very aggressive with them, and many of them cited they felt they had to give him money so he
wouldn't hurt them. When law enforcement arrested him, a struggle ensued and a large sum of money fell out of his pockets.
$84,000
a year now qualifies as low income in high-cost Orange County. A family of four with an annual income of
$84,450 or less now qualifies as low income in Orange County. A single person living alone qualifies as low income if
he or she earns $58,450 or less a year. Orange County has the fifth-highest income threshold in the nation, according
to new income limits released last month by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Panhandlers
Caught Driving Rental Car, Traveling Around Town To Solicit Cash. From the San Fernando Valley to the Santa
Clarita Valley, CBS2's David Goldstein's undercover cameras captured similar looking groups of panhandlers with
children. Some were holding kids small enough to even be breastfeeding, and all were holding signs claiming to be down
and out. But are they as needy as they seem? Goldstein watched them outside shopping areas all over town, with
similar signs reading "Please help,", "Lost my job," "I have 3 kids" and the like. Residents believe they're all
working together, and they're fed up.
Who
is poor in the United States? • More than a third of those who live in poverty are
children. More than 15.5 million children lived in poverty in 2014. • About 13 percent of those
living in poverty are senior citizens or retired. • A quarter of those who live in poverty are in the labor
force — that is, working or seeking employment. • A tenth of those in poverty are
disabled. • Eight percent of those living in poverty are caregivers, meaning that they report caring
for children or family. • Students, either full- or part-time, make up another seven percent of those
living in poverty. • Just three percent of those living in poverty are working-age adults who do not
fall into one of these categories — that is, they are not in the labor force, not disabled, and not a student,
caregiver, or retired.
Wealth
and Income Inequality Is Not as Bad as You Think. [Scroll down] Politicians do not mention the inequality of income very much because
it is so much less than the inequality of wealth, especially after tax. Household consumption equals income after tax minus savings. Since
those with high incomes save more than those with low incomes, who often spend more than their incomes a fact called dissaving, consumption is distributed
more equally than income and vastly more equal than the distribution of wealth. Since those at the lowest income levels receive welfare, food stamps,
and some public housing, politicians want to avoid talking about the distribution of consumption. As we pointed out, the estimates of household
wealth do not include the value of social security benefits. The Social Security administration reported that in 2015, over 59 million Americans
received about $870 billion in Social Security benefits.
Obama
administration considering evictions of thousands from low-income housing. The Department of Housing and Urban development
announced Tuesday that it would consider evicting tens of thousands of public housing residents who earn too much money to qualify for
public housing. The announcement comes in response to a July audit from the department's Office of Inspector General that revealed
over 25,000 families had an income that exceeded the maximum level to qualify for government-assisted housing. At least one tenant
had roughly nearly $1 million in assets.
Now
Accepting Credit Cards: Abe Hagenston, Detroit Homeless Man, Goes High-Tech. Can you spare a swipe? A
Detroit homeless man has taken panhandling high-tech: He accepts credit cards on the 8 Mile highway overpass where he lives
and created a website where he can be hired to work odd jobs. Abe Hagenston, 42, who goes by "Honest Abe" on his website,
told NBC affiliate WDIV he has been homeless for about a decade.
This bum boasts he makes $200 an hour
panhandling. A panhandler outside Grand Central Terminal says he rakes in up to $200 an hour from kind-hearted New
Yorkers. And the 43-year-old former theater stagehand is only one of a legion of beggars in the city hauling in big bucks and
a smorgasbord of food doing nothing but sitting on the sidewalk with hands out.
US
suffering from massive equality of rich and poor. Propaganda is about telling a good
story. So when the media wants to tell a story of how the rich are getting richer and the poor are
getting poorer, they ignore inconvenient facts, such as the value of the various federal, state, and
local transfer payments as well as the value of charitable contributions from private groups such as
soup kitchens. That would interfere with the story that is needed to justify higher taxes and higher
spending. But if you look not at income but material wealth, the story gets worse, but in an
opposite way. By examining material possessions we find that the gap between the rich and poor
is actually alarmingly small.
By
Global Standards There Are No American Poor; All In The US Are Middle Class Or Better.
[Scroll down] The idea that the US has more people living in real poverty (as opposed to
inequality) than Albania or China, much poorer countries, does indeed shock. However, it's
necessary to walk through the definitions that are being used here to see what is happening. For
it's not actually quite as that finding seems to show. The first is that the US numbers are
looking at peoples' incomes. And as we all know "income" among the American poor is grossly
under-reported. No, not because everyones' lying (although some obviously do and statisticians try
to correct for that) but because the major poverty alleviation programs in the US are not counted as
income. So that US number doesn't include many of the things that we do to try to reduce poverty
(things like SNAP, Section 8 vouchers and so on).
Dependency, Not Poverty. There is no material
poverty in the U.S. [...] Poor Americans have more living space than the typical non-poor person in Sweden, France or the U.K. What
we have in our nation are dependency and poverty of the spirit, with people making unwise choices and leading pathological lives aided and
abetted by the welfare state.
The Minimum Wage Issue — Again.
Minimum wage-earners actually pay a "negative" tax. A person making the federally mandated minimum wage of $7.25/hour will make $15,080/year
(assuming he/she works 2,080 hours — 40 hours/week times 52 weeks). He/She is in the first income quintile according to
a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. According to the same report, he/she pays an income tax rate of -9.2% (Table 2), or $1,387.
He/she pays no income tax on the $15,080, and receives $1,387. So the effective minimum wage is $7.91/hour ([$15,080 + $1,387]/2,080).
But wait! There's more!
Don't Forget the Other Entitlement
Monsters. According to an American Heritage report based on an analysis of Census Bureau data, 43% of statistically poor households
own their own homes, and on average these houses have 3 bedrooms and one-and-a-half baths. [...] As the Heritage report summarizes, "In 2005,
the typical poor household, as defined by the government, had air conditioning and a car. For entertainment, the household had two color
televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. In the kitchen, it had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave.
Other household conveniences included a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker. The family was
able to obtain medical care when needed. [...]"
Carter Is Wrong: [the] Middle Class Not Like
[the] Poor 30 Years Ago. Today's poor children — 96% of whom don't go hungry — have it better than their parents and grandparents, who
played checkers and cards, and even made up games to play outside. According to Rector, "more than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such
as an Xbox or PlayStation." Simply put, poor Americans in 2010 or 2012 or 2013 not only live better than the middle class of just a few years ago, they also live better
than royal families lived not that many decades back.
Americans in
'Poverty' Have TVs, VCRs, Cell Phones, Air Conditioning. A new report from the Census Bureau found that 80.9% of households
considered poverty stricken have cell phones along with their landline phones, and 58.2% have computers. 96.1% of those in "poverty" have
televisions, and 83% have some sort of DVR.
The new face of SNAP? Food stamps buy
lobster for surfer and his buddies. [John] Roberts reports that [Jason] Greenslate has no fixed address, instead choosing the life of a beach bum
staying with family, friends and girlfriends, living off them and $200 a month in benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which he uses to
buy gourmet items at the grocery store. "I don't got a paycheck coming in so I qualify," Greenslate told Roberts.
Next scandal: Platinum
EBT cards. The next welfare scandal is going to be the huge balances on some of these EBT cards. [...] Last January a radio
listener from Pittsfield sent me a receipt from a local convenience store. Some loafer had run up a tab of $3.28, so he whipped out an
EBT card to pay for it. After paying his three bucks, he had $7,066.58 left on the card. I kid you not. Over seven
grand on an EBT card.
Repeal & Replace the Welfare State. Welfare once was the
province of the states, but increasingly has been treated as a federal responsibility. Since the 1960s, when the concept of
public welfare radically expanded, federal micromanagement and redistribution of income has grown out of control. The federal
government has spawned a vast array of redundant, overlapping and poorly targeted assistance programs. This bureaucratic
monstrosity spends $724 billion a year to provide medical care, food, shelter and other basic services to a growing number
of people who increasingly are not "needy" by any rational definition.
Bogus beggar is so good at his scam
he makes $100,000 a year trolling Kentucky city. Gary Thompson, a wheelchair-bound man in Lexington, Ky., makes up
to $100,000 a year begging off of unwitting good Samaritans. He has difficulty walking but is otherwise in fine physical and
mental shape. But the scammer fakes a mental and speech disability as he panhandles around the city, he told Lexington TV station
WLEX.
What is Poverty in the United States Today? For decades, the U.S. Census
Bureau has reported that over 30 million Americans were living in "poverty," but the bureau's definition of poverty differs widely from that held by most
Americans. In fact, other government surveys show that most of the persons whom the government defines as "in poverty" are not poor in any ordinary sense of the
term. The overwhelming majority of the poor have air conditioning, cable TV, and a host of other modern amenities. They are well housed, have an adequate
and reasonably steady supply of food, and have met their other basic needs, including medical care.
How Poor is "Poor"? Nearly all
"poor" persons live in houses or apartments that are in good repair and not overcrowded; in fact, the dwelling of the average poor
American is larger than the house or apartment of the average non-poor person in countries such as France and the United Kingdom.
By their own reports, most poor persons in America had sufficient funds to meet all essential needs and to obtain medical care for family
members throughout the year whenever needed. Some 80 percent of poor adults and 96 percent of poor children were never
hungry at any time during the year because they could not afford food.
Panhandler
arrested, claims to have made $60,000 last year. A man arrested on suspicion of panhandling in Oklahoma City told officers there was no
point in getting a job, because he made "$60,000" last year. According to the police report, an officer spotted Shane Speegle, 45, panhandling
near Interstate 40 and Macarthur Boulevard earlier this month.
The Editor says...
Panhandlers are generally paid in cash, which is almost certainly not reported as income, and therefore not taxed.
Missing: $400 purse holding $800 cash, plus food stamp cards.
It bears repeating, as both a critique and a warning of things to come, that the great project of the American Left involves teaching the
middle class to think of itself as "poor." That way, they'll vote themselves into servitude.
Junk
Government Statistics. [Scroll down] Quite a few people have reported cash incomes below $25,000.
Especially those who are moving from one job to the next, or experiencing a spell of unemployment. But this measure
counts only "official" income — not what people actually consume. Studies show consumption at lower
incomes is typically much higher than reported income. Why? The government's poverty data do not include the
welfare — the earned income tax credit, the food stamps, the housing aid, the public health insurance, the
school lunches and the outright cash grants — that makes up the social safety net. A massive five-decade
study of consumption and poverty by economists Bruce Meyer and James Sullivan found "consumption poverty rates often indicate
large declines, even in recent years when income poverty rates have risen." In short, real poverty is rare.
For Liberals It's Always 1936.
No one today in this country lives in anything like the sort of poverty that millions of sharecroppers in the South and unskilled industrial laborers in the North knew in 1936.
By the standards of 1936, most American families are filthy rich and those who aren't receive massive assistance to raise them above the poverty line.
The Entitled
States of America: We Want More! Around the country, there is a lot of "taking" going on. There was some mild
bureaucratic embarrassment in Michigan recently when a 24-year-old woman who won $1 million in the state lottery was found
to be collecting food assistance. "I feel it's okay because, I mean, I have no income and I have bills to pay," explained
the woman, Amanda Clayton. "I have two houses." She was utterly without embarrassment of any kind.
Update: Michigan
lottery winner kept cashing welfare checks. Amanda Clayton, 25, of Lincoln Park in suburban Detroit, received
public assistance through March of this year despite winning $1 million from the Michigan lottery in September, the
state attorney general's office said. [...] Clayton was charged on Monday [4/16/2012] with two counts of welfare fraud.
Internet Access
Is Not a Human Right. Over the past few years, courts and parliaments in countries like France
and Estonia have pronounced Internet access a human right. But that argument, however well meaning, misses a
larger point: technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. There is a high bar for something
to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead
healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience.
'Internet
access not a human right,' says 'Father of the Internet'. "Internet access is not a human right,"
wrote Vinton Cerf in an OpEd in the New York Times on Thursday. Cerf is a prominent computer scientist who
worked on the DARPA project that gave rise to the Internet, and is revered as the "Father of the Internet."
Cerf, who wrote the piece in response to the United Nation's drive towards declaring Internet access a human right,
is Google's Chief Internet Evangelist. He argued that "technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself."
Victimology
and the Phony 'Digital Divide'. The notion that black youths generally do not have internet access
is a myth. In fact, if liberals really cared about the experience of young blacks, they would know that
89% of black youths have a computer in their home and that 78% have internet access. That is only 10% less
than white youth's internet access, which is 88%. Before you infer discrimination or disadvantage from that
10% disparity, consider something astonishing: 90% of black youths have cable/satellite TV in their homes,
compared with 83% of whites. Sixty-three percent of blacks have premium channels versus 43% of
whites. ... Before we bemoan a lack of resources, we should consider how people are able to prioritize
cable TV, even premium access, over internet access.
Seattle
welfare recipient lives in million-dollar home. A Seattle woman who is receiving welfare assistance
from Washington state also happens to live in a waterfront house on Lake Washington worth more than a million
dollars. Federal agents raided the home this weekend but have not released the woman or her husband's
name because they have not officially been charged with a crime.
All
I Needed To Know About Socialism I Learned In A Grocery Parking Lot. The receipt was on the floor
of an Angeli's County Market parking lot, located in the greater Denver area of Colorado. ... It speaks volumes
about today's cavalier attitude toward "public assistance," what we used to call simply welfare —
not only for the extravagances bought with other people's tax dollars, but for the sheer arrogance of allowing
such a blatant illustration of inappropriateness to slip through a customer's fingers: six cold-water
lobsters, two porterhouse steaks, and five cases of Mountain Dew, the only purchases on the ticket, are shown
paid for in food stamps.
The New Welfare Swindle.
Ever since I moved to the inner city one thing has puzzled me more than any other, and that is how my low-income
neighbors get by. Assuming they aren't doing anything illegal, how do they afford their homes, their
meals, their gadgets, their cars? Few seem to work, even part time, for they are home in the morning when I
leave for work, home if I stop by for lunch, and home when I return in the evening. They can't work the
graveyard shift, for they keep me up half the night with their raucous music. I am left to conclude that
they seldom, if ever work. ... The best I can figure is they make do with a patchwork of welfare programs.
Let's
get real about poverty in America. Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning.
Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more. Two-thirds have cable or
satellite TV. Half have one or more computers. Forty-two percent own their homes. The average
poor American has more living space than the typical nonpoor person in Sweden, France or the U.K. Ninety-six percent
of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry during the year because they couldn't afford food.
Occupiers
poach homeless services. Occupy Boston has been encouraging protesters to take showers, hot
meals and shelter meant for the homeless, prompting a St. Francis House manager to ask the downtown campers to
remove directions from their Internet newspaper. The online publication that calls itself "Occupy Boston
Globe" posts meal times and shower hours at St. Francis House on Boylston Street, which runs on private donations
and state and federal funding.
What is Poverty in the United States
Today? [Scroll down] Mainstream news media also present poverty in America as severe material
hardship. ... The ongoing use of examples of severe hardship in TV news should not be surprising. TV news
thrives on drama, and reporters naturally seek out the starkest and most sympathetic examples of poverty to build
the most compelling stories. By contrast, a realistic portrayal of the living conditions of the typical poor
family in America would not make compelling viewing. In fact, the audience would be unlikely to regard
such a family as seriously deprived.
Understanding
Poverty in the U.S.. To the average American, the word "poverty" implies significant material
deprivation, an inability to provide a family with adequate nutritious food, reasonable shelter and clothing.
Activists reinforce this view, characteristically declaring that to be poor in America means being "unable to
obtain the basic material necessities of life." The old-stream news media traditionally amplify this
idea: Most news stories on poverty feature homeless families, people living in crumbling shacks, or
lines of the downtrodden waiting to eat in soup kitchens. But the actual living conditions of most of
America's poor — that is, the poor as defined by the Census Bureau — differ greatly from
these images ...
