https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/portland-oregon-...
2019 - Public camping legalized by Austin voters.
2021 - Austin voters ban camping.
2021 - Republican state legislature rams through a bill to make it a crime to be homeless on state land.
2023 - Austin voters criminalized being homeless with Prop B.
When you take people from one place, and offer them a Hobson's choice of jail or a housing not nearby in another place, it has a specific term: "concentration camp".
In the meantime, APD is critically understaffed, underfunded, morale is very low, and non-life-threatening service calls are largely ignored. APD officers are there to collect a paycheck and do as little as possible. As an ex-APD officer said: you take your life into your hands living or visiting Austin because it's unsafe by design of political extremists in the DA's office who refuse to prosecute repeated violent crime and property crime.
This is objectively false. Offering less-than-ideal free housing isn’t even remotely comparable to imprisonment in harsh conditions.
If you are going to be a burden on society, you shouldn’t be surprised when society makes decisions about how to care for you in a way that puts their needs before yours. Those who find this situation intolerable are, of course, invited to care for themselves as they see fit.
So just let people live outside indefinitely? You can offer help but a lot of them will turn it down, then what? Now consider that a lot of these people are hurting themselves and insisting on continuing down that path, which inevitably leads to their death. In other words, doing nothing means people destroy themselves, and doing something requires force because many these people are not in the right state of mind to help themselves.
Texas' interpretation of Martin v. City of Boise is as good-faith as California or New York's interpretation of the 2nd amendment.
If you're homeless, there are social services and community groups that want to provide care, food, shelter, and importantly rehabilitation and reintegration back into the community. The way the roads are setup in Austin meant most of the campers were adjacent to highways, and it's very dangerous with these campers leaving carts and boxes in the road when drivers have to go 50 mph around turns. And for what - to give some people some inalienable right to public land so they can slowly wither away, slaves to their vices? Austin has all of the social safety nets that have been known to work for thousands of years when people are down on their luck or are special and need additional assistance.
So if you don't like it: nobody in Texas, nor Austin cares either. The United States Marshals Service does not have the resources to actually do anything in practice to enforce the Ninth Circuit's ruling.
Concentration camps are some of the worst atrocities ever in human history. You should genuinely be embarrassed and ashamed of yourself for demeaning the words.
> In the meantime, APD is critically understaffed, underfunded, morale is very low, and non-life-threatening service calls are largely ignored.
Mayor Kirk Watson welcomed 25 new officers to the Austin Police Department just a few days ago.
https://twitter.com/KirkPWatson/status/1743411198781956444
> APD officers are there to collect a paycheck and do as little as possible. As an ex-APD officer said: you take your life into your hands living or visiting Austin because it's unsafe by design of political extremists in the DA's office who refuse to prosecute repeated violent crime and property crime.
Did the ex-APD officer also tell you they were there to collect a paycheck and do as little as possible? Sounds like a really sweet deal. Why would anyone leave a job like that, especially when you get a badge and gun.
