Liberalism in Action: Proof Positive of the Glories of Government and Taxes

[Steeltime]

Personally, I think this thread should be made a permanent part of the forum, where we can all share the delightful news of the successes of liberal policies. The stories about the incredible success of New York's "no bail" policy are too numerous to address right now, so I wanted to start with the environment. Liberals say they love the environment. Conservatives actually spend time outdoors, unlike the self-proclaimed environmentalist libs who consider sipping a latte on the Starbucks patio as an outdoor experience, but any way, here goes.

President Donald Trump, a self-described germophobe, has made no secret of his disgust with California’s growing homeless problem, which he has called a “disgrace” and “inappropriate” and equated to “living in hell.”

“We should all work together to clean up these hazardous waste and homeless sites before the whole city rots away,” Trump tweeted about San Francisco on Oct. 26. “Very bad and dangerous conditions, also severely impacting the Pacific Ocean and water supply.”

San Francisco officials were quick to dispute Trump’s claims. But some of California’s most prized rivers, beaches and streams are indeed contaminated with levels of fecal bacteria that exceed state limits, threatening kayakers, swimmers — and the state’s reputation as a bastion of environmental protection.

The presence of fecal bacteria in water is usually the result of problems with sewer systems and septic tanks. But water quality officials agree that the source of at least some of the fecal bacteria is California’s growing homeless population, most of whom don’t have reliable access to toilets.

“I’ve carried 5-gallon buckets that were unambiguously being used as toilets,” said David Gibson, executive officer of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, describing his experience cleaning up homeless encampments. “They were taking it to the San Diego River, dumping it there, and rinsing it out there.”

Fecal contamination of waterways is a widespread problem and becoming more urgent in states with large homeless populations. In Seattle, homeless people living in RVs are accused of dumping raw sewage straight into storm drains, which flows directly to local waterways. In Oregon, workers cleaning up homeless camps along the Willamette River in Eugene routinely find feces and needles.

https://californiahealthline.org/ne...ias-waterways-increases-with-homeless-crisis/

Ahh, yes, feces in rivers and streams thanks to the liberals love of the homeless. Legalize drug possession, living on the streets, defecating in public, urinating in public.

Yep, those liberals love the environment.

 

[Steelworth]

Personally, I think this thread should be made a permanent part of the forum, where we can all share the delightful news of the successes of liberal policies.

That'd be a graveyard.

 

[Badcat]

So, what is the answer? This topic is near and dear to my heart. It started with an organization who were helping my fellow veterans get off of the streets. Offering haircuts, showers, decent clothes and setting up interviews with local businesses. Sounds simple enough until you get into the weeds and understand that the majority have drug addiction issues, PTSD and other mental health issues, criminal backgrounds, etc. To say that I was heart broken is an understatement. There was nothing I could do and I dont have the kind of money necessary to even put a small dent in the type of facilities needed to help these men and women. Neither does the government. More specifically to your point, sure there are failed policies and laws that allow these types of conditions to happen but there are so many other factors that go into this as well. I wish I was smart enough to solve this issue.

 

[wig]

And Badcat hits the nail on the head.

As with many of our social problems, homelessness and drug addiction are very hard problems to solve. I don't believe what many extraordinarily liberal people have done is a good idea, but at the same time, many conservative folks have no actual solution, they just ***** about the problem.

For example. You have 5 years to reduce the homeless population in San Francisco by say... 70%. However you solution cannot simply be making the homeless people move somewhere else. How might you go about actually SOLVING the problem?

 

[Sarge]

So, what is the answer? This topic is near and dear to my heart. It started with an organization who were helping my fellow veterans get off of the streets. Offering haircuts, showers, decent clothes and setting up interviews with local businesses. Sounds simple enough until you get into the weeds and understand that the majority have drug addiction issues, PTSD and other mental health issues, criminal backgrounds, etc. To say that I was heart broken is an understatement. There was nothing I could do and I dont have the kind of money necessary to even put a small dent in the type of facilities needed to help these men and women. Neither does the government. More specifically to your point, sure there are failed policies and laws that allow these types of conditions to happen but there are so many other factors that go into this as well. I wish I was smart enough to solve this issue.