Strange
Facts about America's 'Poor'. Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By
contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning. Fully
92 percent of poor households have a microwave; two-thirds have at least one DVD player and 70 percent
have a VCR. Nearly 75 percent have a car or truck; 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.
Four out of five poor adults assert they were never hungry at any time in the prior year due to lack of money for
food. Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television. Half have a personal computer; one in
seven have two or more computers. More than half of poor families with children have a video game system
such as Xbox or PlayStation. Just under half — 43 percent — have Internet access.
A third have a widescreen plasma or LCD TV. One in every four has a digital video recorder such as TiVo.
More
restaurants are targeting customers who use food stamps. The number of businesses approved to
accept food stamps grew by a third from 2005 to 2010, U.S. Department of Agriculture records show, as vendors
from convenience and dollar discount stores to gas stations and pharmacies increasingly joined the growing
entitlement program. Now, restaurants, which typically have not participated in the program, are
lobbying for a piece of the action.
Give Me a Flatscreen TV, or Give Me Anarchy!
As it is with any system on the verge of collapse, decent people are beginning to understand that the welfare
state's central premise is a lie: the overwhelming majority of those receiving government assistance are
not "transitioning" towards a better life. Anything resembling quid pro quo has long
been removed from the equation. Getting something for almost nothing, the lone exception being an
unspoken requirement that one not bite that hand that feeds you, reveals what the welfare state has become:
institutionally-sanctioned extortion paid by the givers to the takers — in exchange for societal peace.
Among the Tax-takers.
Like most anti-poverty programs, the Earned Income Tax Credit when enacted in 1975 was supposed
to be temporary. It was visualized as a tool to lift the working poor out of poverty. It was quickly
made permanent and has been modified numerous times over the ensuing 36 years. In 2004,
20 million families received $36 billion. The flower children assume that was $36 billion
spent on food, shelter, and health care. We who live in the real world know it was spent on big-screen
television sets, 22-inch chrome wheels, and colorful tattoos.
Plugged-In Poverty. The typical
news story about poverty features a homeless family with kids sleeping in the back of a minivan. But
government data show that only one in 70 poor persons are homeless. Another common media
image of poverty is a despondent family living in a dilapidated mobile home. But only a tenth of the
poor live in trailers; the rest live in houses or apartments, many of which are in good repair. The
poor are rarely overcrowded. In fact, the average poor American has more living space than the
average non-poor European.
Obama Redefining 'Poverty'.
What does it mean to be poor in America today? For typical "poor" households — as defined by the
government — it means cable television, two color television sets, and two or more cars. As
for housing, it means living in air-conditioned comfort — in decent accommodations with even more
space than "average" Europeans have. (Not poor Europeans, to be sure, but "average" Europeans.)
Moreover, most "poor" Americans get the medical care they need, and they eat enough — in fact, they
eat too much.
Modern
Poverty Includes A.C. and an Xbox. When Americans think of poverty, we tend to picture people
who can't adequately shelter, clothe, and feed themselves or their families. When the Census Bureau
defines "poverty," though, it winds up painting more than 40 million Americans — one in
seven — as "poor." Census officials continue to grossly exaggerate the numbers of the poor,
creating a false picture in the public mind of widespread material deprivation, writes Heritage Foundation
senior research fellow Robert Rector in a new paper.
Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and
an Xbox. According to the government's own survey data, in 2005, the average household defined
as poor by the government lived in a house or apartment equipped with air conditioning and cable TV. The
family had a car (a third of the poor have two or more cars). For entertainment, the household had two
color televisions, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there were children in the home (especially boys), the
family had a game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation. In the kitchen, the household had a microwave,
refrigerator, and an oven and stove. Other household conveniences included a clothes washer, clothes
dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker.
Welfare Steak and Lobster May Kill the Middle
Class. I almost feel sorry for the enterprising Louis Wayne Cuff. ... Here's a man who had
the gumption to get up in the morning, buy six lobsters, two porterhouse steaks and five 24-packs of
Mountain Dew, and resell them at a 100% profit. The interesting thing here is that the government
itself was actually funding the effort. You see, Louis bought all of it using his Bridge Card,
i.e., the welfare debit card that replaced the old-fashioned food stamps.
Food Stamp Millionaire.
If you have any uncertainty regarding the responsibility for the nearly bankrupt status of the state of Michigan and its
cultural and philosophical epicenter, Detroit, take a gander at the state's food stamp program.
Michigan
man still on food stamps despite winning $2M. A man who won $2 million on a Michigan lottery show has told a
TV station that he still uses food stamps. Leroy Fick of Bay County admitted he still swipes the electronic card at stores,
nearly a year after winning a jackpot on "Make Me Rich!" He told WNEM-TV in Saginaw that more than half the prize went
to taxes.
Update: Lottery
winner's luck running out. The luck of Leroy Fick, Michigan's 59-year-old "Food Stamp Millionaire" —
a lottery winner on government food assistance — appeared to be running out Wednesday [5/25/2011] as state officials
worked to get him off the dole.
Grown-up babies.
Not from nowhere has this stubborn, self-destructive sense of entitlement sprung. As I reported last month,
a record-breaking 12 million Americans have been added to the federal food stamp rolls over the past two years,
and the bloated $6 billion AmeriCorps social justice army has been converted into a publicist corps for the
welfare machine. Just this week, a Michigan man boasted that he's still collecting food stamps after winning
a $2 million government-sponsored lottery prize. "If you're going to ... try to make me feel bad, you
aren't going to do it," he told a local TV reporter. Embedded in his rebuke is the eternal refrain of the
self-esteem-puffed teenager: "You can't judge me!"
$2M
Michigan lottery winner defends use of food stamps. Eligibility for food stamps is based on gross
income and follows federal guidelines; lottery winnings are considered liquid assets and don't count as income.
As long as Fick's gross income stays below the eligibility requirement for food stamps, he can receive them, even
if he has a million dollars in the bank. Food stamps are paid for through tax dollars and are meant to help
support low-income families.
The Editor says...
How many more food stamp recipients have plenty of money in the bank? And when I say "plenty"
I mean $25,000 or more.
The
'rational' exuberance of spending other people's money. Whether it is a king living the life of
luxury in a palace or it is a welfare mother using food stamps and government handouts to subsidize 60-inch
flat-screen TVs, Xbox game systems, and brand-new automobiles, it is a reflection of the exact same sense of
entitlement. The king and the welfare mom both think they don't have to work, and you do.
The Hunger Code.
It is getting hard to keep track. One minute the government tells us American children are suffering from
record levels of obesity. The next, children are facing a hunger epidemic. Which horror story should
you believe? Neither. The truth is, 94.3 percent of American households are able to put enough
food on the table every day to feed their families, and the vast majority of children living in these households
are healthy and well-fed. Given the food shortages facing people in other countries, Americans are the envy
of the world.
Understanding
Poverty in America. The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census
Bureau, taken from various government reports:
• Forty six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The
average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three bedroom house with
one and a half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
• Seventy six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast,
30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
• Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two thirds have
more than two rooms per person.
• Nearly three quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
• Ninety seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
• Seventy eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
• Seventy three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third
have an automatic dishwasher.
2010: The Year Of The
Moocher. The picture shows Raymeica Kelly holding up two powers bills, power bills that were
not paid by YOU, the taxpayers, because she was turned away from the Energy Assistance Program. But
what is that pesky object sitting right behind Raymeica Kelly? Why, could it be... a big screen
television?? And what's that under her big screen television... an X-box video game system!
Gettin' Fat, Gamblin', And Cruisin' On Food
Stamps. Matching hungry Depression-era Americans with farm surpluses motivated the first
Federal food stamp program in the 1930s. Today, to remove the stigma of paying at the supermarket
with the stamps, some 120 Million Americans get Electronic Benefit Transfer debit cards (EBT) from
the renamed Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). ... In California, the poor can use the EBT
card at the farmers' market, and the flea market, and even dine out. Under a new state law, counties
can permit the use of the CalFresh EBT cards at approved restaurants. The San Diego County program
limits the EBT restaurant use to seniors, the disabled, and the homeless. The San Diego list of
approved restaurants includes KFC, McDonald's, and other fast food franchises. So, at least in my
home town, obesity is not such a problem that it can't be subsidized by the government.
Where Best To Be
Poor. Imagine you are an unborn spirit whom God has condemned to a life of poverty but has permitted
to choose the nation in which to live. I'm betting that most any such condemned unborn spirit would choose
the United States. Why? What has historically been defined as poverty, nationally or internationally,
no longer exists in the U.S.
Maserati
owner arrested in welfare fraud sweep. A Cerritos woman was due in court Friday [5/28/2010] after
being arrested in a massive welfare fraud sweep for receiving more than $60,000 in welfare benefits while
allegedly concealing her ownership of a business, home and Maserati sports car.
Reflections on the
Revolution in America: The present attempt to remake America is the effort of the liberal
well-to-do — highly educated at mostly private universities, nursed on three decades of postmodern
education, either with inherited wealth or earning top salaries, lifestyles of privilege indistinguishable from
those they decry as selfish, and immune from the dictates they impose on others. ... They are all battling on
behalf of "them," the poorer half of America, currently in need of some sort of housing, education, food, or
legal subsidy, whom the above mentioned elite, in the way they live, send their children to school, socialize,
and vacation so studiously avoid. ... Note well the term "poor." These are not Dickensian or Joads poor,
but largely Americans who by the standards of the 1940s would be considered lucky.
Record
numbers receive food stamps as USDA turns blind eye to recipients' finances. President Obama's
latest proposed budget includes $72.5 billion for the SNAP program, a 30 percent increase over
$55.6 [billion] spent in 2009. The program is on track to double in size by 2011 — as
recently as 2008 it accounted for only $37.6 billion. Since the start of the recession in late 2007,
food-stamp rolls jumped from 27 million individuals to 38 million, or 13 percent of the total
U.S. population. The federal government hasn't distributed food aid to this many people since the
Great Depression.
Food-stamp
fraud: Detroit-area stores swipe millions from aid program. Fraud in the government
program that helps the poor has added up to nearly $100 million since 2007, according to the U.S.
Agriculture Department. It's a fraction of the more than $40 billion spent to feed people each
year, but the crime has become a brazen way for some small stores to literally swipe cash from the U.S.
Treasury, especially in the Detroit area.
The Editor says...
So what? Some people have computers and some do not. The same is true of television.
This kind of inequality is not considered a problem except in socialist countries.
Subsidized Health
Care: a view from the exam room. When serving in the Rural Health Center in my community,
my colleagues and I offered free or discounted care for a large number of patients. Many were covered by
Medi-Cal or one of dozens of state programs paid for by the taxpayers of California. The following items
were commonly seen on patients or carried by their dependent children, who were also covered by subsidized
programs:
• Cell phones and "BlackBerry" PDAs, including just-released models with a price tag
of $400, plus an ongoing monthly service fee of $65-$150
• iPods and portable DVD players
• GameBoys and handheld electronic games
• Artificial fingernails requiring maintenance every two weeks...
• Elaborate braided hair weaves, $300 per session plus frequent maintenance
• Custom-designed body art...
How Poor Are America's
Poor? According to the US Census Bureau, 36 million Americans are
"living in poverty." Can this alarming claim really be true? The
simple answer is: No.
'Poverty'
in America: Some material hardship does exist in America, but it is quite limited in severity and
scope. According to the government's own data, the typical person defined as "poor" by the Census has
cable or satellite TV, air conditioning, a microwave, a DVD player or VCR, and two color TVs. Three
quarters of these "poor" own a car and nearly a third have two or more cars.
Populists
equalize poverty. To be sure, there are some very rich people in America who earn and possess
hundreds or thousands of times what poorer people earn or possess. But the poor in this country are only
relatively poor. We have no abject poverty. On the contrary, America's "poor" have cars,
TVs, appliances, computers, $200 basketball shoes and own their own homes. Their lifestyle would be the
envy of most of the world's population. As long as there's relative wealth, there will always be relative
poverty.
This Boomer Isn't Going to Apologize.
I have two teenagers and an 8-year-old, and I can say firsthand that if boomer parents have anything for which
to be sorry it's for rearing a generation of pampered kids who've been chauffeured around to soccer leagues
since they were 6. This is a generation that has come to regard rising affluence as a basic human
right, because that is all it has ever known — until now. Today's high-school and college
students think of iPods, designer cellphones and $599 lap tops as entitlements.
Are Our 37 Million Poor Really Poor?
Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation is a national authority on poverty and the U.S. welfare system.
Specializing in welfare reform and family breakdown, Rector has done extensive research on the economic and
social costs of welfare. With presidential candidates of a certain hue decrying the suffering of the
37 million Americans who have been officially classified as poor by the U.S. Census Bureau, we thought
we'd ask Rector if these poor people are really as poverty-stricken as we have been led to believe.
New
Evidence on Taxes and Income. When all sources of income are included — wages,
salaries, realized capital gains, dividends, business income and government benefits — and taxes
paid are deducted, households in the lowest income quintile saw a roughly 25% increase in their living
standards from 1983 to 2005. This fact alone refutes the notion that the poor are getting
poorer. They are not.
The imps of the
impoverished. Ah, the good old days! When the word "poverty" really meant
something! In the Middle Ages, thousands of city dwellers might starve to death during a
drought. "The poor" were people who walked around without clothing. To be destitute
meant eating tree bark to survive. Today, obesity is a bigger problem for the poor than
is hunger.
The Poverty Hype:
Low-income people have sources of income that don't show up as taxable income such as sales of property like homes,
cars, insurance policies redeemed, or the drawing down of bank accounts. They might be headed by retirees
or those temporarily between jobs, and thus their low income total doesn't accurately reflect their long-term status.
What is
poor? Many poor people today own appliances that were considered luxuries when I grew up, and
some would still be considered luxuries today. For example, 91% of those in the lowest 10% of
households — all of whom are officially poor — own color TVs; 74% own microwave
ovens; 55% own VCRs; 47% own clothes dryers; 42% own stereos; 23% own dishwashers; 21% own
computers; and 19% own garbage disposals.
Understanding
Poverty in America: For most Americans, the word "poverty" suggests
destitution: an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing, and
reasonable shelter. But only a small number of the 35 million persons classified
as "poor" by the Census Bureau fit that description. While real material hardship
certainly does occur, it is limited in scope and severity. Most of America's "poor"
live in material conditions that would be judged as comfortable or well-off just a few
generations ago.
The
productive vs. the unproductive: Today, more than 98 percent of American
homes have a telephone, electricity and a flush toilet. More than 70 percent of
Americans own a car, a VCR, a microwave, air conditioning, cable TV, and a washer and
dryer. In 1900, no homes had the modern conveniences of today. Today's poor
Americans have choices that yesterday's millionaires could have only dreamt of, such as
cell phones, computers and color television sets.
Self-inflicted
poverty: Did you learn that the United States is rich because we have bountiful
natural resources? That has to be nonsense. Africa and South America are probably
the richest continents in natural resources but are home to the world's most miserably poor
people. On the other hand, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and England are poor in natural
resources, but their people are among the world's richest.
Welfare encourages illegitimacy rather that work
The Tales of Three Bankrupt Cities. Why did so many
people move out of Detroit? The quick answer: crime abetted by welfare. During the decade from 1965 to 1975, crime and welfare dependency roughly
tripled in the United States and rose even more in Detroit. There was a connection between the two trends. Welfare encouraged single parenthood; fatherless
boys often grew up to commit violent crimes. Most violent crimes were and are committed by (and against) blacks, whose numbers in Detroit during the great northward
migration rose from 149,000 in 1940 to 660,000 in 1970.
The Close Connections between the Economy and the
Family. [Scroll down] Worse, we are discovering that ObamaCare really will "destroy marriage for the middle class the same way that the Great Society
welfare state destroyed the black family — with financial incentives for staying single." ObamaCare's marriage penalty could possibly cost couples over
$10,000 a year. This intentional disparity means that U.S. government policy will encourage singleness and create increased disincentives for marriage.
