How many liberties would you give up to live in an orderly DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WAPO ran a front page story yesterday on the deaths of homeless people in the District that figured a transgender named Alice as its poster child. The WAPO reporter knew she made her home on 17th Street north of Q (it was in the story) but apparently made no effort at all to see how her life and death affected those who live there.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but Alice was considered a major blight on 17th St. A meth addict who routinely aggressively verbally assaulted residents and storeowners, shoplifted, and engaged in public sex acts. A number of residents have emailed WAPO their disdain for their attempt to make Alice a homeless hero. And these are people who routinely take food and blankets to the homeless on their street and have been known to visit those who are in jail.

Could we start with a press that isn't so caught up in identity politics that it leaps to a hagiography on possibly the only transgender homeless death this year to highlight a significant social problem?

Just came to say, that is the second time in the past 15 minutes I have seen the word hagiography used--the first time ever for me in a print book and now here--Bader-Meinhoff in the extreme!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys have essentially given up your second amendment rights already. DC is on of the few places in America where it is actually easier to get an illegal firearm than a legal one.

Are you out buying illegal firearms? I'm gonna call the cops!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More security cameras and targeted stop and frisk.

You’re welcome.

Don't worry.
Soon enough we'll all have GPS implants in our brains

Hah. Every time I have to change one of the gazillion passwords at work (including the ones to access two-factor authentication) I'm convinced that it's all a setup to get up to embrace the chip.

[Anonymous]

Well, there's always Singapore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if parents aren't checking their kids behavior, there should be mandatory drug testing, searches and check-ins by the govt

And if kids are driving a luxury cars there should be a mandatory audit at their taxes

[Anonymous]

Of not at

[Anonymous]

Singapore is a good option. Saudi Arabia is like this too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would give them all up, except for voting. "Liberty" is a stupid, jingoistic buzzword that serves to describe the very real problem of hamstringing the ability of government to maintain order.

Go away. You do not belong in America.

I was born here. This is as much my country as it is yours.

Maybe you should go away instead. I’ll help you pack.

I don't buy it. Your attitude is 100% UNAMERICAN at a very fundamental level. Go away -- there are plenty of other countries out there that could accommodate you without changing their government or society AT ALL. Go there. We don't like people like you here.

I’m every bit as American as you. And I’m smarter than you, because I can at least articulate my thoughts beyond “UNAMERICAN”, unlike you. You are the exact type of mouthbreathing, low-forehead moron motivated by silly jingoistic phrases like “freedom and liberty”. You don’t even know what the concept means. You just want your pick up truck, football games, American flags, guns and trump. That’s how you define “liberty”. It’s ridiculous.

The reality is we are living in the movie “Idiocracy”. When people can do anything they want, the stupidest people will avail themselves to the stupidest things, and the rest of us have to deal with the consequences of that. I’m tired of that. Crime, violence, bad elected officials, are all the result stupid people being given the freedom to do what they want. It needs to stop.

If immature insults is your version of articulating your thoughts beyong "UNAMERICAN" then sorry, you fail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a false dichotomy and reflects a dystopian wet dream. I’ll choose doubling or tripling down on compassion and care. It’s what I’d want if I ever end up in their shoes.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, there's always Singapore.

Or North Korea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t it just be easier to get people homes, education, and healthcare. Wouldn’t it just have been easier to give Alice the proper mental health care that every human deserves?

We can’t fix issues with cops, we need to fix them with treating people as humans.

What if Alice didnt want the care? Would you force it on her?

Because that is the reality for many homeless.

They would not have refused it as children, or in the beginning. You think Alice didn’t need grace as a young child, transgender people have been treated terribly forever.

I do think in certain situations guardians should be appointed (like Brittany Spears) But we could provide homes and food. Every situation is different. Homelessness is nonexistent in some areas for Veterans because people care enough to provide proper care and homes.

Give them blankets? How about give them a home.

It’s not all that complicated if we actually cared about it.

If you think giving Alice a home would have solved the problem, you are sadly mistaken. What he/she/it/they/them/zer/zhe/et. al be able to take care of the home or (whatever pronoun)self? So, now we send a daily caretaker. At some point, you will need to realize that some people can't be left on the streets. They at least will need 24x7 rehabilitation before they can be be "left alone." That's what we would do if we cared. But we did this before and people are afraid the same mistakes will be made, so they favor a different set of mistakes. However, no one has been locked up against their will so it's all good. They are just imprisoned by their own behavior.

[Anonymous]

They should give people a tent, or a shipping container, or a shed from Home Depot -- something cheap that can give them some privacy and a shred of dignity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Authoritarian societies where everyone is forcefully held to a certain standard of behavior are often used as backdrops to dystopian novels, and obviously real-life attempts have never been good. Yet the more time I spend in DC, the more a zero-tolerance approach to decorum seems appealing. Imagine a world with no crime, no nuisance, no break-ins, no package thefts, no litter, no panhandlers, no encampments, no one hurtling obscenities at you while you're walking down the street. In exchange, all you have to do is not be a criminal or nuisance yourself. Those who abide by the rules experience a comfortable and prosperous life. Those who don't are swiftly dealt with. Where do the noncompliant people go? Not sure. Rounded up and relocated to a commune where they could be reeducated or permanently quarantined from law-abiding members of society?

This is just a small fantasy I have as I go about my daily life in DC. Someone broke into a car in front of my house in the middle of the afternoon. WTF.

The people who propose these things, always assume that the zero-tolerance would be aimed at OTHER people.

This! Go live in China as a Uighur if you're so enlightened.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should give people a tent, or a shipping container, or a shed from Home Depot -- something cheap that can give them some privacy and a shred of dignity.

I don’t want to live in a place where homeless and crazy people have tents and shacks strewn about all over public property and parks. Look at what L.A. is dealing with right now. You want that for dc?

No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should give people a tent, or a shipping container, or a shed from Home Depot -- something cheap that can give them some privacy and a shred of dignity.

I don’t want to live in a place where homeless and crazy people have tents and shacks strewn about all over public property and parks. Look at what L.A. is dealing with right now. You want that for dc?

No thanks.

You'd prefer they be more visible?