I have so much I want to say about this, but my thoughts are kind of all over the place right now.

What I will say is that we have a homeless crisis, a drug crisis, an immigration crisis, a mental health crisis and a country headed more and more toward complete and utter lawlessness. Our politicians at all levels are failing this country by dealing with none of it. Democrats and Republicans need to do more than just point fingers.

 

[Steeltime]

As with many of our social problems, homelessness and drug addiction are very hard problems to solve. I don't believe what many extraordinarily liberal people have done is a good idea, but at the same time, many conservative folks have no actual solution, they just ***** about the problem.

Many of the homeless are not in shelters due to choice. Make it illegal to sleep on the street, defecate on the street, urinate in public and a very large part of the problem is addressed.

Know why SF has more people living on the streets, defecating on the streets, using drugs in public, urinating in public, etc. than ever before? Because it is now legal, that's why.

 

[Steeltime]

Another great liberal idea - don't turn over illegals to ICE for deportation. What could go wrong by allowing these wonderful dreamers to remain in America. Look at how this one young guy took care of a 92-year old woman.

92-Year-Old Woman Sexually Abused and Murdered by Illegal Alien After New York Refused to Hand Him Over to ICE

Reeaz Khan claims that he found Maria Fuertes laying on the ground in Queens when he got on top of her to try to help. He claims that his belt broke, pants fell down, and his penis fell near her vagina. At this point, he says, he lost control and tried to have sex with her.

“As I walked down the sidewalk I saw someone, a lady on the floor to the side of me,” Khan told the New York Daily News of the sexual assault and murder. “I should have kept walking and just not helped but it’s in my heart to help.”

The Daily News reports that “prosecutors say he was caught on surveillance video approaching Maria Fuertes from behind while she was still standing, checking a pile of garbage bags for returnable empties on 127th St. in South Richmond Hill just after midnight Jan. 6. The video shows them then falling to the ground together, disappearing from view behind a car for four sickening minutes just around the corner from the victim’s home.”

ICE had previously attempted to take Khan, a Guyanese national, into custody in November — but he was protected by New York’s sanctuary laws.

“Reeaz Khan, 21, an unlawfully present Guyanese national, was arrested Jan. 10 by the NYPD and charged with murder, sexual abuse, contact by forcible compulsion, and sexual abuse against a person incapable of consent. Khan was previously released from local law enforcement custody in November 2019 with an active detainer, due to New York City’s sanctuary policies,” ICE said in a statement.

Khan was previously arrested by the NYPD on charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon in November. The same day he was arrested, ERO deportation officers lodged a detainer with the NYPD, but the detainer was not honored, and Khan was released following his arraignment.

“It is made clear that New York City’s stance against honoring detainers is dangerously flawed. It was a deadly choice to release a man on an active ICE detainer back onto the streets after his first arrest included assault and weapon charges, and he now faces new charges, including murder,” said Thomas R. Decker, field office director for ERO New York. “New York City’s sanctuary policies continue to threaten the safety of all residents of the five boroughs, as they repeatedly protect criminal aliens who show little regard for the laws of this nation. In New York City alone, hundreds of arrestees are released each month with pending charges and/or convictions to return back into the communities where they committed their crimes, instead of being transferred into the custody of ICE. Clearly the politicians care more about criminal illegal aliens than the citizens they are elected to serve and protect.”

According to court documents, Fuertes died at Jamaica Hospital with a fractured spine, broken ribs, internal hemorrhaging and tears in her vagina.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/20...ter-new-york-refused-to-hand-him-over-to-ice/

Another liberal, dreamer success story.

 

[Steelworth]

Our politicians at all levels are failing this country by dealing with none of it. Democrats and Republicans need to do more than just point fingers.

Yep, and you know why it's never going to change as it is? There's no accountability/consequences for our elected officials. Criminal if you ask me. As ST alluded to, the epidemic of homelessness in SF is happening because it's being allowed.