Bill would block extra welfare benefits
for additional babies. New Hampshire taxpayers should not be paying for bad behavior, according
to the prime sponsor of a bill that would cap the financial benefits of welfare recipients who have additional
children while receiving state aid.
Homeless Families
in Illinois Walking a Hard Road. When her public aid arrives without snags — a rarity,
she said — she receives $674 in Social Security, $623 in cash assistance and $723 in food stamps
each month, plus support from the federal Women, Infants and Children program. The public support covers
food and clothes, but it is not enough for a security deposit on an apartment. Dealing with the red tape
of public aid eats up her days.
The Editor says...
The New York Times wants us to feel sorry for this freeloader who is only good at one thing: reproduction.
The
Ultimate Devastating Price of Government Dependency. The devastating price of government dependency.
I witnessed it up close and personal in the late '50s, when I was a child. Both of my mom's sisters had five kids
each by various men who simply deposited their seed and moved on. Thus, both of my aunts were totally dependent
on government. They lived in the projects. ... The atmosphere at my welfare-dependent cousins' home was strikingly
different from mine — a subtle sadness which made me feel a little sorry for them.
'Someone's
got to take responsibility'. The victim culture of the United States has found its poster child.
The massive disconnect between behavior and consequences held as an article of faith by those who embrace
victimology is epitomized by this mother of 15 (!) children. She not only believes she has no
responsibility herself, she manages to become indignant that others are not taking responsibility for them.
No civilization can survive an attitude like this becoming widespread. Watch the video yourself and weep
for our future.
The government is not motivating people to work,
it is only encouraging people to give birth. The Entitlement
Leviathan in Numbers. Here are some of the major mandatory expenditures that comprise the
$615 billion in "Other Mandatory Spending:"
• SNAP (Food Stamps) - $78 billion
• Earned Income and Child Tax Credits - $77 billion
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) - $53.4 billion
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) - $17 billion
• Child nutrition programs (school lunch and breakfast programs & other smaller ones) $17.6 billion
• Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) - $8.5 billion
How Immigration and Multiculuralism Destroyed
Detroit: For 15 years, from the mid 1970s to 1990, I worked in Detroit, Michigan. I
watched it descend into the abyss of crime, debauchery, gun play, drugs, school truancy, car-jacking, gangs
and human depravity. I watched entire city blocks burned out. I watched graffiti explode on
buildings, cars, trucks, buses and school yards. Trash everywhere! Detroiters walked through it,
tossed more into it and ignored it. Tens of thousands and then, hundreds of thousands today exist on
federal welfare, free housing and food stamps! With Aid to Dependent Children, minority women birthed eight
to 10 and in once case, one woman birthed 24 kids as reported by the Detroit Free Press...
Combatting
Child Poverty. Census data now show that a quarter of young children in America are mired in
poverty. The media won't report on — and the president won't lead on — its root
cause: an epidemic of illegitimacy.
This is where "negative income tax" comes from. Reaganomics
Vs. Obamanomics. Newt Gingrich's Contract with America adopted a child tax credit of
$500 per child that reduced the tax liabilities of lower income people by a higher percentage than
for higher income people. President Bush doubled that credit to $1,000 per child, and made it
refundable so that low-income people who do not even pay $1,000 in federal income taxes could still
get the full credit.
Childhood Poverty's Low-Hanging Fruit. What
if there was a proven way to instantly and dramatically reduce the statistic of 1-in-5 American children now living under
the federal poverty line, as reported in the September 2010 U.S. Census figures? Better still, what if this economic
remedy cost taxpayers zero dollars and simultaneously curbed generational poverty to boot? Surely people of all
ideological stripes could agree that such "low-hanging fruit" ought be plucked for the betterment of those who have
little say in their economic flourishing — children. Such a solution exists. It's called
marriage.
Michelle's free lunch:
This free lunch bill, is not quite the free lunch it appears to be; it is paid for by reductions in funding for
food stamps where people can actually select what food to buy for their kids, say potatoes or potato chips, in
their food desserts. And why do so many kids get "half their daily calories from school meals"?
This is another area of responsibility removed from the parent(s) and handed over to the government; parents
don't even have to make their kids lunch to take to school.
More
Disincentives to Work. Thanks to food stamps, Medicaid, and housing subsidies, and other welfare
benefits, many "poor" people have far more disposable income than self-supporting households earning $40,000
to $60,000 a year. Veronique de Rugy points to a finding that "a one-parent family of three making
$14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year" — even
excluding benefits from Supplemental Security Income. "America is now a country which punishes those
middle-class people who not only try to work hard, but avoid scamming the system."
Boston Globe
Criticizes Anti-Poverty Program. Credit where credit is due. The Boston Globe is
publishing a major three-part story by staff reporter Patricia Wen that is highly critical of the
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. ... Wen describes the federal SSI program as a "little-scrutinized
$10 billion federal disability program has gone seriously astray, becoming an alternative welfare system
with troubling built-in incentives that risk harm to children."
The Other Welfare. The
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for children was created mainly for those with severe physical
disabilities. But the $10 billion in federal benefit checks now goes primarily to indigent children
with behavioral, learning and mental conditions. Qualifying is not always easy -- many applicants
believe it is essential that a child needs to be on psychotropic drugs to qualify. But once enrolled,
there is little incentive to get off. And officials rarely check to see if the children are getting
better.
After the
Welfare State. F.A. Hayek in the 1940s showed that the welfare state was The Road to
Serfdom because its government-directed benefit programs inevitably concentrated more and more power in
the government and stripped citizens of their right to direct their own lives. More specific studies
by American conservative policy analysts in the 1970s, most notably Charles Murray in Losing Ground and
George Gilder in Wealth and Poverty, showed that the poor were particularly disadvantaged by the progressive
political agenda. The welfare state with its subsidy for failure was encouraging a collapse in working class
families and creating an underclass of single mothers married to the state and angry young men detached from
fatherhood, responsibility, and work.
Why Obama's
poverty rate measure misleads: Who is poor in America? This is not an easy question to
answer, and the Obama administration would make it harder. It's hard because there's no conclusive
definition of poverty. Low income matters, though how low is unclear. Poverty is also a mind-set
that fosters self-defeating behavior — bad work habits, family breakdown, out-of-wedlock births and
addictions. Finally, poverty results from lousy luck: accidents, job losses, disability.
Democrats Try To Lock Up Their Base.
The Democrats and their feminist allies have decided on one of their major goals. It is to increase the
number of single moms by increasing the flow of taxpayer-paid incentives that subsidize the non-marriage
lifestyle. The plan also includes locking in this group's dependence on government and allegiance to
the Democratic Party.
New Tax Math: Single Moms + Big
Brother. The wrong-headed welfare system started in the 1960s with Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and
his proclaimed war against poverty. The system should have been called the war against marriage. LBJ's
Great Society set up a grossly immoral system whereby millions of people were taught they had an "entitlement" to
pick the pockets of law-abiding, taxpaying families if they met two conditions: They didn't work, and they
were not married to someone who did work. This destroyed the work ethic and subsidized illegitimacy by giving single
moms money and scores of benefits, such as welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, housing, utilities, WIC and commodities.
Mother
shows no gratitude for profuse aid given her and 12 kids. A courtroom full of people who paid off
Angel Yulee Adams' debts and found a rent-free, six-bedroom home for her and a dozen of her children waited
Monday morning for a sign of gratitude, a clue of cooperation. They waited for a thank you. They
didn't get it. ... Adams lost her home after failing to pay rent to the Tampa Housing Authority, then
recently was evicted from a two-bedroom rental apartment.
Home
for Tampa mom, 12 children getting repairs. [Scroll down] Adams' plight emerged last week
when she and her children were forced to stay in a rundown hotel room after she had been evicted from her
apartment. She doesn't work, and the father of many of her children was in prison. She said that
the county and state were not doing enough to help her and her children. Her statements caused a stir of
criticism, mostly from people who said she was the cause of her own problems.
Listen to the Panther.
As Eldridge Cleaver understood, when the individual is crushed, so is his sense of self-respect and
self-reliance. Since LBJ's Great Society initiatives, billions of dollars have been spent augmenting the
state in relation to the individual lives of most black Americans. Is Colbert King happy with the results?
Is socialized medicine as important to the black community as the staggering numbers of children who grow up
without a father in the home?
Nanny State Gone
Wild. I can tell you what most fiscally responsible parents are thinking when they hear the
feds "taking care" of everyone else's adult "children" by confiscating their tax dollars and forcing private
companies to comply: You've got to be kidding me. Yes, Virginia, there are still some of us
left who believe our children shouldn't depend on a government-manufactured umbilical cord as they approach
their third decade on earth.
What Suckers We Are.
Still paying full price for your kids' meals at school? The government currently provides free or reduced-price
lunch, breakfast or both for nearly 60% of all school-age children nationwide. Households with incomes of
up to 185% of poverty level are eligible. In Philadelphia public schools, 72% of students have access to
a universal feeding program — regardless of income. Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey wants to
nationalize that program.
Octuplets Mom Enrages California Taxpayers. A big share
of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's
taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red. Even before
the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six
other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for
three of the youngsters.
Our taxes now pay for most Arizona births. More
than half of Arizona's babies are born under the state health plan for the poor — a positive trend, in the view
of public-health experts, while others see it as a drain on taxpayers. The trend follows recent policy
changes that allow more individuals and families to qualify for free or low-cost care, as well as the
ever-increasing costs of private health insurance.
The Editor says...
How could an increase in poverty be "a positive trend"?
The Problem with Obama's
Father's Day Speech: The problem of fatherless families is the problem of mothers as well as
absent fathers. Children born out of wedlock, after all, are born because a woman decides that a good
father is not that important. The prior irresponsibility is not these young men, but the young woman who
decides to have sex with them, intending or assuming that society, rather than a husband, bear the costs of
her pregnancy.
Since we're talking
about race and class… Since the days of the Great Society, the U.S. Government has
thrown literally trillions of dollars at the poor. It undoubtedly helped some and it indisputably
hurt others. The people it hurt most are poor blacks, helping to erode social and family
bonds. We are told, for example, that out-of-wedlock births are a uniform cultural
phenomenon these days. This is simply a lie. Seventy percent of blacks are born
out of wedlock, most of them poor. … Upper-income women overwhelmingly wait to get married
before they have their kids.
Free Lunch: Title I's formula for determining
aid — and its recipe for fraud: The process to qualify for a free lunch comes down
to parents self-reporting their income on a form that is turned in to their local school. Federal
free-lunch program administrators argue that the program has little potential for abuse because "the worst
that happens is a kid gets a free lunch." Federal free-lunch data, however, are used as one of the
main poverty indicators for school districts and are linked to many other local, state, and federal funding
streams. So any fraud in the free-lunch program is quickly multiplied.
Welfare reform
fantasyland: Finally, the federal government has stopped subsidizing families to keep fathers
out of the household. It only took a half-century and millions of broken families but the government
finally got it. But there are 70 other federal welfare programs.
The Black Family: 40 Years of
Lies. Almost 70 percent of black children are born to single mothers. Those mothers are
far more likely than married mothers to be poor, even after a post-welfare-reform decline in child
poverty. They are also more likely to pass that poverty on to their children.
Handouts promote an entitlement mentality
Entitlement is really a very poorly chosen word, because the recipients have come to believe they really are entitled
to never-ending handouts.
Toxic Words.
During this election year, we are destined to hear many words that are toxic in the way they misrepresent reality and substitute fantasies
that can win votes. One of these words is "entitlement." To hear some politicians tell it, we are all entitled to all sorts of things,
ranging from "affordable housing" to "a living wage." But the reality is that the human race is not entitled to anything, not even the
food we need to stay alive. If we don't produce food, we are just going to starve. If we don't build housing, then we are not
going to have housing, "affordable" or otherwise.
Derelicts
Now Demanding To Live on the Streets As Matter of Right. America's homeless are lawyering up to fight for a
"right" to live on the street — your neighborhood and personal safety [notwithstanding]. From Fort Lauderdale
to Los Angeles, cities are struggling with a surge in people living in cardboard boxes and doorways. Local lawmakers are
trying to ban "camping out" in public and ordering police to clear the fetid encampments. Now lawyers for the homeless
are pushing back. They're demanding that "sleeping rough" be legally protected. In Denver, where living on the
street is outlawed, lawyers for the homeless want to guarantee vagrants "the right to use and move freely in public spaces
without discrimination."
Prenup
for welfare recipient's wedding? I saw this desperate plea for help on Facebook. Is
there anyone who can help out this poor prog who is axing for advice? You see, Comrades, she
doesn't want to lose the welfare benefits for which she worked so hard.
Mom
says she can't see son's grades without paying fees. A parent of an Oak Grove High
School student is upset over a fee the school is charging her, and the punishment for families who
can't pay those fees. [...] "Oak Grove High School is charging the parents for art class and shop
expenses," said Angela Mullin, who has a 15-year-old son, a sophomore at the school. "If I wanted
to pay for my son's classes, I would definitely send him to private school," said Mullin. [...] "My
son's on free lunches and I can't afford this fee," Mullin added. She says without paying this
fee, her son's report cards are on hold, along with 317 other children according to her.
The Editor says...
If your son is getting free lunches, you are already putting your hand in my pocket. One should
expect to pay nominal fees for the supplies used in extracurricular programs.
Maine Changes Rule for Food Stamps that
Every State Should Follow. Another state is making people work for food stamps, and it
has some people up in arms without knowing all the details. Typical liberals, who are filled with
lots of emotion but low on the facts, are worried that children and disabled people will now go without.
If they did a little research, they would know this expired waiver will only affect able-bodied people
with no children. The federal waiver that has been in place since 2010 because of the recession
has been allowed to expire in the state of Maine. This allows Maine to reinstate a mandate
requiring able-bodied adults who are 18 to 50 years old and have no children to work or
volunteer 20 hours per week or they will be limited to three months of food stamp benefits
over a three-year period.
Indiana
reinstates time limits for some food stamp recipients. Indiana will begin cutting off
food stamp benefits next year to tens of thousands of people who fail to get a job or train for work.
Beginning in the spring, the state will limit benefits to no more than three months during a three-year period
for able-bodied adults without children who don't work or participate in job training for at least 20 hours
a week. The time limit is a requirement for the federally funded program, but states can ask for a waiver
if jobs are scarce in all or part of the state. Although Indiana is among the majority of states that
qualify for a waiver, the state plans to reinstate the requirement.
Is There a Way Out? The fact that Congress has no
resources of its very own forces us to recognize that the only way Congress can give one American one dollar is to first — through
intimidation, threats and coercion — confiscate that dollar from some other American through the tax code. If any American did
privately what Congress does publicly, he'd be condemned as an ordinary thief. Taking what belongs to one American to give to another is
theft, and the receiver is a recipient of stolen property. Most Americans would suffer considerable anguish and cognitive dissonance seeing
themselves as recipients of stolen property, so congressional theft has to be euphemized and given a respectable name. That respectable name
is "entitlement."
Local
housing authorities in Charleston and North Charleston get federal dollars for self-sufficiency programs. The public housing authorities in Charleston
and North Charleston will be getting a small piece of nearly $57 million in federal grants awarded this week to help some clients make the transition to
self-sufficiency. The clients are people who have agreed to leave the Housing Choice Voucher program, commonly known as Section 8, within five years.
In exchange, the clients get a financial incentive to succeed, and a coordinator to help them achieve their goals.
EBT benefit card glitch
sparks Walmart shopping sprees in Louisiana. The Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system allows recipients of government food stamps to
purchase goods using a digital card with a set spending limit, but for a few hours over the weekend, that limit disappeared for many users visiting
Walmart stores in Louisiana. Walmart and local police in Springhill and Mansfield confirmed to CBS affiliate KSLA that officers were called into
the stores to help maintain order Saturday as shoppers swept through the aisles at two stores and bought as much as they could carry.
The Louisiana Heist. On Saturday
[10/12/2013], Louisiana's "EBT" system malfunctioned, causing spending limits on users' food-stamp cards temporarily to be lifted. In two
counties at least, recipients noticed the error, spread the word, and set about trying to check out as much as they could fit into shopping carts.
