Columbia, South Carolina Criminalizes Homelessness

A lot of those people have mental dis-abilities, mental illness, from being homeless.

I think it's safe to say about 90% of them were sane before they got pushed out of the game by bad credit or unemployment or whatever.

Nobody can really blame them for being drug users, when drugs are easier to get than food, and drugs nullify the pain and nullify the morals enough to do what the drug dealers demand in return for a snickers.

I have seen first hand how the less fortunate are taken advantage of by street dealers, get the pretty ones strung out and put em on the corner to sell themselves.

Not so different that most people are really, it just depends on who you buy your pain-nullifiers from, and what your pain-nullifier of choice may be....

From the above perspective, one could view "The War on Drugs" in a perversely skewed way from the mainstream view, which is the ignorant view.

Ignorance is most people's Pain-Nullifier of choice.

reply to post by jazztrance


A very large portion of homeless people are mentally ill or are addicts. The area I work in is a strange combination of small businesses, families, doctors, lawyers, students and a very large homeless population, including people that smell bad, pee in public, stumble around and beg for not food but money or cigarettes. Most homeless people don't need food, there's usually a place for them to get 2 meals a day nearby wherever there are large groups... my point is, the city is flourishing. Tons of people go in and out of the stores and restaurants all day and even at night during the warm seasons there's concerts in the park every night, free movies in another park every friday. Honestly before I took the job I had never seen anything like it, the homeless there are part of the community, many known by name... I talk to a lot of them before work and after and during my breaks. Some of them are waiting to get into substance abuse programs, most are just done with the system.

Scary, especially when you consider the parallels to Nazi Germany.

I think that city needs some guerillas hiding in the woods to protect the homeless. This is truly a inhumane practice.

reply to post by MyHappyDogShiner


I personally know 2 homeless people, they weren't homeless before they started snorting oxycontin. Actually I know 3 people who have lost their homes because of that drug, one was a doctor, so he stays with his parents now, so technically he isn't homeless because he has rich parents, without them, he would be homeless.
I don't know what the solution is to homelessness, but one thing is, if they are arrested, they wont stay in very long and they will be fed, bathed and sheltered. Maybe the city should use the money they take to imprison, feed and shelter the homeless and do something better with the money, I just don't know what.
A few miles from here in the country a guy tried to rent an abandoned school and house the homeless in exchange for them working in the factory he was making but he couldn't find anyone who wanted free housing and food in exchange for working a few hours a few days a week, so people in South Carolina, atleast a few, have really tried to help.

I live near Columbia. The unstated reason for moving the "homeless" is for their safety. Columbia is not a safe place to be after dark. Violent crimes against the homeless has skyrocketed for the last few years by the thugs and gangs that roam downtown Columbia. SC doesn't want this to get out because of the jobs the SC government has been courting with companies outside the state to bring more jobs into our state and, yes, employ some of these homeless as well as regular citizens. The mindset is that if the homeless are removed the thugs and gangs will have go away. I'm sure that if the homeless are removed the homeless will be safe but the home invasions will increase as well as violent crime.

Originally posted by NightFlight
I live near Columbia. The unstated reason for moving the "homeless" is for their safety. Columbia is not a safe place to be after dark. Violent crimes against the homeless has skyrocketed for the last few years by the thugs and gangs that roam downtown Columbia. SC doesn't want this to get out because of the jobs the SC government has been courting with companies outside the state to bring more jobs into our state and, yes, employ some of these homeless as well as regular citizens. The mindset is that if the homeless are removed the thugs and gangs will have go away. I'm sure that if the homeless are removed the homeless will be safe but the home invasions will increase as well as violent crime.

Seems more like a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down. Think about it like this, they are adding police patrols in two areas for one specific purpose... why can't they add more police to patrol at night for people actually breaking the law?

Originally posted by Kali74

Originally posted by NightFlight
I live near Columbia. The unstated reason for moving the "homeless" is for their safety. Columbia is not a safe place to be after dark. Violent crimes against the homeless has skyrocketed for the last few years by the thugs and gangs that roam downtown Columbia. SC doesn't want this to get out because of the jobs the SC government has been courting with companies outside the state to bring more jobs into our state and, yes, employ some of these homeless as well as regular citizens. The mindset is that if the homeless are removed the thugs and gangs will have go away. I'm sure that if the homeless are removed the homeless will be safe but the home invasions will increase as well as violent crime.

Seems more like a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down. Think about it like this, they are adding police patrols in two areas for one specific purpose... why can't they add more police to patrol at night for people actually breaking the law?

Kali makes a good point here. It's not the homeless I'd be worried about, it's the people targeting them. What exactly do they think is going to happen when their preferred targets are moved elsewhere? There's GOING to be another group of people filling those shoes, criminals aren't going to just waltz off because the easy targets were poofed out of town. Nobody fixed any crime problem, they just shifted the victim title to others.

Rambo.

