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Supreme Court allows Oregon City to target homeless on public property

The homeless need to be in areas that welcome them. At least as long as that last...
 
Diomedes said:
www.nbcnews.com

Supreme Court allows Oregon city policy that punishes homeless people for sleeping on public property

The justices ruled that ordinances in Grants Pass do not violate the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

What are they supposed to do...squat?
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If they are going to set up camp they need to do so legally. Every town has a designated area where camping, at least temporarily, is allowed. Often these are camp grounds just outside of town, and often these camp grounds require a small payment for the services they provide.

People who set up camp in public parks, where they are not allowed to camp, should be arrested and their property confiscated. They can spend the night in jail and then pay an even bigger fine when they are eventually released. Nobody gets to violate the law with impunity, not even the homeless.
 
Glitch said:
If they are going to set up camp they need to do so legally. Every town has a designated area where camping, at least temporarily, is allowed. Often these are camp grounds just outside of town, and often these camp grounds require a small payment for the services they provide.

People who set up camp in public parks, where they are not allowed to camp, should be arrested and their property confiscated. They can spend the night in jail and then pay an even bigger fine when they are eventually released. Nobody gets to violate the law with impunity, not even the homeless.
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Pay fines with what money?
 
eman623 said:
Finally the madness is ending.
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They have added a new twist to the solution in Anchorage. Homeless camps are being evicted over federal ADA compliance. It is a violation of the American Disability Act for people to reside in a pedestrian walkway, and Anchorage is enforcing that federal law very strictly these days.

www.alaskasnewssource.com

City moves enraged, emotional campers from Fairbanks Street, citing ADA compliance violation

The Anchorage Police Department CAP team, in coordination with the Health Department and Parks and Recreation, began clearing areas of the Fairbanks Street camp on Thursday morning, leading to strong reactions from homeless people living there.
www.alaskasnewssource.com www.alaskasnewssource.com

Of course homelessness is really only an issue during the Summer in Alaska. For some strange and mysterious reason as the temperature drops, so do the number of homeless in Alaska.
 
Riverside Park in Grants Pass, Oregon is a public park and is open from sunrise to sunset with no overnight allowed, this applies to everyone who visits the park. What Riverside Park is not, is a public campground for the homeless, Grants Pass has the right to enforce its city ordinances no one is exempt. Riverside Park is located along the Rogue River in Grants Pass, it is a very popular place to take your children, well, at least it was. Since the homeless have moved into the park it had become a haven for illegal drug activity which resulted in drug paraphernalia being left throughout the park. Residents of Grants Pass complained to the City Council about this problem and the issue of being harassed by the homeless people that took up camping in the park, so the city started to enforce the no camping ordinance which resulted in it going to the SCOTUS.
 
Terryj said:
Riverside Park in Grants Pass, Oregon is a public park and is open from sunrise to sunset with no overnight allowed, this applies to everyone who visits the park. What Riverside Park is not, is a public campground for the homeless, Grants Pass has the right to enforce its city ordinances no one is exempt. Riverside Park is located along the Rogue River in Grants Pass, it is a very popular place to take your children, well, at least it was. Since the homeless have moved into the park it had become a haven for illegal drug activity which resulted in drug paraphernalia being left throughout the park. Residents of Grants Pass complained to the City Council about this problem and the issue of being harassed by the homeless people that took up camping in the park, so the city started to enforce the no camping ordinance which resulted in it going to the SCOTUS.
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Is that where the I-5 Rest Area is? One time we tried to stop there late in the evening and we couldn't even find a parking spot. lots of questionable cars there.
 
Glitch said:
If they are going to set up camp they need to do so legally. Every town has a designated area where camping, at least temporarily, is allowed. Often these are camp grounds just outside of town, and often these camp grounds require a small payment for the services they provide.

People who set up camp in public parks, where they are not allowed to camp, should be arrested and their property confiscated. They can spend the night in jail and then pay an even bigger fine when they are eventually released. Nobody gets to violate the law with impunity, not even the homeless.
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With what money?