At Walmarts in the towns of Springhill and Mansfield, employees called corporate headquarters to ask what they should do. They were instructed
to "keep the registers ringing." This they did — and with a vengeance. By the time that proper limits on the cards had been
restored a couple of hours later, the shelves had been all but stripped bare.
The Editor says...
The government has the names and addresses of everyone who committed this fraud. Why haven't the perpetrators been arrested?
Walmart food stamp bonanza proof of abused system.
A week ago, the technology that assessed spending limits on debit cards for food-stamp recipients malfunctioned. As a result, there was no way for stores
to tell how much value was left on individual cards. Many merchants refused to accept the cards until the problem was fixed. Not wanting to risk
having anyone go hungry, Walmart allowed people to use the cards. Unfortunately, the food-stamp recipients treated the stores' generosity as a bonanza,
and filled carts with much more than they were entitled to. As word got out, the two Walmarts quickly found themselves overwhelmed by other food-stamp
recipients doing the same.
Update: Vitter Wants Those
Who Cleared Shelves During Glitch Banned from Food Benefits. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wants to make sure that both benefit recipients
and stores are held to account for the recent run on groceries during an outage of the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system in his home state.
Shoppers cleared out shelves Oct. 14 when the system went down, with deluged Walmarts deciding to let transactions proceed despite the outage showing
no spending limits for the cards. Vitter said those who went on food grabs should be disqualified from receiving benefits.
Jindal administration will pursue people who misused
food stamps. Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration will pursue Louisiana residents who took advantage of technical problems with the food stamp
system on Oct. 12 and purchased amounts of food that were above and beyond what was allowed. The decision comes a week after U.S. Sen. David
Vitter, R-La., publicly criticized the Jindal administration for not pursuing food stamp recipients who went on a shopping spree while the system was down.
Louisiana suspends EBT cards for food
stamp cheats. The Advocate reports that the Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's office will cancel food stamp benefits for anyone who
participated in a fraud and shopping spree catalyzed by an EBT malfunction. More than 12,000 people were sent an insufficient funds notice
when the problem with the EBT cards was fixed on Oct. 12; those who transgressed may lose their EBT cards for a year.
A Country of Free Men or Free Things. [Scroll
down] There is a big difference between a free country and a country of free things. You can have one or the other, but
you can't have both. A free country isn't obsessed with free riders, only a country of free things obsesses with making
everyone pay their fair share for the benefit of the people who want the free things.
Oprah,
Entitled America, and the Coming Reclamation of Our Nation. My brother has been coaching little
league football for over 25 years. He has noticed a disturbing shift in the attitudes of more and
more kids. They think they are entitled, demanding maximum rewards for minimal effort. Contributing
greatly to America's new "gimme" mindset is President Obama, preaching his gospel of "spreading the wealth around,"
confirming blacks as victims of racial inequality, promoting entitlements, and demonizing achievers. And
when did a belief and faith in God become a bad thing in America? God is so banned from the public square
that any politician boldly proclaiming his or her faith is branded a religious zealot nutcase by the liberal media.
Freeloaders.
Some Americans actually make a living ... begging for money. Professional panhandlers, they're
called, sometimes making more than $100 in a day. I tried it in Manhattan, and made over $11 in one
hour — that would be $23,000 a year — tax free! It's a small example of why some said that the
USA is turning into a nation of freeloaders. The Manhattan Institute's Heather MacDonald says that
beggars she's encountered "have the most deep-seated sense of entitlement that I've ever come across."
I Want It All, Even Better If You
Pay for It. Pick up any newspaper and you're bound to see a prominently featured story about
someone somewhere losing a government benefit and enduring hardship as a result. ... Yet, at the risk of
sounding hard-hearted, the U.S. can't afford to provide everyone with food, clothing and shelter, not to
mention medical and child care, college tuition, a low-interest mortgage and a Social Security check until
death.
'I Want My Free M.D.'.
The Democrats' reform bill had hardly become law before doctors and insurers began getting calls asking about
free health care. The growing sense of entitlement is disheartening, to say the least.
A New Direction. America
is being transformed from a society of independent minded, hard-working individuals to one where government rules
all aspects of life. The transformation is to government dependency where self-reliance used to be the norm.
In Obama's America people actually get smokin' mad when you suggest they should be responsible for their own lives.
5
Character Flaws That Are Destroying America's Future. [#1] Lack Of Personal Responsibility: As a
society, we encourage a "victimhood mentality" and an overweening government that never met an issue it didn't want to dive
into with both feet; so we shouldn't be surprised that so many Americans expect to be rewarded for failure.
American Idle. President Obama is
auditioning American Idle contestants. These non-producers of our society stole the show at his town meeting in
Ft. Meyers, Florida on February 10, 2009. It was like watching a Saturday Night Live skit when a parade
of sad sacks asked for handouts. Henrietta Hughes tearfully begged the President for a car, a kitchen and a
bathroom. Julio Osegueda, overcome in spontaneous euphoria, asked the president what his plans are for giving
him better benefits at his job for McDonald's. A man, who was recently laid off and receiving the forced generosity
of the American people through his unemployment check, ungratefully asked why the government did not compensate him for
his entire salary.
Peggy the
Moocher. Who is Peggy the Moocher? She's Peggy Joseph, a voter in Sarasota, Fla., who
exulted earlier this week at a Barack Obama rally that this was "the most memorable time of my life."
Why? As she told a Florida reporter on a YouTube video that has been viewed by hundreds of thousands:
"Because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have to worry about putting gas in my
car. I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know. If I help [Obama], he's
gonna help me."
The Nanny State of the
Union: The fact that such burgeoning government interventionism in state, community
and private affairs is beyond the constitutional pale goes without saying. For the Founders, dependence
on government in private and public life was to be avoided at all costs — such dependence, as
they rightly saw it, being the root of bondage.
America has Become a Dependent Culture. When
the power goes off for more than a day, the inhabitants of whole cities can become refugees from the elements
and have to be saved by big-brother government. If the help doesn't come fast enough the "refugees" cry
foul and complain. As in the travesty that was New Orleans (Hurricane Katrina), the people stood around
helpless, waiting for government to deliver them from a nature-made calamity. They were incapable of
helping themselves. Several thousand died as a result and billions of tax dollars were squandered to
save the rest. They didn't have the intelligence, training or the where-with-all to escape the big
city. The big city and their helplessness killed them, or made them wards of the government.
The
Katrina experiment: The common denominator of low-income-housing programs over
these last 40 years is that they have been consistent failures. Yet, despite this
indisputable fact, today's social-policy gurus persist in search of the magic government
low-income-housing program, rather than appreciating that the problem has been, and is
today, government interference in private lives.
A Very Late Checkout.
After being flown [to New York City] for free back in September, [Theon] Johnson's been at the Holiday Inn
since Super Bowl Sunday. On April 21, the hotel served Johnson with three notices of occupancy
termination, saying that it would begin court proceedings if he wasn't out by May 9. He wasn't,
so it did. If the court boots him, Johnson could end up in one of the city's homeless shelters. He's
been broke for over a month now. FEMA sent him $9,000 in housing aid, but he spent it all on booze,
cigarettes, some clothes, and food — partying, mostly. "I spent my money just the way
I wanted, and I think [FEMA] should send me some more," he says.
The Editor cries out in frustration ...
Here's an example of a person who will be a freeloader and a sponge for the rest of his life. If
there's a government "No Fly" list at the airport, why isn't there a "No Handouts" list at the homeless
shelters? It would be cheaper to buy this man a one-way ticket to another country. Or at least
to Guam or Puerto Rico or somewhere other than a New York City hotel!
NBC
15 confronts Speaker Nancy Pelosi on FEMA spending. When NBC 15 News first met Gwenester
Malone a month ago, she was receiving three catered meals a day, while housekeepers made sure her hotel
room stayed clean. None of it was costing her a dime. "Since the storm, I haven't had any
energy or pep to go get a job," Malone said, "but when push comes to shove, I will." That shove
may not come until March 2009.
"Every measure which establishes legal charity
on a permanent basis and gives to it an administrative form creates thereby a class unproductive and idle,
living at the expense of the class which is industrious and given to work."
— Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
Constant expansion and mission creep
Taxpayers
spend $41.3 million in a year to advertise food stamps, a 6-fold increase over last decade. Spending on advertising and
outreach for food stamps has increased six-fold since 2000 — reaching $41.3 million in 2011, according to a new GOP
report. According to calculations released by Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions Budget Committee staff, using data from the
Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service, in the year 2000 spending on advertising for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) — or food stamps — was approximately $6.5 million.
GOP
senator slams USDA for not answering questions on policies contributing to record food stamp use. Following news that participation
in the food stamp program hit another record high in September, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions took to the Senate floor Tuesday [12/11/2012]
to lambast the Department of Agriculture for failing to respond to an oversight request regarding USDA policies that have likely contributed to
the expansion of the program.
The rise of food-stamp
nation. Two-thirds of the Agriculture Department's budget is devoted to welfare programs. The biggest is food stamps, which is now
the nation's second-largest welfare program after Medicaid. Its inexorable growth during the past decade, through good times and bad, is a
testament to government's self-generating expansion.
Trillions Have Been Wasted On Poverty Programs That
Don't Work. Although nearly 15% of Americans are already on food stamps, Washington still feels a need to pump the numbers. CNN is reporting that
"the federal government wants even more people to sign up for the safety-net program." According to CNN, the Agriculture Department "has been running radio ads
for the past four months encouraging those eligible to enroll" and "is spending between $2.5 million and $3 million on paid spots."
Nancy Pelosi Wants
A Federal Babysitting Service. Buried in a Washington Post story about Herman Cain calling Nancy Pelosi,
"Princess Nancy" is a new policy idea that Pelosi has been pitching recently during her short tour through California.
"One of the great pieces of unfinished business is high-quality child care; I wonder why we just can't do that," she
recently said to a California audience.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro Pushes Bill That Gives Free Diapers
to the Poor. An economic recovery bill authored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D.-Conn.) seeks to empower
struggling families by directing the federal government to distribute free diapers through day care centers.
... Critics of the bill say it exemplifies the type of cradle-to-grave, nanny-state legislation supported by
Democrat lawmakers that the government can't afford.
Limbaugh
Takes on DeLauro Diaper Bill. Conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh ripped into a local
Congresswoman's proposed diaper legislation on the air last week. Earlier this month, DeLauro (D-3rd District)
proposed an economic recovery bill that proposes that the federal government distribute free diapers through
daycare centers. It's called the Diaper Investment and Aid to Promote Economic Recovery Act — or
DIAPER Act. She cited the cost of diapers, $100 per month, as too much for some families.
Universities
encouraging students to receive welfare benefits. Many American colleges and universities are
steering their students toward a new source of "financial aid": food stamps. In Oregon, for instance,
both Portland State and Pacific University encourage their students to apply for food stamps. "Many students
are surprised to learn that they may be eligible for Food Stamps," explains Portland State's website.
White
House to put up to 5,000 salad bars in schools. The White House is set to announce on Monday [11/15/2010]
a major new initiative that would place up to 5,000 salad bars in public schools nationwide, despite uncertainties
over how local health inspectors might treat those salad bars and USDA nutrition-tracking rules that could prove a
major impediment. Officials in the White House, led by chef Sam Kass, and at the U.S. Centers for Disease and
Prevention, have been working to build a coalition representing the produce industry and Ann Cooper, director of
nutrition services in Boulder, Colo. schools, who recently teamed with Whole Foods to raise $1.4 million from
customers to establish a grant program that would place salad bars in qualifying schools.
The Curse of the
Welfare State. It is Europe's autumn of discontent. All across the continent, people are
taking to the streets to protest the austerity measures of their governments. The governments have to
cut for a simple reason: They are broke. They no longer have the money to sponsor the kind of
padded lifestyles to which their citizens have grown accustomed. This in turn makes the citizens
angry — so much so that they are willing to turn their countries upside-down in order to obtain
benefits their governments simply cannot provide.
Obama
Begins His Assault on Your Life Savings. The welfare state and your life savings are two cars heading down
a one-lane road in opposite directions. One must yield, or there will be a crash. For Americans who believe
in the old-fashioned virtues of hard work, self reliance and respect for private property, the solution is obvious.
The welfare state must yield. For politicians who believe in the welfare state and redistributing wealth, the
solution is equally obvious. Your savings must yield.
Obama's $250 Bonus Turns Social Security
into Welfare. Since Social Security recipients will get no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) next
year, President Obama wants to give each of them $250, a move supported in principle by the Republican House and
Senate leadership. However, this move is not only unjustified; it makes a fundamental change to Social
Security's structure and starts the process of converting the program from an earned benefit funded by a
worker's own contributions to a welfare program.
NYC Bans Food Donations
To The Homeless. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's food police have struck again! Outlawed are food donations to homeless
shelters because the city can't assess their salt, fat and fiber content, reports CBS 2's Marcia Kramer.
The Editor says...
I suspect the mayor's concern is not with fat and salt, but turf: His priority is to show the homeless that they're dependent on
government alone, not the generosity of private citizens, churches or volunteers.
Free cell phones!
Nothing is free. Taxpayers are now paying for cell phones for the freeloaders who are already receiving other handouts.
Why is this bad? First of all, why should the government take money out of my hard-earned paycheck to provide luxury items to
those who are too lazy to work? Second, there are too many cell phones in use
already. There is already a shortage of UHF bandwidth due to ubiquitous cell phones. There are already too many people talking on
the phone when they should be watching where they're going. There are already too many people talking on their phones in restaurants,
libraries, museums, funeral homes, churches and public ceremonies.
The Universal Service Fund was created in 1997
after being mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The USF fund skims 15.7 percent of a telecom
company's interstate and end-user revenues to pay for free cell phones, as discussed below, as well as all sorts of
other hardware, including computers in classrooms and libraries. The Universal Service Administrative Company
collects the money,* all of which is wasted: A hobo with a
cell phone sure to be a nuisance. Internet browsers in public libraries attract the seediest and most disgusting
drifters with nothing but time on their hands. Computers in classrooms teach children to become reliant on the
internet rather than reference books, and constant use of the computer conditions young kids to believe anything a
computer tells them. In other words, they are trained for nothing better than low-level civil service work.
California
May Offer Discounted Cellphone Service to Illegal Aliens. The sanctuary state of
California may soon offer discounted cellphone service to low-income foreign nationals who do not
have Social Security Numbers (SSNs), including illegal aliens. A proposal before the
California Public Utilities Commission would open up the state's "LifeLine" program, which
subsidizes phone bills for low-income Californians, to residents who do not have SSNs, including
illegal aliens. "... the California Universal LifeLine Telephone Service Program (California
LifeLine) should extend eligibility to Californians without a Social Security Number (SSN). This
decision establishes a process for Californians without an SSN to enroll in California LifeLine,"
the proposal reads.
Border
Crossers Awarded Healthcare, Free Cellphones Upon Arrival in NYC. Border crossers
arriving in New York City on migrant buses sent from Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) are being
awarded healthcare services as well as free cellphones, among other things. On Sunday, as the
New York Post reports, the city's hospital system held an event for arriving border crossers at a
hospital in the Bronx where they were offered healthcare services along with free cellphones, food,
library cards, and school supplies. The event comes as Mayor Eric Adams (D) estimates that,
in the last few weeks, Abbott has bused more than 4,000 border crossers to New York City as part of
his plan to alleviate waves of illegal immigration to Texas by transporting new arrivals to
sanctuary cities run by Democrats.
'Obamaphone'
company pays $13.4 million to settle fraud claims. A company that the government paid to distribute
"Obamaphones" — the nickname critics gave to government phones given to poor people — has agreed to pay
$13.4 million to settle a case alleging that it doled out devices to tens of thousands of people who didn't deserve
them. TracFone Wireless signed up more than 175,000 ineligible customers for the program between 2012 and 2015,
according to the allegations the company paid to settle. Officially known as the Lifeline program, it became known as
the Obamaphone after news reports showed recipients thanking then-President Barack Obama for giving them phones. That
sparked a debate about the generosity of the American welfare system.