It's as simple as the old "kid putting their hand in the cookie jar" IMO. Keep allowing it to happen and... what's going to change? There are people out there, mainly veterans, with severe PTSD and other illnesses that need treatment and not incarceration, but like you said, my thoughts on that are all over the place. Hopefully there are good people out there who can figure out some real, bonafide solutions to these problems.

 

[Steeltime]

It's as simple as the old "kid putting their hand in the cookie jar" IMO. Keep allowing it to happen and... what's going to change? There are people out there, mainly veterans, with severe PTSD and other illnesses that need treatment and not incarceration, but like you said, my thoughts on that are all over the place. Hopefully there are good people out there who can figure out some real, bonafide solutions to these problems.

The simple fact of the matter is this. When the homeless were arrested for vagrancy, public defecation, etc., one of the primary "punishments" was referral to substance abuse counseling and treatment. Most homeless who overcame addiction talk about the fact that they were forced to deal with the problem, and finally sought help that was available due to their encounters with the court system.

Now, it's legal, so no court system and almost zero chance of change and improvement.

 

[Steeltime]

More liberalism - in this case, VERY liberal courtesy of the Soros-backed DA - in New York via the "no bail needed" policy. One highlight:

Alleged Anti-Semitic Arsonist Released With No Bail In New York

James Polite, who was charged with hate crimes and arson after he allegedly set fire to seven Jewish sites and vandalized a synagogue, was released from jail without bail Tuesday, according to court records.

Polite allegedly wrote “Die Jew Rats” and “Hitler” at the Union Temple of Brooklyn in November 2018. Security footage allegedly showed him setting setting fires at “seven shuls and yeshivas in Williamsburg.”

The incidents led to the cancellation of a Democratic event at the synagogue, with a candidate saying it highlighted the need to vote out “hate.”

Polite is a self-identified queer black man who was taken in by a Jewish couple after his mother left him in “unsanitary” conditions. At a Barack Obama rally, he met then-New York city council speaker Christine Quinn, who hired him as an intern working on anti-hate crime issues and also called him the “adopted child of the Quinn administration,” according to a 2017 New York Times profile that said he “could defy the statistics.”

Polite went on to immerse himself in African American studies at Brandeis University.

On Facebook, he shared a paper hosted on Brandeis’ website from the Journal of Black Studies about “witchcraft, race and resistance in colonial New England,” highlighting how “Whites accused blacks of the crime of witchcraft in New England.”

After his arrest, the New York Times reported that “mental illness and addiction” contributed to the alleged crime spree, citing that he had “struggled with marijuana use while at Brandeis.”

https://libertarianhub.com/2020/01/...c-arsonist-released-with-no-bail-in-new-york/

Seven instances of religion-based arson? No problem, no bail.

 

[Steeltime]

But, but, but ... bail is so RACIST! And it's against the poor!! What could go wrong with no bail?!?

Controversial bail reform springs serial robbery suspect — who then pulls off fifth heist

He’s laughing all the way to the next bank.

A John Dillinger wannabe is on the loose thanks to lax bail laws that set him free despite his arrest in connection to four Manhattan bank robberies.

Sprung on Thursday, he promptly robbed a fifth bank, in Brooklyn, on Friday, law enforcement sources told The Post.

So cops spent Saturday hunting once again for fugitive Gerod Woodberry, who allegedly pulled four heists at Chase banks in Chelsea, the Upper West Side and the West Village between Dec. 30 and Jan. 8.

Because Woodberry allegedly robbed using a note, rather than a gun, no New York jail can currently hold him, no matter how many times he strikes.

His alleged grand larcenies are classified as non-violent felonies. And under the bail reform law that took effect Jan. 1, most non-violent felonies — including bank robberies carried out without a weapon — are no longer bail eligible, meaning no judge can order him held pending trial.

Should cops pinch Woodberry on the fifth alleged heist, he’ll only be sprung again.

The insanity of the new law clearly wasn’t lost on the prime suspect.