Since you all want to cut funding to programs that might help them get cleaned up, off drugs and be able to get jobs because you don't want to pay for it, how would they pay the fines? You would need to allow them to panhandle...oh, wait you want laws against that...ok...so, then what? Move them out of town? Ok...but just means they get to go to the next town over and do this all over again. Or that town will send them back to your town again...

I suppose you could continue to jail them...but then you will spending roughly the same amount in keeping them in jail with a roof, food and clothes paid for by the taxpayers in addition to the meager pay they get doing prison jobs.

So, in the end, this nice law that makes you feel good about punishing those dastardly, no-good bums...fails to accomplish even those goals.
 
dmpi said:
Is that where the I-5 Rest Area is? One time we tried to stop there late in the evening and we couldn't even find a parking spot. lots of questionable cars there.
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No, Riverside Park is in downtown Grants Pass. It's a beautiful park, created over a 100 years ago.
 
eman623 said:
Finally the madness is ending.
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Because throwing them jail at an expense of 40,000/yr is sanity.

Because punishing someone for being unable to afford housing will cause them to afford housing?

Nah. This is just good old fashioned dumbassed conservative mean-spiritedness. It's about seeing a group of the other hurt. You guys don't want solutions. You just want groups that you can punch down at, to feel that you are intrinsically better than.




What?

There is simply no other explanation for wanting to get rid of all programs that could possibly help a poor or broke person, intentionally not providing sufficient housing, and then punishing them for not having housing they can afford. And as a bonus, they might squat somewhere, and then you can faux-morally rage about that.
 
Mr Person said:
Because throwing them jail at an expense of 40,000/yr is sanity.
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They are not going to be jailed.
Mr Person said:
Because punishing someone for being unable to afford housing will cause them to afford housing?
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No one is going to be punished.

You just can't set up a tent and squat on public land. If you do, then you will be asked to move along. If you don't then your tent will be confiscated.

Mr Person said:
Nah. This is just good old fashioned dumbassed conservative mean-spiritedness. It's about seeing a group of the other hurt. You guys don't want solutions. You just want groups that you can punch down at, to feel that you are intrinsically better than.
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This bullshit is not worthy of further comment. Do you feel better? Hate is a drug. A very addictive one.
 
eman623 said:
They are not going to be jailed.

No one is going to be punished.

You just can't set up a tent and squat on public land. If you do, then you will be asked to move along. If you don't then your tent will be confiscated.


This bullshit is not worthy of further comment. Do you feel better? Hate is a drug. A very addictive one.
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What makes you think they won't be fined or sent to jail?
 
Mr Person said:
Because throwing them jail at an expense of 40,000/yr is sanity.

Because punishing someone for being unable to afford housing will cause them to afford housing?

Nah. This is just good old fashioned dumbassed conservative mean-spiritedness. It's about seeing a group of the other hurt. You guys don't want solutions. You just want groups that you can punch down at, to feel that you are intrinsically better than.




What?

There is simply no other explanation for wanting to get rid of all programs that could possibly help a poor or broke person, intentionally not providing sufficient housing, and then punishing them for not having housing they can afford. And as a bonus, they might squat somewhere, and then you can faux-morally rage about that.
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Like I posted before, Grants Pass has a city ordinance of no camping in the city park, this ordinance has been in effect since the 1950's and it applies to everyone. Just because you are homeless doesn't give you the right to break laws. Now if Grants Pass want to sit aside city property to allow the homeless to camp, that's up to the city. This however, comes with a lot of issues, who's going to clean up the mess they leave, because they sure in the hell don't clean it up. This is a huge issue all over Southern Oregon where the homeless make their camps, they leave trash everywhere, even when trash bins are provided you'll find trash piled up at empty trash bins. I don't know what the answer is for this problem, but camping at city parks is not the answer.
 
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