Hundreds
of Bronx NYCHA residents get free wi-fi, $11 laptops — and program is expanding. Hundreds of Bronx
families signed up for free internet access and $11 laptops on Monday as part of a new federal program. More than 1,200
families at the Melrose Houses will have affordable internet access thanks to the Emergency Broadband Benefit program. [...]
Because of the pandemic, [one woman] said her 16-year-old son has been doing more and more of his class work remotely.
She said she spends over $150 a month on technology for her home. The free internet she signed up for on Monday
[11/29/2021] will go a long way for her budget.
The Editor says...
[#1] Yes, and being legally married would do a lot for your budget, too.
[#2] There is no emergency need for broadband internet service.
How
Free Stuff Is Used To Addict The Urban Poor To Welfare. Lifeline is a federal program originally intended to
provide low-income people with a free landline phone. Sensing a chance to get more poor people to vote for them,
Democrats expanded the program to include free cell phones. To maximize the number of subsidized cell phone recipients,
"free phone" vans patrol low-income areas of every Democrat-run city in America, a practice that has resulted in massive
fraud. The "free phones" van pictured [left] set up shop on a street in a predominately African American area of
Baltimore. As revealed in this must-see report by the city's Fox45 TV, within just three years of Barack Obama's
election, fraud exploded the number of subsidized phones in Baltimore from 6,000 in 2008 to 231,000 in 2011. Baltimore
isn't the only place where Democrats have used free phones to addict the urban poor to government dependency. In a
viral video that illustrates how readily poor people will vote for politicians who promise them free stuff, a welfare
recipient in Cleveland, Ohio screamed at a TV reporter that minorities would be voting for Obama because he gives them free
phones.
Somewhat related: Exclusive:
ICE Will Issue Cell Phones to Released Migrants. A law enforcement source within U.S. Customs and Border
Protection says ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers are ramping up their release or "Alternatives
to Detention" capabilities. Cell phones with tracking apps will eventually replace ankle monitoring bracelets,
according to the source. The source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, says the phones will allow for GPS
tracking and check-ins using facial recognition. The available supply of ankle bracelets will be issued until
depleted — at which time the phones will circulate.
Federally
Subsidized Smartphones Contain Chinese Spyware. Smartphones being given by the federal government to low-income
people have Chinese spyware installed, spyware that can't be removed and that gives agents of Beijing considerable control
over those subsidized phones. According to researchers quoted in various media reports of the discovery of the malware,
the Android OS devices given to people participating in the federally funded and FCC-managed Lifeline Assistance program are
pre-loaded with applications that give the Chinese access to private data, including contacts and texts, and that allow the
company that developed one of the apps to remotely download additional apps to the phone without user participation. [...]
Another app pre-installed on the UMX phones is the Settings app. The Settings app is critical to the function of the
phone and as such cannot be removed without rendering the phone useless. Unlike other phones' native settings apps, the
UMX Settings app — developed by the Chinese — grants the developer the ability to remotely install
hidden ads onto the phone without user permission.
Obamaphones Fraud
As High As 65 Percent. A massive portion of Obamaphone recipients are receiving the benefit after lying on their applications, according to a
new 90-page report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). An undercover sting operation showed ineligible applications were approved 63 percent
of the time, and a review that found that 36 to 65 percent of beneficiaries in various categories had lied in easily-detectable ways but were approved
anyway. The fraud reached unheard-of proportions because the Federal Communications Commission let the task of screening for eligibility fall to phone
companies that profit off of enrolling as many people as possible.
'Obamaphone' program stashes $9 billion
in private bank accounts. The controversial "Obamaphone" program, which pays for cellphones for the poor, is rife with fraud, according to a new
government report Thursday that found more than a third of enrollees may not even be qualified. Known officially as the Lifeline Program, the phone giveaway
became a symbol of government waste in the previous administration. Now a new report from the Government Accountability Office bears out those concerns.
The report, requested by Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, also says the program has stashed some $9 billion in assets in private bank accounts
rather than with the federal treasury, further increasing risks and depriving taxpayers of the full benefit of that money.
Commissioner
says fraud from Obamaphone program approaching $500 million. The federal subsidy known as the "Obamaphone" or
"Obamanet" program could be losing nearly $500 million to fraud annually, according to a top Republican on the Federal
Communications Commission. Commissioner Ajit Pai made the accusation Wednesday in letter to the Universal Service
Administrative Company, referring to the FCC's Universal Service Fund, which provides a monthly $9.95 subsidy for telecom
service to low-income consumers. The subsidy is limited to one per "independent economic household," or IEH, but
telecom companies have the ability to override that restriction if applicants check a box stating they represent a separate
household, even if they have the same address.
FCC Kept
'Obamaphone' Fraud Under Wraps Until After It Expanded Program. Federal regulators were instructed to keep a
massive fraud investigation under wraps until a day after a controversial vote to expand a program that was allegedly used to
bilk taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars, one those regulators claims. The Federal Communications Commission on
Friday [4/8/2016] announced that it would seek $51 million in damages from a cell phone company that allegedly defrauded the
federal Lifeline program of nearly $10 million. The commission's five members unanimously backed the Notice of Apparent
Liability (NAL), but Republican commissioner Ajit Pai parted from his colleagues in a partial dissent. According to Pai, he
and other commissioners were told not to reveal the details of its investigation until April 1, a day after the FCC voted to
expand the Lifeline program.
Illegals
leave Texas detention with free Samsung Galaxy 4 phone — for safety!. The government is giving
immigrant families released from Texas detention facilities free cell phones. The criteria used to determine who will be
offered the phones are those who are considered low flight risks and unlikely to pose a danger to the community, according to
Fox News. So far, 25 families have been offered the phones, which aren't your run-of-the-mill phones —
they're Samsung Galaxy 4 smartphones — and the program is understandably coming under fire.
Federal program that issues smartphones to new
immigrants raises questions. A federal government contractor is issuing smartphones to immigrant families released from two massive Texas detention
centers as a way to ensure that they are able to contact case managers and reach their U.S. destinations. Officials described the phones as part of a
less-restrictive alternative to detention programs designed to make sure that low-risk immigrant families with pending cases show up for court. The
phones, they said, are not used to track or monitor immigrants but rather as a safety net. But immigrant advocates were skeptical of the new phones,
and the program.
The Editor says...
If you accept a smart phone from the federal government, especially if you are currently being detained, and probably aren't supposed to be in this
country in the first place, then you can safely presume that the smart phone is like a two-way ankle monitor. When the day of your hearing arrives,
they'll know exactly where you are. And if you reach the same conclusion and throw that phone in the river, the government can reasonably infer
that you do not intend to cooperate.
Federal Fumbles 2015. FCC's Lifeline program began in 1985 to
provide discounted telephone service to low income families — particularly those in hard-to-reach areas with little access to emergency landline
telephone services. In 2005 the service was extended to encompass pre-paid cell phone plans in addition to landline service. FCC requirements dictate
qualified individuals must meet income requirements at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or participate in specific federal assistance
programs to qualify for the program. Lifeline is funded through a service fee (meaning a tax) called the Universal Service Fund, which is on every American's
phone bill. In 2014 $1.6 billion was allocated for the Lifeline program to serve its more than 12 million users. The majority of beneficiaries
receive a monthly $9.25 discount subsidy toward their telephone service cost. However, due to low telephone availability on Tribal lands, qualified residences
receive an additional $25 subsidy, which brings the total monthly subsidy to $34.25. Since 2005 the Lifeline program has been riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse.
FCC
Commissioner 'Outraged' At What CBS4 Investigation Revealed About Free Phone Program.
Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Ajit Pai says a CBS4 probe of a government cellphone
program revealed fraud, waste and abuse in the government's Lifeline cellphone program that he
called "shocking." "The CBS4 story highlighted the fact that in places there are no safeguards,
workers are signing up people using fraudulent certifications," said Pai, one of five FCC commissioners.
Rich
kids use the Internet to get ahead, and poor kids use it 'mindlessly'. Knowledge is
cheap. A few taps on a smartphone and anyone can dive into the works of Plato and Einstein, watch a
lecture at Harvard or Princeton, or look up a recipe for cauliflower pizza crust, without spending a
penny. Yet for all these wonders, for all the wealth generated in the name by making information
free, the Internet has done little to improve the prospects of poor kids growing up in America, Robert
Putnam says in his new book, "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis." Social and mobile
technologies, he says, do almost nothing to improve social mobility.
Phone
Company 'Outraged' By Fraud, Abuse In 'Obamaphone' Program. The Lifeline program is
aimed at providing free cellphone service to the poor and needy. It handed out more than 13 million
free cellphone plans in the first six months of 2014. In Colorado, the program handed out more than
117,000 free cellphone plans in the first half of 2014 or about 20,000 cellphones every month. If
you own a cellphone, you pay for the free phones and their wireless plans via a monthly tax on your
cellphone called the Universal Service Tax. Although the Lifeline wireless program has been around
since 2005 and started under President George W. Bush, it ballooned under President Obama and the
phones are often referred to as Obamaphones.
Obamaphone
use grew 100-fold in 3 years in Md. to twice the number eligible. Six-hundred-and-forty-five thousand Maryland residents had
so-called Obamaphones in 2012 — one hundred times as many people as there were in 2009, and double the number in that state who
are supposed to be eligible for the program based on their income. The program, officially called Lifeline, is run by the Federal
Communications Commission and imposes hefty fees on every paying customer to give free phone service to low-income Americans. The
profits to telecom companies from the free, government-provided phone service are so great that in Nebraska alone, 51 corporations, many
of them who are not even traditional phone companies building infrastructure and attracting paying subscribers, fought for a piece of the pie.
FCC commissioner wants to end Obamaphone
fraud. A top federal regulator wants the Federal Communications Commission to rein in
the so-called "Obamaphone" program. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told an audience of right-leaning
tech policy advocates Monday morning [7/28/2014] during an event organized by the nonprofit organization
Citizens Against Government Waste that he wanted to reform the Lifeline program. Lifeline was first
created in the 1980s, but now is fraught with waste, fraud, [and] abuse by telecom industry members
and consumers alike. The Lifeline program is part of the congressionally mandated Universal
Service Fund, intended to help carriers subsidize phone service for low-income people.
FCC: Lifeline Program
Fraud and Abuse Surpasses Two Million Subscribers. In a continuing crackdown on the federal government's Lifeline program, sometimes known as
"Obama phones," the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has revealed that fraud and abuse in the program exceeded two million subscribers. New rules
were established after it became clear that subscribers and providers were taking advantage of the system.
FCC says
TracFone and other cell companies defrauded US program for the poor. The Federal Communications Commission yesterday accused five
wireless service providers of obtaining duplicate payments from a federal fund for low-income consumers. The FCC wants the companies to repay
the extra money and, in addition, to pay $14.4 million in fines. The wireless providers allegedly violated rules of the Lifeline program,
which has helped people afford basic telephone service since 1985. It was expanded to cover pre-paid cell phone service in 2005 under former
President George W. Bush. "The violations involve thousands of consumers who had more than one Lifeline subscription from the same
provider, resulting in duplicative support requests and payments," the FCC said.
Obamacare phones offered to health insurance buyers.
In Tennessee, those shopping on the new health insurance co-ops could end up with more than just some health insurance. They might even walk away
with a free smartphone. The Nashville Business Journal is reporting that Community Health Alliance, Tennessee's Obamacare health insurance co-op, is
using the prospect of a free phone to encourage folks to enroll.
FCC chief:
Reagan could be proud of 'Obamaphone' program. Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn forcefully
defended her agency's phone subsidy program for the poor in a speech on Thursday [9/12/2013]. Conservative critics have claimed the
FCC's Lifeline program is a wasteful government handout and referred to it as the "Obamaphone" program. [...] Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and
Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.) have introduced bills to end the cellphone portion of the program. "This phone program has expanded far beyond
its original intent, and as so many middle class Americans struggle underneath this economy, it is really offensive for Washington to make
taxpayers pay for free cell phones for others," Vitter said in a statement when he introduced his legislation.
Free Govt. Cell Phones Will Create Jobs
for Latinos. A fraud-infested government program that gives low-income populations free cell phones should expand in Hispanic
communities because it will help bolster employment rates, according to a powerful Latino rights group working to save the program as Congress
considers killing it. The controversial cell phone giveaway, known as Lifeline Assistance, has grown immensely under President Obama and
in fact has become known as "Obama Phones." It went from costing American taxpayers $819 million in 2008 to $2.2 billion in
2012, according to figures provided to an Idaho newspaper by one of its U.S. Senators.
The move to defund "Obamaphones". [Scroll
down] The program is "funded by telecom companies." Really? You mean the telecom giants are so concerned about helping
people and heedless of profits that they're just giving away phones and service programs because they're such a nice bunch of guys and gals?
When you stop laughing, you can read on to see exactly how the telecoms are "funding the program." The money comes from a tax imposed on
every service contract sold in the country.
First, defund Obamaphones.
Nothing better illustrates the impossibility of killing a federal entitlement than the fraud-riddled Obamaphone program. The $2.1 billion giveaway,
funded by a tax on every cellphone service contract, is a well-documented boondoggle — an estimated 41 percent of the phones go to ineligible
recipients.
A Day 'Selling' Obama Phones. [Scroll down] We continued to
sign people up for free phones with free service, even if they already had an iPhone or a Galaxy. Did they qualify for Section 8 housing?
Food stamps? Mass Health? Then they qualified for a free phone. (Two, actually.) One woman angrily said that she had previously
been told she could have two phones, but that she had received a notice from the government after signing up for the second phone. In this notice, she
had been told that she could keep only one of the phones. "Yeah, that's the loophole," Jake explained to me. "They can sign up for a second phone,
but then they have to choose between the two. But they have eight months to do it, so they can have two phones for up to eight months."
Me and My Obamaphones.
In the past month, I have received three shiny new cell phones, courtesy of American taxpayers, that should never have fallen into my hands.
The Federal Communications Commission oversees the so-called Lifeline program, created in 1984 to make sure impoverished Americans had telephone
service available to call their moms, bosses, and 911. In 2008, the FCC expanded the program to offer subsidized cell-phone service, and since
then, the expenses of running the program have soared.
How the Government's Cell Phone Giveaway Is Costing You Billions. The evidence is stacking up:
dead people are receiving free cell phones in the mail, eligible and ineligible individuals are obtaining more than one, and electronic kiosks have been stationed
in convenience stores to spread the word about this "free" opportunity. The truth is, though, that taxpayers are footing the bill.
'ObamaPhones started under Reagan!' Your point?
Current Lifeline Program eligibility requirements are:
• Be at or below 135 percent of the federal Poverty Guidelines OR participate in one of the following assistance programs:
• Medicaid
• Food Stamps or SNAP
• SSI
• TANF
• Section 8 Housing
• LIHEAP
• Free Lunch Program
• Other government give-away programs
Hidden camera catches wireless company employees passing out 'Obama phones' to people who say
they'll sell them for drugs [...] Undercover video shot in May by a conservative activist shows two corporate distributors
of free cell phones handing out the mobile devices to people who have promised to sell them for drug money, to buy shoes and handbags,
to pay off their bills, or just for extra spending cash. The 'Obama phone,' which made its ignominious YouTube debut outside a
Cleveland, Ohio presidential campaign event last September, is a project of the Federal Communications Commission's 'Lifeline' program,
which makes land line and mobile phones available to Americans who meet low-income requirements. Lifeline was a $2.19 billion
program in 2012.
The fungible phone: Obamaphones for drugs. The corruption of the welfare state is on display
in a new undercover video from Project Veritas, which sent undercover videographers to get some of those free "Obamaphones" ... while openly telling the corporate
reps distributing the phones that they intended to sell them for drug money. The corporate representatives were not fazed by this in the slightest.