“I can’t believe they let me out,” Woodberry marveled as he retrieved his vouchered property at One Police Plaza in lower Manhattan, sources told The Post. “What were they thinking?”

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea voiced his frustration after The Post broke Woodberry’s story online Saturday.

“What motivation does this suspect have to return to court? None,” Shea tweeted.

“This makes NYPD cops’ jobs harder, and makes New Yorkers less safe.”

Woodberry’s alleged spree began Dec. 30, when he slipped a note demanding money to a teller at a Chase bank at Ninth Avenue and West 16th Street, taking off with more than $1,000, police sources said.

He struck next at a Chase bank at Broadway and West 90th on Jan. 3 at about 3:30 p.m., again handing a teller a note, but leaving empty-handed, police said.

Three days later, he struck in the West Village, making off with more than $1,000, sources said.

On Jan. 8, he passed a note to an Upper West Side bank teller and left empty-handed, police said.

Patrol cops caught up with him in Manhattan on Thursday after the NYPD sent a photo of him to “1,000s of NYPD smartphones,” Shea wrote on Twitter.

“A dedicated @NYPD25Pct cop saw it while on his way to work, spotted the man, [and] safely made the arrest.”

Less than a day later, Woodberry took advantage of his unexpected freedom to rob a fifth bank in Downtown Brooklyn, *police said.

In that heist, he allegedly passed a note to the teller at a Chase bank on Flatbush Avenue and made off with more than $1,000, police said.

In surveillance footage released by cops Saturday, the suspect is seen walking into the bank wearing jeans, a black puffy coat, and a baseball cap.

Woodberry, a South Carolina native, has at least one previous arrest for possession of marijuana from August 2007 in Brooklyn, police said.

A Facebook page that appears to belong to Woodberry shows him playing an online TexasHoldem Poker game multiple times.

Woodberry’s lawyer did not return a request for comment.

“Another unfortunate example of what we are facing under the new bail reform law. Certain individuals need to remain in jail for the safety of our city,” Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker said. “Judges must have the discretion to make that happen.”

Tweeted Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon, “Nobody in NYS is arguing cash bail is the ideal system. However, this case makes crystal clear why forbidding judicial discretion is a recipe for disaster. Let’s join EVERY OTHER STATE in the nation and give Judges discretion to consider public safety!”

The hope, one law enforcement source said, is that victimized banks complain — loudly — about the misguided reform.

“Once the banks start complaining, hopefully the politicians will listen and change the law,” the source said.

https://nypost.com/2020/01/11/seria...h-no-bail-then-immediately-robs-another-bank/

Okay, fine, one bank robber commits another bank robbery after being let out of jail with no bail. But that sort of stuff is not going to happen again or endanger anybody's safety, right .... ??

 

[Steeltime]

Suspect accused of attacking Jewish women released without bail

The woman accused of slapping three Orthodox Jewish women in the face and yelling, “F–k you, Jews!” was released without bail Saturday amid a spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes in the Big Apple.

Tiffany Harris, of Flatbush, was charged with misdemeanor assault Kings County Criminal Court Saturday morning and released without bail — though Judge Laura Johnson ordered her not to go near the victims.

Harris, 30, allegedly approached three women, ages 22, 26, and 31, near Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue early Friday, then slapped them and barked the offensive expletive, cops said.

She rudely brushed off reporters after the court proceeding, during which she kept her face hidden inside a hooded sweatshirt.

“Why do you want to know? Goodbye,” she told a Post reporter.

She is due back in court on January 10.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/28/suspect-accused-of-attacking-jewish-women-released-without-bail/

But it's not like she'll attack another woman, right?? RIGHT???

A Brooklyn miscreant accused of slapping three Orthodox Jewish women last week struck again on Sunday and was busted for assaulting another woman, police said.

A day after she was released without bail on charges stemming from the Friday attack, Tiffany Harris was charged with assault for slugging a 35-year-old in the face on Eastern Parkway near Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights at about 9:15 a.m., according to police.

