𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

Sep 30

The Guardian has produced an excellent series this year called Overpoliced and Underprotected.

In Should police address homelessness? they take on a topic many of us are all to familiar with here in Chico. Criminalization, the killing of the unsheltered and mentally ill, and the lack of actual resources police departments can actually bring to bear on the problem.

“Anti-homeless laws exist in some form or another in jurisdictions all over the US, everything from trespassing and loitering, to the more severe ordinances of bans on tents, camping or sitting and lying down in public spaces. These laws have done nothing to solve homelessness, just criminalize it, advocates said.
A Guardian analysis in 2015 found that homeless people were 6.5 times more likely to be killed by police than the rest of the population. And police largely don’t have an answer when encampment residents ask them where they should go, as most local jurisdictions lack the supportive and affordable housing necessary to house the more than 567,000 living unsheltered in the US.”