One of them helpfully directed the undercover operative to a pawn shop, to find out how much cash he could get for that taxpayer-funded cell phone.
Indiana
attorney general probing privacy breach of 'Obamaphone' users. The Indiana attorney general's office confirmed Monday [5/20/2013]
it is investigating a security breach in which Social Security numbers and other personal information were posted online for roughly
44,000 low-income Americans who applied for a federal program that provides discount Internet and phone service. The program
was nicknamed the "Obamaphone" during the 2012 election, though it actually started long before President Obama took office.
Indiana reportedly has the highest number of applicants, roughly 17,400, who were signed up by TerraCom Inc. and the affiliated
YourTel America Inc.
Bill to quit 'Obama-phone'
giveaway gathers steam. Nearly 50 congressional members have signed on to legislation that would put a stop to the
government's free phone program, known loosely as "Obama-phone." The program is formally called Lifeline and started under the
Ronald Reagan administration as a means of providing landline phone service to poor people in case of emergency. It's grown to the
point the Federal Communications Commission under President Obama now admits it's rife with waste and fraud.
Lawmakers warn
cost of federal free phone program spinning out of control. What started out as an effort by President Reagan to help poor people
in rural areas have a phone in cases of emergency has mushroomed into what critics suspect is a new welfare program. "The cost has gone
from $143 million a few years ago to $2.2 billion today," Republican Louisiana Sen. David Vitter said, noting that today's cost is
15 times what it was.
Immigration
Bill Contains 'MarcoPhones'. The 844-page immigration reform bill the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" dropped in the dead of night
contains a lucrative handout that would give taxpayer-funded free cell phones to some people who live or work near the U.S. border with
Mexico. Pages 43 and 44 of the bill detail what one conservative blogger, Javier Manjarres of Shark Tank, has already
described as the "ObamaPhone" from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Supporters
rally to defense of 'Obama phone' program. Republicans have targeted a federal phone subsidy, widely referred to as the
"Obama phone" program, as a prime example of wasteful government spending. But supporters of the program are coming to its defense,
arguing that it is crucial for ensuring that needy people are able to communicate with their loved-ones and call for help in an emergency.
The Editor says...
If ubiquitous cell phones are a necessity, how did any of us survive before 1990? If you consider a cell phone to be indispensable,
and it is your top priority, then pay for the cell phone first, and purchase your cigarettes and beer and lottery tickets with whatever
money remains. In any event, I resent having to pay for your telephone.
Lawmaker
looks to rein in program after free cell phones sent to dead people. Dead people don't need cell phones.
That's the message Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas wants to send Congress, after he says a controversial government-backed program
that helps provide phones to low-income Americans ended up sending mobiles to the dead relatives of his constituents. Griffin
has introduced a bill that targets the phone hand-out program, which has ballooned into a fiscal headache for the government.
Free
Cell Phones Coming to California, Minus Federal Fraud Protection. The California Public Utilities Commission has expanded
its Lifeline program to include free cell phones. The Commission has also won approval to be exempted from the federal fraud
detection network associated with the program. The new cell phone program will offer "250 talk minutes and 250 text messages" per
month to anyone making less than $14,702. A minimum-wage employee working full time makes $15,080 in a year.
Millions Improperly Claimed U.S.
Phone Subsidies. The U.S. government spent about $2.2 billion last year to provide phones to low-income Americans,
but a Wall Street Journal review of the program shows that a large number of those who received the phones haven't proved they are
eligible to receive them. The Lifeline program — begun in 1984 to ensure that poor people aren't cut off from jobs,
families and emergency services — is funded by charges that appear on the monthly bills of every landline and wireless-phone
customer. Payouts under the program have shot up from $819 million in 2008, as more wireless carriers have persuaded
regulators to let them offer the service.
Warning: This Will Get Your
Blood Boiling. Not only are taxpayers funding free cell phones, we're also paying for street teams to hawk them at
hospitals, soup kitchens, carnivals and shelters. Apparently a cell phone is now a basic essential, like food, water and
shelter, that is so necessary for a person's survival it must be provided for those who can't afford it.
The Editor says...
I don't own a cell phone or a television, and I get by somehow.
Millions Improperly Claimed U.S. Phone Subsidies.
The U.S. government spent about $2.2 billion last year to provide phones to low-income Americans, but a Wall Street Journal review of the program shows that a
large number of those who received the phones haven't proved they are eligible to receive them. The Lifeline program — begun in 1984 to ensure that poor people
aren't cut off from jobs, families and emergency services — is funded by charges that appear on the monthly bills of every landline and wireless-phone
customer. Payouts under the program have shot up from $819 million in 2008, as more wireless carriers have persuaded regulators to let them offer
the service.
Obama crony wins
contract to give phones to jobless. A cellphone company whose top executive has close ties to President Obama lobbied
for and won a piece of a major new government push to provide Internet service to low-income job-seekers, even though critics say the
company's smartphones are poorly suited to the task of helping those in the program find work. The program's supporters tout it
as a way for the unemployed to learn technical skills, to prepare resumes and to search for jobs, but one of the 14 pilot
contracts that the FCC awarded went to Miami-based TracFone Wireless Inc.
Paradise Lost: CA to Provide Free Cell
Phones for Homeless. In California, the unemployment rate may be above 10.2%, and the state debt may be above $16 billion, the
state's GDP may be in serious trouble and businesses may be leaving in droves due to ever-increasing tax rates, but that isn't going to stop the
gravy train for the state's poor and dispossessed. The California Public Utilities Commission is all set to greenlight a new program that
would give homeless and low-income people free cell phones — call them Obamaphones — with free service.
Ark. congressman wants to
disconnect $1 billion free cell phone program. [Rep. Tim] Griffin said his constituents have told him about people abusing the
government benefit. "I had someone call me this morning telling me they had somebody who would only work a certain number of hours a week because
if they worked too many hours a week then they couldn't get their government assistance. And that person has multiple cell phones, and gets them
new every month with new minutes," he said, sounding outraged. The cell phone companies add to the problem, he said. "Every one they give
out, they get money for from the federal government. So they have an incentive to give as many away as possible," Griffin explained. "And
that's exactly what they're doing, and they're making a killing."
Mexican
billionaire making millions from American government program that gives poor free cell phones. The richest man in the world, Mexican
billionaire Carlos Slim, is making millions in profits from a government program that supplies poor Americans with free cell phones. Mr Slim, who
is worth an estimated $69 billion, owns the parent company of both the service provider and phone producer which creates the phones used in the
Lifeline program.
Who gets rich off 'free' government phones?
One of America's fastest-growing wireless carriers is a company you've probably never heard of: Tracfone Wireless. It's the
U.S. arm of a telecom empire controlled by the world's richest man, Carlos Slim, and it's the biggest player in an increasingly lucrative
market: subsidized mobile phones for low-income Americans.
Free Obama Phones and Mo'! That Universal Service
Fee we pay as part of our phone bill each month has helped double the number of "free Obamaphones" in the hands of people in Ohio since last year to more
than 1 million. While the mainstream media has ignored this story, the Ohio press is covering it.
ObamaPhones Profiting ObamaDonors. [Scroll down] One of the
major providers of the free cell phones — 3.8 million subscribers as of late 2011 — is Miami-based TracFone Wireless, a
company whose president and CEO, Frederick "F.J." Pollak, has donated at least $156,500 to Democratic candidates and committees this cycle,
including at least $50,000 to the Obama campaign. Pollak's wife, Abigail, is a campaign bundler for Obama who has raised more than $632,000 for
the president this cycle, and more than $1.5 million since 2007. She has personally contributed more than $200,000 to Democratic candidates
and committees since 2008.
The 'Obamaphone Lady'.
The Obamaphone Lady, who as far as we know hasn't been otherwise identified, is a middle-aged black woman with a loud, gravelly
voice. She exuberantly explains why she supports President Obama's re-election: "Everybody in Cleveland [unintelligible]
minority got Obama phone! Keep Obama in president, you know? He gave us a phone!" She turns out to be propagating
an urban legend, one we'd previously heard from conservative friends. The "phone" part is true. There is a federally
mandated, state-administered program known as Lifeline that subsidizes telephone service for low-income subscribers. But
the "Obama" part is imagined.
Come-On America, Free Phones.
I was driving home the other day, when I happened to see a bum sitting on the curb talking on a cell phone. How did I know that
he was a bum you might be thinking? Well I was born and raised on the lower east side of Manhattan in New York City. So
believe me I know a bum when I see one. Therefore, I started thinking, what a country we live in that a bum can have a cell
phone.
'The Free Stuff Election'. There are
some 1 million Ohioans out there with a free Obama cellphone. Imagine the 'Vote At' text messages coming through
on their Obama phones, and that's just one state. The omnipresent Obama team have worked the Free Stuff Crowd up to
fever pitch as witnessed in the Ohio woman's YouTube screed that Obama is not only giving out free cell phones but lots of
other free stuff's coming down the pike. Who really knew that liberty and freedom could be bought with a cell phone?
Your Universal Service Fee at Work. That
Universal Service Fee we pay as part of our phone bill each month has helped double the number of "free Obamaphones" in the hands of people in Ohio
since last year to more than 1 million. While the mainstream media has ignored this story, the Ohio press is covering it. Maybe
interest in the You Tube rant of the now infampus [sic] Obamaphone Lady, now at 2.2 million views in three days, will help get out the story of how
this program skyrocketed in a key swing state. Then there is the issue of the dubious ethics of having private businesses both actively promote a
government welfare program and name it after an elected figure in their marketing materials.
Where do "Obama phones" come from?
The program is called Lifeline, established in 1984 was originally created to subside landline phone service for low income Americans, funded
by government collected telecommunication fees, paid by consumers. In 2008, the program was expanded to support cell phones which quickly
escalated the cost of the program. In 2008 the program cost $772 million, but by 2011 it cost $1.6 billion. A 2011 audit
found that 269,000 wireless Lifeline subscribers were receiving free phones and monthly service from two or more carriers.
SEIU Pays Romney Protestors $11/hour In Cleveland. A very good
friend of mine took his camera to a Romney event in Cleveland Set. 26th [sic] and ran into Obama supporters. Yesterday, he released the video
of the protestor who supported Obama because she got a free Obama phone. Today, we have more footage.
Viral video
touting free 'Obama phone' puts spotlight on federal program. A viral video of an Obama supporter touting her "Obama phone" has put
the spotlight on an obscure federal program that provides discounted phone service to qualifying low-income Americans. "Keep Obama as
president," the animated woman says on the video. "He gave us a phone."
Free Cell Phones Offered To Poor Tennessee Residents.
A cell phone company is offering free wireless phones and 68 minutes of free air time to more than 800,000 low-income
Tennessee residents in a program aimed at ensuring they can make a call in an emergency.
Welfare
Creep in Laredo. [Scroll down] Poke around the Assurance Wireless web site a bit, and you
find that this program, which is already available elsewhere and similar to existing programs, is made possible
by the Universal Service Fund. That was set up in 1996, ostensibly to expand communications networks.
At the time, some predicted that it would end up as some sort of welfare. And so it has.
Cell
Phones for the Poor on the Taxpayers' Dime. The federal government is now busy working with
telecommunications companies to make sure everyone enjoys the comfort of cell phone ownership —
even if they can't afford it. ... Does the federal government, in partnering with companies like Assurance
Wireless, see owning a cell phone as a right?
Got
Food Stamps? Get Free Sprint Wireless Services. Can government subsidies help Sprint Nextel
bounce back? Perhaps so, in a way you may not think. Sprint, which reported fourth-quarter earnings
on Thursday, seems to be having success with its Assurance Wireless brand, a prepaid offering.
Sprint launched the government-subsidized Assurance program in early 2010. Sprint now markets the
Assurance brand in 22 states and Washington, D.C. Sprint expanded the Assurance brand to
Pennsylvania today [2/14/2011].
Free cell phones for the needy
drawing both cheers and jeers. In Pennsylvania, two programs offer free cell service:
Assurance Wireless and SafeLink from Tracfone Wireless, which specializes in "no-contract" cellular service.
The federal Universal Service Fund, which all telecommunications providers support as required by federal law,
pays for the programs. Amy Storey, a spokeswoman for CTIA -- The Wireless Association in Washington, said
all U.S. wireless carriers charge consumers a fee to recover the cost of their contribution to the fund, which
varies quarterly as determined by the Federal Communications Commission.
Paying
Telephone Customers Forced to Buy Cellphones for Others. Undoubtedly it was just an oversight
on Thomas Jefferson's part when he wrote that man's unalienable rights include "life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness" — but not free cellphones.
Free
cell phones are now a civil right. Pennsylvanians on public assistance now have a new 'civil
right' — free cell phones. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to pay higher cell bills as a
result. Recently, a federal government program called the Universal Service Fund came to the Keystone
State and some residents are thrilled because it means they can enjoy 250 minutes a month and a handset
for free, just because they don't have the money to pay for it.
The Editor says...
This is the exact inverse of capitalism. The customer gets a cell phone because he or she
does not have the money to pay for it.
Texas
member proposes ending federally subsidized cellphones. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) this
week proposed new legislation that would terminate part of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) program
that Republicans say is improperly used by phone companies to offer customers free cellphone service.
Farenthold says his bill, the Lifeline Reform Act, would save about $500 million annually. "These
'free' cellphones come at cost to hardworking American taxpayers because the program is funded by a tax on
phone service," Farenthold said.
When you give away cheese, expect a flood of rats. Over
26,000 Ohioans abusing free cell phone plan. Companies are flooding low-income households with free
cell phones and minutes under a plan overseen by the federal government that is prone to abuse, a Dayton Daily News
investigation has found. The investigation found the free cell phone program is growing rapidly because cell
phone companies are promoting it heavily and is so commonly abused that 26,500 Ohioans this month have been notified
they are violating the rules. The program is paid for with fees mandated by the government and tacked onto
most cellphone and home phone bills, often listed as the Universal Service fee.
Washington
Footing the Cell Phone Bill for Millions of Low Income Americans. Last year, a federal program paid
out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts.
The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with
participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills.
But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don't qualify,
and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone.
49.5%
of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax. The number of Americans on food stamps has risen to a record
45.8 million. The previous record was 31 million in 2009. Likewise, the number of people using
free government-provided cell phones has shot up exponentially. In 2008, the free cell phone program cost
tax-payers $772 million, and in 2011 it cost $1.6 billion. (Those free cell phones are expensive.)
Arkansas congressman wants to disconnect
$1 billion free cell phone program. No one likes paying cell phone bills. What if you could get a free phone with a calling plan whose cost was
paid by the federal government? What if you could have eight free cell phones? You can, and people do, Rep. Tim Griffin told The Daily Caller. The
annual bill runs over $1 billion, and he's trying to stop it.
Spending
Off the Hook: Free Phones Costing Taxpayers $2.1 Billion Per Year. You're probably familiar with the food stamp program which
grew from $35 billion in 2008 to $75 billion last year. But did you know that getting food stamps also makes you eligible
for a free government cell phone? A program called Lifeline provides free phones and free monthly minutes to anyone on food stamps,
WIC, Medicaid, Head Start, and several other government programs. And just like food stamps, Lifeline (aka "phone stamps") has been
growing by leaps and bounds since 2008, at significant cost to taxpayers.
Poor in Colorado may get free phones. Thousands
of low-income Coloradans reliant on public assistance could get a free cellphone under a plan before the state Public
Utilities Commission. If approved, the plan by TracFone Wireless in Miami would make Colorado the 17th state it
has settled into with free cell service for the indigent, a form of wireless welfare that proponents say taps into
one of the last untapped markets for the telecom technology.
On D.C.
Streets, the Cellphone as Lifeline. To the usual trappings that help many homeless people endure life
on the streets — woolen blankets, shopping carts or cardboard box shelters — add the humble
cellphone. Today, it's not unusual for the homeless to whip out Nokia 6085 GoPhones (with optional Bluetooth
and USB connectivity), stop at a public computer to check e-mail or urge friends to read their blogs.