It’s unclear if Sunday’s victim is Jewish — and police weren’t treating the incident as a hate crime. The victim suffered swelling and bruising to her right eye from the pummeling, police said.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/29/woman...ewish-women-arrested-again-day-after-release/

Liberal policies ... don't protect people, because that's racist, don't protect property, because that's racist, don't keep the streets and public areas clean, because ... well, you know. Protect criminals, and illegals, and drug dealers, weep for terrorists, spit on the American flag.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

Personally, I think this thread should be made a permanent part of the forum, where we can all share the delightful news of the successes of liberal policies.

Thats what the thread Pro-Dem thread / All your Trump vitriol here should become.

 

[ZonaBurgh]

Realizing I'm simplifying this, homelessness is the result of drug addiction and mental illness, and there doesn't seem to be anything being done about it.

Years ago, there were institutions to house those not capable of caring for themselves, but were deemed inhuman and closed across the country, with no replacement or plan for caring for these folks, just release them.

I don't know what the solution is, but politicians ignoring the problem sure as hell isn't it.

 

[43Hitman]

Realizing I'm simplifying this, homelessness is the result of drug addiction and mental illness, and there doesn't seem to be anything being done about it.

Years ago, there were institutions to house those not capable of caring for themselves, but were deemed inhuman and closed across the country, with no replacement or plan for caring for these folks, just release them.

I don't know what the solution is, but politicians ignoring the problem sure as hell isn't it.

I think that was Reagan. Probably his worst decision as a President.

 

[wig]

Make it illegal to sleep on the street, defecate on the street, urinate in public and a very large part of the problem is addressed.

But then you simply have your jails flooded to eternity with people who now don't have to sleep in the streets.

And due to over-crowding, you have to start figuring out who you want to release early because you simply don't have room for them. No. That's not the solution either.

It is a very difficult problem. As mentioned, the roots lie in drug addiction and mental illness. Ultimately, homelessness is the obvious tip of a very very large iceberg.

 

[Steeltime]

I think that was Reagan. Probably his worst decision as a President.

Nope. Supreme Court decision in O'Connor v. Donaldson 422 U.S. 563 (1975) held that a person with mental illness cannot be held unless he or she poses a genuine threat to himself or others. Reagan had nothing to do with that decision.

In true Reagan-deranged Hollywood style, Lucious blames Ronald Reagan for dumping the mentally ill onto the street. If he wanted to blame a president, he should have begun with JFK.

Here’s the real story – In 1963, President Kennedy proposed a program funded by the federal government that would provide community mental health centers (CMHCs) to take the place of state-run mental health hospitals during a speech entitled “Mental Illness and Mental Retardation.” For about a century, care of the mentally ill had been the states’ responsibility. Kennedy’s program closed many hospitals over time, known as deinstitutionalization.

The problem with JFK’s plan, though, was when the state-run facilities were closed in favor of community mental health centers, the toughest cases were often overlooked in favor of less severe problems accepted by community centers. Those in most need were not treated, as they had been in state hospitals.

Also ignored in the rush to blame Reagan are the major societal and legal changes in the 1970's relating to involuntary institutionalization. From the book and movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to the Supreme Court cases O'Connor v. Donaldson and Addington v. Texas, the focus on patient rights, abuse, and the plight of the unjustly committed transformed public perception and law, leading to the release of thousands of patients right around the time Reagan was elected president.

When Ronald Reagan came into office as President, he decided to issue block grants to states and take it out of the federal government’s hands and place it back with the states. That is completely in line with Republican principles – when possible, services should be the responsibility of the states, not the federal government. When the federal government’s role was lessened under President Reagan, liberals blamed him for a lack of funding for the mentally ill. Thus, the false claim that Reagan “dumped” mentally ill people out onto the streets.

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/c...e-reagan-dumped-all-mentally-ill-patients-out

 

[Steeltime]

But then you simply have your jails flooded to eternity with people who now don't have to sleep in the streets.

False. Courts will not lock up those whose crime consists of vagrancy or defecating on the streets. Instead, they put the person in a court-ordered program for substance abuse, job training, get the person help with shelter, etc.

