Originally Posted by
SunnyFlorida
I don't know about poorer nations housing their most needy better than us unless living in the same shanty town, like thousands of others is better - minus the death squads, etc.
However, as it relates to the forum, it doesn't quite make sense to slash the bike tires. That is one way they can move out of the area, which is the intent of the harrassment.
I live about 200 miles from the Mexican-US border (US side obviously). I am familiar with "third world" living conditions as my father used to take us to the, to put it nicely, non-tourist Mexico's side of the border towns to educate us on real poverty for ourselves. The poor were able to at least put up some sort of shelter to protect themselves from the elements. These hovels did not have floors (except dirt ones), heated by open fire, water carried from a nearby probably polluted river, and if they behaved themselves, were ignored by the police. I am not saying this is acceptable for any human to live in, but it is better than the treatment that our own lowest poor is being subjected to. Not just in Riverside, but most anywhere as even this article pointed out in Fresno
in 2006. I was thinking about how money "protects" the person here rather than our
constitutional rights supposed to do.
Originally Posted by
Robert Foster
I was sorry to read this in our local paper this morning. I am not sure the police did what they are being accused of but I am not sure they didn't do it either. The mixed emotions I have about this story is because my sister lives just above where this "camp" is located. She used to take walks down a dirt road close to where the camp is hidden by brush and bushes. Not that long ago a neighbor woman was attacked and ***** and so most of the women in that area will not walk down that dirt road. I wouldn't put it passed some of the neighborhood men to have done some of the damage. Not saying they did but saying the battle has been going on for years in that area. I am still sorry to hear about what happened.
Originally Posted by
Robert Foster
There was more information on the homeless camp in the paper today. Someone was shot in the camp and taken to the hospital. Two people that seem to have been living in the camp were seen leaving the crime scene. It also seems as if there is a drug problem with some of the members of this camp and residents in the surrounding area have been complaining for some time. There is still no real information as to what the police did or did not do but the credibility of the witnesses to the police action is now in question.
I am not saying that the homeless are angels either. Many of them (but not all) have drug problems, ex-cons, and/or have untreated mental problems, which in turn breeds crime (like bike theft). Some are just people (like you and me) who fell out of the favor of society and are doomed to wander aimlessly until money flows again and they could afford even basic housing. When you alienate people, and don't let them belong to a community, and treat them so harshly, what do you expect?
I don't know either if the Riverside police has actually did what they were accused of. That is what their internal investigations are supposed to find out.