Cell phones for Alabama's
poor hits roadblock. Most poor Alabamians will have to wait months, and perhaps longer, to get free, government-subsidized
cell phones and cell phone service. The state board that oversees emergency 911 service on Friday told the Miami company behind
plans for the free phones that the board lacks the authority to grant statewide certification that the phones are compatible with
911 systems. The certification is required by the Federal Communications Commission to qualify the company, TracFone Wireless,
for federal subsidies.
Now Available: Free "Obama" Phones.
If you are already receiving any public service, you are probably entitled to a Volksphone. There are upwards of 20 million people
enjoying what they are told are "free Obama phones". The rest of us are forced to subsidize the Volksphone through hidden taxes assessed
by the Obama Federal Communications Commission (FCC), through the universal service fund. [...] Obama's emissaries created the program, mandate
the assessments on the telecommunications companies, who then pass the cost to us. Then candidate Obama can enjoy the fruits of the
giveaway, while Chief Executive Obama can deny responsibility for levying the taxes.
Free internet service!
Update: FCC
Will Stop Companies From Providing Subsidized Internet To Low-Income Users. Nine companies participating in a
program designed to provide subsidized internet access to low-income customers have been told by the Federal Communications
Commission they are no longer allowed to provide their service. The decision by the FCC's new leadership to prevent the
companies from providing a more affordable internet option marks a reversal of a ruling made by former FCC chairman Tom
Wheeler just weeks earlier. Ajit Pai, the successor to Wheeler and current head of the regulatory commission in the
Donald Trump administration, said the decision to give the go ahead to companies providing low-cost internet was an example
of a "midnight regulation" passed in the lame duck session.
Better
internet access won't pull people out of poverty. A recent report from the Brookings Institution looked at data
from the American Time Use survey and concluded that less-educated Americans were spending more time on screens and less time
on "active leisure" than their better-educated counterparts. [...] The authors run down a quick litany of the problems
associated with screen time: "Prolonged time spent watching television is associated with poorer health, such as type 2
diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Playing computer games, browsing the Internet and other forms of sedentary leisure
may contribute to obesity. Such screen time is also associated with lower grades and lower levels of personal contentment
among youth." The researchers acknowledge that "many of these impacts may not be due to the screen time itself, but to the
lack of the activity that it displaces. More time spent in front of a screen inherently means less time doing other things."
If you thought your internet service was slow already, just wait.
FCC
Approves Plan to Expand Low-Income Subsidy to Internet Use. The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday [3/31/2016]
approved a proposal to expand a telephone subsidy for low-income Americans to include Internet access, after a deal to cap the cost of
the plan collapsed. The commission voted 3-2 to approve a proposal by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, unveiled earlier this month, to
expand the $9.25 monthly mobile phone subsidy to include broadband Internet access. The agency's three Democrats voted yea and
its two Republicans nay.
Subsidized
Broadband: FCC Chairman Plans to Expand 'Obama Phone' Program to Internet. Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler announced on Thursday [5/28/2015] that he
intends to expand Lifeline, popularly known as the "Obama Phone" program, to the Internet.
"I am circulating new proposals to "reboot" Lifeline for the Internet age," Wheeler wrote in a
blog post on the FCC's Website. He said the reboot would include "establishing minimum
standards of service for voice and broadband," in addition to subsidies for low-income consumers.
You need an Obama-modem to go with your Obamaphone: F.C.C.
Chief Seeks Broadband Plan to Aid the Poor. For 30 years, the federal government has
helped millions of low-income Americans pay their phone bills, saying that telephone service is
critical to summoning medical help, seeking work and, ultimately, climbing out of poverty. Now, the
nation's top communications regulator will propose offering those same people subsidized access to
broadband Internet. On Thursday [5/28/2015], that regulator, Tom Wheeler, chairman of the
Federal Communications Commission, will circulate a plan to his fellow commissioners suggesting
sweeping changes to a $1.7 billion subsidy program charged with ensuring that all Americans have
affordable access to advanced telecommunications services, according to senior agency officials.
The
Fraud-Riddled 'Obamaphone' Program Is Coming to the Internet. Next week, the Federal Communications Commission is
expected to approve a plan to add Internet access subsidies to its current $1.7 billion wireless phone subsidy program, called
Lifeline. [...] According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, a decade after starting Lifeline — which
subsidizes mobile phone service for low-income families — the FCC still "has not evaluated the effectiveness of the
Lifeline program." Consumers pay for the subsidies through a fee tacked on to their phone bills. What's more, the
GAO noted that two independent studies show that many eligible households would have bought a mobile plan anyway, "in the
absence of a subsidy."
FCC
Takes Step to Extend Phone Subsidy for Poor to Broadband. Federal regulators took a step Thursday [6/18/2015] toward
making Internet connections eligible for a $1.6 billion government subsidy that helps poor Americans afford telephones.
The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to consider changes proposed by Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat,
to the Lifeline program that has helped pay for telephone connections since 1985. "Today begins a proceeding to spend
ratepayers' money more wisely, to deliver 21st century benefits to deserving recipients," Wheeler said.
Expanding
the Lifeline Phone Subsidy — Here Comes Obamanet. The Obama administration
Thursday [5/28/2015] announced a plan to expand the troubled Lifeline program, which subsidizes
phone service, to also include broadband coverage. Despite the enormous potential for even more
waste, fraud, and abuse in a program already famous for such fiscal irresponsibility, the Democrat-controlled
Federal Communications Commission is nonetheless likely to approve this proposal.
Obama
Extending Broadband Internet Access to Public Housing Residents. The information
superhighway is heading straight into taxpayer-subsidized housing. The Department of Housing and
Urban Development on Wednesday [7/15/2015] announced an initiative to extend affordable broadband access to
families living in HUD-assisted housing. The project, launching in 27 cities and one tribal nation,
is called ConnectHome.
Obama
unveils high-speed Internet help for low-income homes. Calling the Internet a 21st
century necessity, President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled a program to bring faster Internet
connections to more low-income households, particularly to help students living in public and
assisted housing stay ahead in school.
More
Free Stuff! Obama Hands Out More Freebies! The very generous Barack Obama is giving
our money to a new initiative which will provide a very expensive form of Broadband to poor
neighborhoods. He's calling it Connect Home, a pilot project to help "close the digital divide"
by bringing broadband to poorer communities. Mind you, most Americans can't get this yet. It's also
going to entire neighborhoods, not individuals which is a significant change not to be ignored in light of
Mr. Obama's Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule. He is defining expensive Broadband Internet
as a "necessity" and a human right. In providing this to the poor, he's depriving others. He's
redistributing our money and high-speed Broadband. At some point, the segments of America that are
paying for this will run out of money. The media is phrasing it as something Obama is doing when it
is our money that is doing it, not him.
What happens when the game is over?
When the gravy train crashes, a lot of angry people are going to take to the streets. It has already happened in Greece and Venezuela.
What
If DIE Dies? The widespread pro-Hamas demonstrations, particularly at elite
universities, has, ironically, had a positive impact by alerting Americans to the ideological rot
infecting higher education. They now realize that the slogan "Diversity, Inclusion, and
Equity" (DIE) is not just the latest black civil rights campaign; rather, it is a race-based
ideology that demonizes white civilization. [...] In many GOP-dominated states, attorneys general
are pressuring firms to drop anything that discriminates against whites. Particularly
important is that private companies often have contracts with state agencies, and if state agencies
ban DIE, contracting firms may be liable for damages, so eliminating DIE programs shields the
private firm. Despite this growing pushback, left unsaid is an awkward question regarding
undoing DIE. What happens to all those functionaries, mostly black, whose careers are totally
dependent on advancing the DIE agenda? They range from grade school diversity assistant
principals, to highly paid Ivy League deans. The University of Michigan employs some 500+ of
them, and what happens if they are all fired?
Congressman:
Republicans Should Prepare For '[...] A Fight' If They Cut Food Stamps. Democratic congressmen are prepared to
fight if Republican-controlled Congress moves to reduce food stamps or cut the program from the farm bill. "If next
year, the Republican leadership wants to block grant or cut the [food stamps] program or put more hurdles in place to deny
people a benefit to put food on their table — be prepared for [...] a fight," Rep. Jim McGovern, a
Massachusetts Democrat, said during a House Committee on Agriculture hearing Wednesday. "Because this is a fight worth
having." The committee has held 18 hearings on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also called food
stamps, in the last two years.
EBT Card Declined; Mayhem Ensues. When
in convenience stores, always maintain unimpeded access to the exit. You don't want to get caught in there if
someone's EBT card is declined. Here is what that looks like: [Video clip]
Venezuelan
regime runs out of other people's money. Though every eye in the country is focused on the election, Americans
should take a moment to look at the socialist disaster unfolding in Venezuela. Domestic economic anxiety is legitimate,
but we should be thankful we're so much better off than those subjected to the economic nostrums of the far Left.
Americans are fortunate they no longer have to worry about diphtheria; Venezuelan doctors warn that their country may be on
the verge of an epidemic because vaccines and antibiotics are so scarce. Americans are fortunate that prices are fairly
stable; Venezuela has the highest inflation rate in the world, expected to hit 700 percent this year.
Rapper busted after video
shows him blasting Trump while brandishing stolen guns. By the time [Joe] Meaux called police, he said local authorities and the Secret Service were
already aware of the Instagram video featuring Demarcus Davis, 22, a local rapper who goes by "Maine Musik." "I really want to go to war with Donald Trump
because Donald Trump is tryin' to take food stamps from my momma and that's all the (expletive) she got," Davis said on the video. "Let Donald Trump know
it's up over here. We want war; we're going to declare war."
The Editor would like to ax this question:
Why doesn't your father provide for your "momma" instead of having her rely on the taxpayers for her income?
EBT Aerobics. A large and growing subculture
has been made reliant on government handouts, and has even been convinced that they are somehow "entitled" to spend other
people's money. But as Margaret Thatcher famously observed, eventually socialists always run out of that. What
will happen when our government can no longer keep millions of EBT cards charged up? No need to guess. [Video clip]
Furious
woman filmed destroying a convenience store when her welfare card is rejected. A very unsatisfied customer has
become a viral video star after footage emerged of her angrily destroying a convenience store. Shocking footage shows
the woman in red and black throwing stock from the shelves and screaming before being restrained and physically removed from
the grocery store in an unknown location in the U.S. The video posted on Liveleak on June 2 starts with the woman
slowly walking through the store while knocking packets from the shelves, sending items flying all over the floor.
35,000
Welfare Leeches Wake to Brutal Surprise. Should people have to work to receive welfare? Alabama thinks
so, and and because they require people to work 20 hours a week to receive benefits, tens of thousands of welfare recipients
have been barred from receiving benefits.
SNAP
Benefits Could Be Running Out For Some. Folks on food stamps, pay attention. Your SNAP benefits could soon get
cut. Many states, including Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas will start enforcing the 1996 welfare law. That law
states people without disabilities or raising minor children will have three months to find a job or their SNAP benefits will be
cut. People are not happy about it. Many said they do not want a hand out, but finding a good paying job is hard.
Maine
Doubles Down on Welfare Reform Despite Media Backlash. Mary Mayhew, commissioner of Maine's Department of Health and Human
Services, knows her politics aren't always popular. "I can't stress enough what an attack campaign it has been from the media for
four and a half years," Mayhew said Thursday [11/19/2015] at an anti-poverty forum in Washington, D.C., hosted by The Heritage Foundation.
[...] Since [Governor Paul] LePage assumed the governorship, Maine has reduced enrollment in the state's food stamp program by over 58,000;
currently, according to Mayhew, there are 197,000 people on food stamps, down from a high of 255,663 in February 2012.
Witness
Their Entitled Reaction When Their Food Stamps Were Cancelled. The entitlement culture has spiraled out of
control during Obama's time in office. Because of this, people are becoming so dependent on government handouts that they are
literally helpless when it comes to an emergency. They have no plan B, and no skill sets to survive through rough times...
they literally stand around just hoping to out live the crisis with their rage and twisted sense of entitlement.
The
Pentagon Admits It Is Preparing For a Mass Civil Breakdown in America. This is an old
story that has recently resurfaced — and it does make you think. On the one hand, the
Pentagon does need to be prepared for any contingency, including a breakdown of order in the
country. On the other hand, it makes you wonder if the Pentagon knows something we don't.
Pentagon
Admits They Are Preparing For Mass Civil Breakdown. A new US Department of Defense
(DoD) research program admits that the Pentagon has long been concerned about widespread social
break down. Even more striking of an admission is the fact that they have been funding universities
to create models of the dynamics, risks and tipping points that would all be part of large-scale
civil unrest in the United States.
The
Baltimore protests — are they really about the police? Yesterday
[4/25/2015], rioters damaged six police cars, shattered windows, and looted stores. Some fans who
attended the Baltimore Orioles game were attacked before the game. During the latter stages of the
game, the crowd was told to remain in the stadium because of the rioting. The [Washington] Post's
reporting suggests that, at root, the protests aren't about the police department (which, as noted,
is not a White institution and almost certainly not a racist one). One of the protest leaders said:
["]Officials are not interested in bettering our neighborhoods. People are tired of their quality of
life, and they're frustrated nobody helps them. They want to be heard, and they will do what it
takes.["] In other words, a population grown dependent on public officials is lashing out
because said officials aren't helping them attain the quality of life they desire.
The 25 who stood against the Obama-Boehner
Chess game should form their own party. When the social security system crashes, those
most affected will be the roughly 50 percent of Americans who've been getting by on Barack Obama's
"free stuff". Imagine the indignant cries from low-information voters who live from welfare check
to welfare check being thrown off their feed bags. Imagine the millions of illegal aliens who
laughingly thought they had it made, just a couple of years later regretting having left the countries of
their birth behind. In other words, the unknowing millions riding Obama's coattails to the public
teat, are about to be thrown off. Exiting Stage Left, their hero won't need them anymore; their
roles as useful idiots being no longer necessary.
The brakes are being applied very gently. Michigan's
Snyder signs welfare drug-testing bills. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed new
legislation Friday [12/26/2014] to enact a drug-testing program for adult welfare recipients. [...]
Welfare recipients or applicants suspected of drug use will be required to take a drug test.
Anyone who refuses to take the test will be suspended from welfare benefits for six months.
Leftist
organizers are using Ferguson to rehearse the Big Ugly. Deficit spending is a federal
addiction. Sooner or later, taken to the extreme, all unhindered addictions kill. And Washington's
deficit spending addition — practiced by both political parties — will bring
significant consequences to the Welfare and the Warfare States. The far-left social change
enterprises are leaning into what they know will be a generational opportunity as the Welfare State
begins to face significant downsizing. Instead of signs reading "Justice For Michael Brown," they'll
read "Justice For America's Poor." "Poor Lives Matter" will replace "Black Lives Matter." The
marching chants of "This is what democracy looks like" will grow louder. The Occupy Wall Street
model will be replicated widely in the Big Blue Cities as stationary protests compliment mobile
protests convened by social media — the new bullhorn of community organizers.
A morning-after
lesson from Ferguson. When the progressive welfare state goes broke, some large
African-American neighborhoods in Big Blue Cities will be left to burn by the police. On the
morning after the Grand Jury No True Bill decision was announcement, it was clear that the policing
authorities followed a planned, minimum-response strategy. They offered little resistance to looting
and property destruction, perhaps in order to avoid bloodshed and media scrutiny. The outcome:
On the morning after, there were few, if any, reports of serious injuries. No media videos went
viral showing police physically subduing looters. No ambulances were filmed loading bleeding
rioters or police. Just the burned and broken evidence of an orgy of looting and property
destruction. The African-American communities in the Big Blue Cities should note the absence of
law enforcement in Ferguson the night after the Grand Jury decision. When the welfare state begins
to dial-down, and the value of EBT cards atrophy, some of those neighborhoods will burn at the hands
of their own thug-teens. And policing authorizes will either be unwilling, or unable, to confront
the lawlessness.