I volunteered for several years at a homeless shelter. Most other volunteers - probably 90% - were once homeless but had found a way out. Basically, every such person told me he had stopped using drugs and had found work because of a court-ordered program, and that he never would have done so without that court order.

Now in stating the obvious, the person fails a few times before the help kicks in. I get that. But the current approach - "Oh, let them sleep in tents and **** on the street" - makes all of us less clean, less safe.

 

[43Hitman]

Nope. Supreme Court decision in O'Connor v. Donaldson 422 U.S. 563 (1975) held that a person with mental illness cannot be held unless he or she poses a genuine threat to himself or others. Reagan had nothing to do with that decision.



https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/c...e-reagan-dumped-all-mentally-ill-patients-out

Dude thanks for that correction. Seriously, kudos. I was a kid when Reagan was President, he actually came to our school and visited Ellsworth Air Force Base when we were stationed there. I got to see him from like 5 feet away, it was so cool and sureal. I was enamored with him. Anyways, I remember my Mom or some other family member saying years later that he was responsible for letting the mentally ill loose on the streets. Obviously I never fact checked that. Looks like I'm gonna have to do some reading. Thanks for the link.

 

[Steeltime]

I nominate as the spokesperson for the liberal view one Titania McGrath. You may call her a fake because she is just a false name made up by comedian and author, Andrew Doyle, but to you I say, Titania is all truth, all liberal, 100% of the time. She made the following brilliant observation less than a month ago:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is SO racist. <br><br>I can’t believe they’ve cast a black actor as Santa, just because he breaks into people’s houses at night. <a href="https://t.co/yTNDsJfK7D">https://t.co/yTNDsJfK7D</a></p>— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) <a href="https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath/status/1209904440309882880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 25, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Wow, if you doubt her liberal credentials, you are just being non-gender binary bigoted.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’m so sick of the media making us look stupid by using the words we tell them to use. <a href="https://t.co/HB3WwkY7cf">pic.twitter.com/HB3WwkY7cf</a></p>— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) <a href="https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath/status/1211657364706869249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Brilliance. Pure. Brilliance.

 

[43Hitman]

@Steeltime I just read that link. Thanks again for the information.

 

[Steeltime]

Dude thanks for that correction. Seriously, kudos. I was a kid when Reagan was President, he actually came to our school and visited Ellsworth Air Force Base when we were stationed there. I got to see him from like 5 feet away, it was so cool and sureal. I was enamored with him. Anyways, I remember my Mom or some other family member saying years later that he was responsible for letting the mentally ill loose on the streets. Obviously I never fact checked that. Looks like I'm gonna have to do some reading. Thanks for the link.

Not a problem. I have told this anecdote a couple of times, but it deserves re-telling. Ronnie was governor of California 1966-1974. In 2nd grade, 1968, my class was given an assignment to write a government official and ask a question. My dad worked with Reagan and knew him a bit, so he told me, "Why don't you write the governor and ask if he wants to run for President?" I did just that, and received a reply about 1 week later, signed by the governor. (Probably auto-signed, but still signed.) The letter was great, thanked me for my inquiry, advised that the governor "was busy doing work for the people of California," and complimented me on my interest in government at such a young age. He also asked for my support should he ever deign to run for President.

I had a letter (auto)signed by Ronald Reagan in 1968, talking about running for President. Yeah, you damn well bet I volunteered for his campaign in 1980.

 

[Badcat]

I'm sorry, I mistook the thread for discussing Homelessness and possible solutions. My bad.

 

[Steeltime]

I'm sorry, I mistook the thread for discussing Homelessness and possible solutions. My bad.

You are hereby disciplined by being forced to listen to Elizabeth Warren talk in her "Oh, I'm speaking to kindygardeners" voice for 10 minutes. 20 if you repeat the error.

 

[Steelworth]

Brilliance. Pure. Brilliance.

He/she really is. And it's funny as hell when people don't realize she's a fake account and argue with her.