John Rambo.

You want that?

there has been a Law on the books for decades.. it is termed Vagrancy

being homeless, jobless, moneyless has been considered the quick route to doing criminal acts...


i was once thrown on a chain gang for 30 day sentence, because that was the only charge that would stick from a trumped up false arrest back in 1968
when myrtle beach SC didn;t want any long-haired hippies vacationing in their town

the Judge, A. H----R the 3rd was later disbarred from what i understand & he left the area
the police chief who could only shrug at my predicument has retired many years ago

Columbia, a university city, will really have a hard time with that law-rule, too many loopholes and exceptions because of the population makeup, demographics

reply to post by Kali74


*My Opinion* Personally, I think that when the SHTF, the homeless won't be in the crossfire. *My Opinion*

reply to post by NightFlight


What SHTF scenario are you referring to, and are you saying you think this mandate is being done to protect them?

reply to post by Kali74


It is what it is and yes to protect them. Sorry, I can't say more.

reply to post by jazztrance

So you know 3 people who are in a predicament because of drug use, and that means everyone else who is homeless, is homeless for the same reason?.

Most people are addicted to something or other, most people don't even realize it, most people are addicted to generalizing things in order to allow themselves to pass it off as "Not their Problem".

Scapegoating, Stereotyping, whatever, as long as I can live with myself and put the blame on someone else somehow and not be held accountable by my conscience, many say without saying....

Technically, I have been homeless since 2004. I have been employed for nearly the entire time by the way. I have known a whole bunch of homeless people who sank from just homeless to dire destitution and drug abuse, drunkenness, Hopelessness.

There is always somebody there to help kill the pain, if it isn't a pimp (Human Trafficker) to supply drugs to some wayward girl who didn't realize what a big bad world it actually is, it's the guy running the liquor store (Drug Dealer in Disguise), and then we have the churches that will help if you will only agree to join "Their Team". I am not even going to go into what an administrator who works for a social services agency or whatever pulls in.

Everybody is taking advantage of one another and passing it off as "Just Business", they even tried to convince me of that when I was in the military. It's just business, and you are here to follow orders. I did follow orders and promptly got myself out of the military after I was ordered to kill anyone not dressed the same as me.

Kinda hard to look at it as "Just Business", when you find yourself losing fluids in a place no one should ever have to be, I always wondered how the people who send dumb kids to their demise can live with themselves....

The only reason it is so painful to be homeless is because people have become so domesticated, such CONSUMERS, for such a long time, they just can't deal with not having stuff they don't even need, so they turn to what is available to help them not feel so sorry for themselves, because they don't have the things others have.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!.

metanoia-films.org...

If the homeless got together and decided they wanted to start some kind of an actuarial party,"The Homeless Party", "The Nomad Party", is what those who like things the way they now want to prevent.

Homeless people are nothing but landless peasants in the grand "Old World Order", people die, and their memories and experiences die with them, and history repeats itself.

Homeless doesn't equate to helpless, it just means you don't have to run around like a rat in a maze anymore. I would call it "Freedom", and that is exactly what the people who run the world DO NOT WANT YOU TO HAVE.

Landless peasants in a world of "No Trespassing" signs.

Eh never seen a homeless person in Columbia anyway.

reply to post by MyHappyDogShiner

Homeless doesn't equate to helpless, it just means you don't have to run around like a rat in a maze anymore. I would call it "Freedom", and that is exactly what the people who run the world DO NOT WANT YOU TO HAVE.

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!
Being HOUSEless, I have no Mortgage, no car payments, no light bill, no water/garbage/sewer bill. I can collect enough aluminum cans and plastic bottles to get me smokes, and food grows all over the place. I am thankful that my parents taught me not to depend on modern conveniences to survive.

I read the article and immediately saw the uncanny parallels to Nazi concentration camps, soviet gulags, and american internment camps. I am afraid that this is just the first of many camps like this, for cities across the nation are trying to figure out a way to 'fix' their growing homeless population.

I don't claim to know how things work in Columbia but here in Orange County there are shelters and programs available for the homeless to get back on their feet. Where I live it's overrun with the homeless, and not the
down on your luck variety. I'm around the alcoholic, drug addicted career criminal element that cause trouble, steal, start fights and bur n you alive in your car if you don't give them spare change.
There's always pleasant people like THIS as well.

Maybe these are the types that are being weeded out?

I certainly feel sorry for people who genuinely got dealt a bad hand if they're the ones
being targeted with this law, and I do hope programs are in place to help them.

As awful as this sounds, I can see and understand why they are doing this. I don't blame them for doing it especially when business owners are loosing customers, customers and employees not feeling safe and the city itself is trying to attract more businesses. I'm not saying what they are trying to do is right but that I understand why.