The
end of the era of personal responsibility. We are breeding a generation which is
increasingly less self-reliant, while ushering in conditions which seem doomed to a disastrous
collapse. And what skills will the modern generation draw upon if they are thrust back into a life
where the government can do little or nothing to save them?
EBT
recipients in LA threaten riots after card outage. Hat tip to a friend of mine, a New York Police Department
detective, who sent this my way from Americanoverlook.com: "Residents of Los Angeles' Skid Row threatened to riot this
weekend because their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards stopped working temporarily. The brief EBT card outage was the
result of a routine back-up check on the vendor's Xerox Corp. systems. The system began working shortly after it was
restarted, however, California welfare recipients weren't happy about the inconvenience."
L.A.
Welfare Recipients Threaten to Riot After EBT Card Outage. Residents of Los Angeles' Skid Row threatened to
riot this weekend because their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards stopped working temporarily. The brief EBT card
outage was the result of a routine back up check on the vendor's, Xerox Corp.'s systems. The system began
working shortly after it was restarted, however, California welfare recipients weren't happy about the inconvenience.
"My heart goes out to people who don't have food right now," one welfare recipient told the media. Another man
said, "We had to cancel a picnic today cause we were gonna use EBT cards to buy hamburgers and stuff."
The Editor says...
Those among us who live from one paycheck to the next are not planning wisely, but those who buy food at the
last minute — at the expense of the taxpayers — are totally dependent on the government.
When the money runs out someday, and it will, they will be the first to riot in the streets and the first to starve.
They will have only themselves to blame.
Amnesty, American Values, and
Economic Dependency. Are the new American values having 50 percent of our population
dependent on welfare while expecting a financial entitlement from the labor of the other 50% of the
population who works hard to support them through burdensome taxation? What are the children of
the entitlement state, including illegal aliens, going to do when there are no more taxpayers to
steal from? Having escaped third world impoverished socialist countries, illegals come here not to
assimilate into our culture but to demand "full communism because they value a fair society and social justice."
News bulletin: When the payments stop, the parasites go back to work! Economist: North Carolina
unemployment drop may be tied to benefits changes. The state's unemployment rate started the year as one of the highest
in the country but has fallen two percentage points from a year ago to 7.4 percent in November, according to state commerce
department data. The state's unemployment rate is now .4 percentage points higher than the U.S. average, compared with
1.6 percentage points higher in November 2012. In July, North Carolina decided to end federal extended unemployment
benefits, a move that meant the loss of unemployment insurance payments for more than 70,000 North Carolinians.
Food Stamp Recipients Are About to See a Huge
Cut in Benefits. People who rely on food stamps to support their household budgets are going to get a 13 percent cut in their benefits on November 1,
as a key provision in the 2009 stimulus expires. But don't worry, low income people: the USDA website has tips on how you can avoid debilitating malnutrition.
Nation headed over 'food stamp cliff'.
Millions of people are in for a shock at the end of the week when their food stamp benefits will be cut across the board. [...] Single adults will see their
monthly benefits reduced to $189 per month, for a cut of $11. "We have never seen a cut like this affecting all beneficiaries," said Lisa Davis of the food
bank network Feeding America.
Computer Upgrade Blamed For
Nationwide EBT System Shutdown On Saturday. A possible glitch in a computer system upgrade was causing major problems nationwide with the
Electronic Benefits Transfer System on Saturday, as a countless number of shoppers found themselves stranded at the register. Reports from around
the country began pouring in around 9 a.m. on Saturday [10/12/2013] that customers' EBT cards were not working in stores.
Food stamp debit cards working again after
outage. People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves temporarily unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on
Saturday, after a routine test of backup systems by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure. Xerox announced late in the evening that
access has been restored for users in the 17 states affected by the outage, hours after the first problems were reported.
Food stamp glitch leads to Wal-Mart stampede.
Wal-Mart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, La., saw a stampede and a shelf-clearing rush Saturday after a computer glitch for food stamp recipients led
to benefit cards allowing unlimited purchases. Police were called as entire shelves were being cleared out, until the glitch was fixed and
low-income residents using the cards were no longer allowed to make purchases.
The Editor says...
This mob action is equivalent to looting. This incident clearly shows that food stamp sponges have no self-discipline and no regard for the
taxpayers who have to pay for their "free" stuff. I suspect the news about the temporary EBT glitch was spread rapidly through the use of
Obamaphones, thus compounding the insult. On the other hand, that's what you get when you rely on bar codes and computers to determine the
value of the products you sell.
EBT benefit card glitch
sparks Walmart shopping sprees in Louisiana. The Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system allows recipients of government food stamps to
purchase goods using a digital card with a set spending limit, but for a few hours over the weekend, that limit disappeared for many users visiting
Walmart stores in Louisiana. Walmart and local police in Springhill and Mansfield confirmed to CBS affiliate KSLA that officers were called into
the stores to help maintain order Saturday as shoppers swept through the aisles at two stores and bought as much as they could carry.
Not all EBT card users joined in
on "limitless" Walmart shopping spree. In cell phone video that is circulating the Internet, several hundred people can be seen filling
their shopping carts at Springhill and Mansfield Walmarts, when the stores apparently continued accepting EBT cards even though they weren't showing
limits. However, what can't be seen in those videos are the people who get food stamp assistance and chose not to abuse the system.
The Editor says...
No, not every welfare-state leech took advantage of the windfall, but presumably not everyone was aware of the situation. The boast made in the
headline above is a feeble attempt to look on the bright side of a very ominous anecdote. While it is true that less than one hundred percent
of welfare moochers are thieves, that's not saying much.
The Louisiana Heist. On Saturday
[10/12/2013], Louisiana's "EBT" system malfunctioned, causing spending limits on users' food-stamp cards temporarily to be lifted. In two
counties at least, recipients noticed the error, spread the word, and set about trying to check out as much as they could fit into shopping carts.
At Walmarts in the towns of Springhill and Mansfield, employees called corporate headquarters to ask what they should do. They were instructed
to "keep the registers ringing." This they did — and with a vengeance. By the time that proper limits on the cards had been
restored a couple of hours later, the shelves had been all but stripped bare.
The Editor says...
The government has the names and addresses of everyone who committed this fraud. Why haven't the perpetrators been arrested?
When Parasites Attack. EBT cards are
run like credit cards to ensure the stores get paid, recipients don't purchase restricted items such as alcohol and tobacco and they stay within their
monthly limit. When the system went down there was no way for stores to ensure they'd be paid for their goods, so they stopped accepting the cards
for a few days. That meant EBT users either had to go without shopping for a couple of days or — gasp — use their own money for
food purchases. Two Walmart locations in Louisiana decided to be good community members and accept EBT cards "without limits," essentially on the
honor system, to help users in a time of need. That's right, Walmart. The company routinely attacked by the Left for their greed, their pay
and simply existing in a way they hate offered to help people.
The Editor says...
The honor system only works among honorable people, and honorable people do not take their grocery money out of other people's pockets.
Walmart food stamp bonanza proof of abused system.
A week ago, the technology that assessed spending limits on debit cards for food-stamp recipients malfunctioned. As a result, there was no way for stores
to tell how much value was left on individual cards. Many merchants refused to accept the cards until the problem was fixed. Not wanting to risk
having anyone go hungry, Walmart allowed people to use the cards. Unfortunately, the food-stamp recipients treated the stores' generosity as a bonanza,
and filled carts with much more than they were entitled to. As word got out, the two Walmarts quickly found themselves overwhelmed by other food-stamp
recipients doing the same.
Even the slightest belt-tightening is met with derision. House passes GOP plan for $39B cut in food stamps.
The House approved a Republican plan Thursday [9/19/2013] to cut food stamps by $39 billion during the next decade, setting up a showdown with Democrats over
the program used by nearly 48 million low-income Americans. The House voted 217-210 for the bill that cuts nearly twice as much from food stamps as a
bill the House rejected in June. It is also far more than a Senate measure passed earlier this year that would trim about $4.5 billion in spending.
Dems Lash Out at GOP After Narrow Food-Stamp Reform
Victory. Democrats accused Republicans of starving children, veterans, and seniors with the passage of a bill to reform the food stamp program
to the tune of $39 billion in savings. The Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act hit the House floor for a vote today under a sharply worded
veto threat from the White House.
The Editor says...
The savings are projected to be $39 billion over the next ten years, and this assumes the food stamp program isn't (re-)expanded before
ten years has elapsed.
NAACP prepares 9th protest over unemployment
cuts. The NAACP has scheduled a rally Monday behind the Legislative Building, followed by protests to highlight the first day
federal unemployment benefits are cut off for 70,000 people.
The Post-Welfare State Family.
Among various unwanted truths that grown-ups of the Western world have to contend with these days, here's one that doesn't get nearly the
traction it deserves: The days of the modern welfare state look to be numbered. Yet it's true. Even the most
redistributive president in history can't change the laws of arithmetic.
President Obama has
set in motion forces that he can't handle. This is the point: a perfect storm is brewing. I think we're heading for a
chaotic and violent period in this country the likes of which no one alive today has ever witnessed. If I'm right, conditions will be ideal
for criminals to ply their craft, and President Obama is pushing for gun control at precisely the wrong moment.
Mark
Levin: Obama Administration is Preparing for Economic and Social Collapse. This topic has been right-wing blog-fodder for many months,
but when the well respected Andrew Malcolm of Investor's Business Daily finally asked, Why are the feds loading up on so much ammo? on Feb 8,
syndicated radio talk show host, Mark Levin took notice. [...] When the welfare checks stop coming, when those EBT cards stop working, when the
ObamaPhones turn off — what are those people going to do? They are going to do what they always do. Loot and riot in the streets.
Anticipating
the Coming Convulsions as the Welfare State Dies. It's already happening — the
liberal dream of a perpetual social welfare state where deadbeat liberal constituencies feed off of the
work of productive conservative citizens in perpetuity is dying. There's no doubt about that; the
only question left is how long and hard the process will be as the hideous leviathan the utopian liberal
establishment has created convulses and dies. It's going to die hard. And ugly.
Thank a liberal for creating a legion of rioting dependents. Rise of the goons.
Societies, especially America's, have created a shattered social system in which lawlessness and
irresponsibility are excused by boneheaded liberals because they don't think government has provided
enough for these supposedly disadvantaged and downtrodden people. The shiftless, looting goons
and their liberal allies think rich people should be taxed more, and more economic advantages must be
provided to largely uneducated, unskilled, lazy, incompetent goons.
The
wheels come off. Listen carefully to those screams of outrage and sounds of shattering glass you
hear wafting from the streets of Athens as rioters "protest" the end of an internationally funded gravy train:
This is what happens when an irresponsible government and a lazy, entitled public finally run out of other
people's money. Welcome to the beginning of the end of the welfare state.
Education Cutbacks and
Urban Violence. Bloated public education budgets in our large cities may be immune from serious
cuts for an unpalatable reason: the threat of urban violence. ... Difficult budgetary choices entail an
element that dare not speak its name: cutbacks may risk 1960s style riots, and these costs may far exceed
temporary savings. To be blunt, cities often solved riot problems via bloated education-related employment,
and bereft of these jobs, cities may return to "long hot summers".
Promises and
Riots: You cannot have generous welfare state laws that allow people to retire on government
pensions while they are in their 50s, in an era when most people live decades longer. In the United
States, that kind of generosity exists mostly for members of state government employees' unions —
which is why some states are running out of money, and why the Obama administration is bailing them out, in
the name of "stimulus." Once you buy the idea that the government should be a sort of year-around
Santa Claus, you have bought the kinds of consequences that follow.
Immoral Progressivism Failing Miserably. In
England, youths are rioting. In Portugal, labor unions staged a national strike last Wednesday. A little
over a month ago, France and Greece were subjected to large, violent demonstrations and riots. A common thread?
In each of these countries, the unrest was engendered by economic austerity measures proposed and/or enacted by government.
A far more salient common thread? The morally corruptive nature of the progressivist ideology.
The
disintegration of the welfare state. [Scroll down] "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb,"
Benjamin Franklin reputedly said, "voting on what to have for lunch." Democratic self-deprecation isn't
quite as funny as it once was. Mobs have already taken to the venerable, iconic streets of European
states, notably among them Greece, birthplace of Athenian democracy. It's apparently easier to give
wealth away than it is to take it back. Democracy assembled the welfare state peaceably enough.
Can democracy dismantle it as peaceably? No, it can't. The mobs are not finished.
The End of Democratic
Socialism. The end of democratic socialism is at hand. The welfare states of the U.S. and
Europe are financially out of control, spent and unsustainable. They have reached the point that Margaret
Thatcher defined as the end of socialism: They have run out of other people's money. These areas of
the world are about to change dramatically.
The Liberal Trilemma.
[Scroll down] Liberals acquire and maintain political power by distributing privileges and bounties to their
supporters. When you decide to do that, you inevitably press the pedal to the metal on "democracy" and
"national sovereignty." And that means that you are bound to sacrifice individual and national prosperity
on the altar of politics. Sooner or later, you hit the wall. Just like Greece. In other words,
under liberals, democracy means the out-and-out conversion of the limited constitutional state into a patronage
state.
Fiscal Death by Welfare.
The welfare state is killing our nation. Today entitlement spending makes up nearly half of our budget.
Long term, we know that there will be no way to pay off our unfunded obligations — we will go bankrupt.
There will be three options ultimately, though ultimately can come quite suddenly: default, hyperinflation
or abolition of the welfare state.
Greece
and the Welfare State in Ruins. Every advanced society, including the United States, has a welfare
state. Though details differ, their purposes are similar: to support the unemployed, poor, disabled
and aged. All welfare states face similar problems: burgeoning costs as populations age; an overreliance
on debt financing; and pressures to reduce borrowing that create pressures to cut welfare spending. High
debt and the welfare state are at odds. It's an open question whether the collision will cause social
and economic turmoil.
The welfare
state's death spiral. What we're seeing in Greece is the death spiral of the welfare state.
This isn't Greece's problem alone, and that's why its crisis has rattled global stock markets and threatens
economic recovery. Virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect.
Aging populations have been promised huge health and retirement benefits, which countries haven't fully
covered with taxes. The reckoning has arrived in Greece, but it awaits most wealthy societies.
Obama, the remaking of America, the reverie for a
police state. Nationalized health care is only the latest page in the ongoing saga of U.S. president
Barak (sic) Obama's attempt to remake/reinvent America into a socialist utopia. Without fail, an ever-vigilant,
all-powerful central government with police state powers will also arise to assist in tending to the "needs" of the
dependent population. Almost unbelievably, a recent poll taken in Germany confirms that once dependency is
bred into a people, the longing for security becomes so strong that a police state is preferred to the uncertainties
of a free society. This is a stark warning to Americans.
We Are NOT Entitled.
A county government official recently told me that just the "pension obligations owed to firefighters and police" were
keeping him up at night. One thing that so many large employers have in common — from car companies, to
the U.S. Postal Service, to local governments — is massive pension obligation that are wreaking havoc on their
bottom lines and threatening their viability. But why should anyone be "entitled" to a pension? The fact is,
the vast majority of Americans have no access to a pension, do not expect one, and will never get one.
Eventually the gravy train runs out of gravy. Jobless Angry at Possibility
of No Benefits. As governors in nine states, mostly in the South, consider rejecting millions of
dollars in federal stimulus money for increased unemployment insurance, there is growing anger among the ranks
of the jobless in those states that they could be left out of a significant government benefit.
Greece: Watching
the Wheels Come Off. Greece is a collapsing country. Greece is experiencing the perfect
financial, political and social storm: all at the same time, state structures have to deal corruption
and serious internal and foreign security problems. It is the ultimate nightmare for every state.
Greek banks function not because they can, but because they have to. The Greek state has stopped
honoring its financial obligations toward private individuals and enterprises. The state's revenue is
enough only for civil servant salaries and pensions. Greece's political system produces more laughter,
more enemies and more entropy than it can deal with.