I read the measure. I also looked into the articles from The State and WIS News. Source
Source

They both show the reaction to both the interim police chief and City manager. Both don't like it.

reply to post by Sellusnar

I watched a newscast when I lived down in Florida, the fires that come every year were raging and they would broadcast where the fire-line was so people could bail if the fires got too close. One tard news guy stated that the fires were being started by homeless people cooking outside, I cracked up. Florida is the lightning strike capital of the world, yet they still were trying to blame those pesky homeless people. There were quite a few around where I lived, they ate canned goods almost exclusively, mostly beer.

Those homeless may have cost the local business owners a bit of business, but I will guarantee the businesses were losing more just from this crappy economy. Of course they try to blame those who cannot defend themselves more and ignore the larger reason. Say it with me!, SCAPEGOAT!!!!.

Americans make a lifestyle of marginalizing people so they can feel good about themselves in comparison to others who are less fortunate, dirty, homeless, black, Mexican, smokers, covered with tattoos, drug users, drunk people, people who drive beater cars, people who practice a different religion than they do, people who don't like to wear shirts, unemployed people, poor people, people who don't speak English well.....Well, you probably get the idea. The short list would be what they aren't afraid of or don't understand. Americans are Phuquetards.

I had a seriously hard time believing this is real.

How is that not essentially a concentration camp -- a camp of people concentrated in one place, unable to go or leave at will, based on some arbitrary criteria?

If we send them all to a foodless desert area we can call it a "reservation" instead.

Let me tell you a true story. This was one of those defining moments of realization in my life.

In late 1991 I was living in Ventura California USA. I was a corporate officer in a tiny R&D company (a whole conspiracy topic of its own lol -- but only the corporate sort, not the woo sort), but we were still investor dependent. I will not bore you with the ridiculous IRS/tax court story which is yet another stupid-government story (having to do with investing and tax laws, not the company, except that some of the people affected were our investors), except to say that as a result, for a period we were seriously low on money for payroll.

Since I was going through a stage in my life where I was mourning the childhood I never really had, the CEO and I came to a deal: I would work semi-part time, he would give me a place to stay no expenses with his family for a few months, and then he would give me a bulk sum, and I could either use that to get a decent place to stay, or whatever. My vehicle had died utterly and I thought I'd buy a used vehicle with it, and then I got the bright idea to buy an RV-Van conversion -- the max length and height you can have in a van. When I was young in the 70s, I knew several people who lived in their vans (note: Ventura had a huge Grateful Dead contingent and is a beach city, so this kind of thing was not too shocking the way it would be in colder, less hippy regions). I loved the idea of having a vehicle I could drive anywhere, and stay in if I had to.

So all this occurred as planned, and I invested a good sum into really dressing it up inside. I usually lived with a couple different friends in that period I was very close to, but once in awhile I would stay in the van as well. I had my sailboard in there, my Doors and Jimi tie-dye posters and my guitar, what more did I need? LOL

One day I was parked down by the railroad tracks awaiting a friend to come home, who lived in the very bad neighborhood there. I had my door open and was playing guitar and a variety of people wandered up to see me. The riverbed was filled with homeless people. They weren't "allowed" a shantytown, so it was more a matter of showing up in the dark and sleeping in your personal box, tent, whatever, and being gone by morning light. Sometimes I'd park there, share my food with a few folks, but it started freaking me out that a lot of the people were younger men -- one I even recognized from high school! I would ask them, what the hell? Why are you living in the dry riverbed?! And they'd say things like, well I lost my job and then I ended up evicted and then I couldn't get a job because I didn't have a phone number and couldn't say I had secure transportation and so on. Or other versions of this, including, well I didn't have enough cash for first month rent, last month rent, security deposit, plus good credit (note: not all 3 of the first were already required but they usually just scaled one up to amount to the same thing) so it's just never worked out, any other option. After awhile they would be clearly demoralized, constant malnutrition was obviously doing a number on them, not to mention the other psychological issues that come with that.

Well I was thinking that was sure too bad, and noticing that every single person my parents knew had already fled California. (When I moved from there a few years later, it cost 300% more to rent a moving trailer out of the state than into it, the flood of immigrants going outward was so huge. Ask almost anybody in the next couple levels of states that surround CA and they'll tell you about how CA's flood of immigrants wiped out their real estate markets and so on.) I would sit sometimes in a parking space near an intersection and watch all these $30,000 cars going by and I'd be thinking, what the heck? Where does everybody GET all this money?! I mean, I had a good job ok, way better than most people my age at the time, better even than most people who had one or two degrees I didn't have. I was definitely not poor by any measure. But I certainly couldn't afford a car that costs that much. And in that region, it's the definition of tourist trap, you can't afford to stay and can't afford to leave, a big bulk of the jobs are retail/banking/food, so it's not like the average payroll was high. I told myself that if anything ever happened to my job, I needed to escape to another state as fast as I could, while I still could, or I'd be living under the bridge with the others.

So one night a couple months after that period, I decided to park in the business-industrial district.

To be continued