Anonymous
01/05/2023 10:27
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Actually the tents there are a LOT like it was 20+ years ago
Actually no. In 2003 there weren’t filthy tents on every triangle park and overpass and traffic circle and underpass in the godd6m city
Exactly. Have lived in the city, downtown, for close to 30 years. While there has been an intermittment encampment presence at Whitehurst Freeway/Rock Creek Pkwy at VA Ave, the phenomena of large tents parked in the triangular parks and on wide sidewalks like 17th Street and Dupont Circle only started during Covid, when the City decided to tolerate it. There is no reason that the City should allow people to encamp in these spaces. There are ample shelter beds.
PP here - I apologize for my inaccuracy and bad math. There was a very large encampment under the Whitehurst using boxes and tarps THIRTY years ago, as well as many sleeping on Metro grates. It was shocking to me when I move here. Things somehow got better when we had the Control Board and the proper prosperity of the late 90s. We are back to the bad old days, just with tents provided by people who don’t realize they are actually creating drug dens in their own neighborhoods.
Anonymous
01/05/2023 10:00
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:
Actually the tents there are a LOT like it was 20+ years ago
Actually no. In 2003 there weren’t filthy tents on every triangle park and overpass and traffic circle and underpass in the godd6m city
Exactly. Have lived in the city, downtown, for close to 30 years. While there has been an intermittment encampment presence at Whitehurst Freeway/Rock Creek Pkwy at VA Ave, the phenomena of large tents parked in the triangular parks and on wide sidewalks like 17th Street and Dupont Circle only started during Covid, when the City decided to tolerate it. There is no reason that the City should allow people to encamp in these spaces. There are ample shelter beds.
Anonymous
01/05/2023 09:28
Subject: Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Killers now know DC protects them.
I can't imagine that someone who beat someone to death with a pole was doing a detailed cost-benefit analysis, adjusting for the length of the expected prison sentence. In some rare cases, that might have an effect, but not these. This appears to be a symptom of the failure of our social supports.
Murderers, even the “crazy”-seeming ones, respond to incentives. You rarely see someone choosing to beat someone to death right in front of a policeman. There’s a reason for that
Anonymous
01/05/2023 07:14
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I amazed at the amount of tents by the Whitehurst Freeway. I feel like I have never seen it this bad in the 20 years I’ve been here.
Actually the tents there are a LOT like it was 20+ years ago
Actually no. In 2003 there weren’t filthy tents on every triangle park and overpass and traffic circle and underpass in the godd6m city
True. And gentrification of previously more affordable areas and the loss of housing due to investors weren’t the issues that they are today.
Mental illness and how it’s handled is a concern, as is drug abuse, but so is the loss of affordable housing and living- wage jobs.
I don’t think you have a firm understanding if who these people that live in tents are and where they come from. There are almost no homeless families in DC. These are not formerly employed people in low income housing that had bad luck and fell on hard times. There are enough available shelter beds to house everyone. Nearly universally all of these people are men with severe mental illness and/or drug addiction that refuse to stay in a shelter. A significant portion of these men were formerly incarcerated. And a large portion of them are from other places that gave them one-way bus tickets to DC. These are people who choose to live in tents for the freedom to use drugs or because they refuse mental health treatment.
Sure more jobs and affordable housing would be good as it will help get homeless families stabilized more quickly, instead of spending unnecessary time in shelters and hotels. But this is not that.
Anonymous
01/05/2023 01:16
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I amazed at the amount of tents by the Whitehurst Freeway. I feel like I have never seen it this bad in the 20 years I’ve been here.
Actually the tents there are a LOT like it was 20+ years ago
Actually no. In 2003 there weren’t filthy tents on every triangle park and overpass and traffic circle and underpass in the godd6m city
True. And gentrification of previously more affordable areas and the loss of housing due to investors weren’t the issues that they are today.
Mental illness and how it’s handled is a concern, as is drug abuse, but so is the loss of affordable housing and living- wage jobs.
Anonymous
01/05/2023 00:30
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I amazed at the amount of tents by the Whitehurst Freeway. I feel like I have never seen it this bad in the 20 years I’ve been here.
How is it affecting you? You don’t live in a tent. Do you just not like seeing poor people?
The parks are not for camping. Set up Quonset dorms with facilities, including dining and a health clinic at the unused RFK parking lot.
The RFK parking lots are federal property under the jurisdiction of the NPS as part of Anacostia Park. Although leased to DC Events, any use is subject to approval by the National Capital Planning Commission consistent with applicable zoning restrictions. Oh, then there the fact DC can’t forcibly relocate I housed persons to a parking lot segregated from the community. People experiencing homelessness have constitutional rights too. No shelters allow pets, most do not permit more than two pieces of luggage and most do not permit couples of opposite sex. But glad you have this all figured out. The folks living in Kingman Park and Hill East appreciate your concern about city parks.
This is a bit rich considering that DC has no problem forcibly evicting unhoused people with bulldozers. But to offer them assistance? Sorry, we cannot do that because they have rights that forbid us from helping them. What a joke.
Anonymous
01/04/2023 23:37
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I amazed at the amount of tents by the Whitehurst Freeway. I feel like I have never seen it this bad in the 20 years I’ve been here.
Actually the tents there are a LOT like it was 20+ years ago
Actually no. In 2003 there weren’t filthy tents on every triangle park and overpass and traffic circle and underpass in the godd6m city
Anonymous
01/04/2023 23:20
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I amazed at the amount of tents by the Whitehurst Freeway. I feel like I have never seen it this bad in the 20 years I’ve been here.
How is it affecting you? You don’t live in a tent. Do you just not like seeing poor people?
The parks are not for camping. Set up Quonset dorms with facilities, including dining and a health clinic at the unused RFK parking lot.
It’s telling the things that DC refuses to do while trying to foist their responsibilities onto others.
A big percentage of DC's homeless aren't from DC. It started with others foisting their responsibilities onto DC.
Anonymous
01/04/2023 23:12
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I amazed at the amount of tents by the Whitehurst Freeway. I feel like I have never seen it this bad in the 20 years I’ve been here.
How is it affecting you? You don’t live in a tent. Do you just not like seeing poor people?
The parks are not for camping. Set up Quonset dorms with facilities, including dining and a health clinic at the unused RFK parking lot.
The RFK parking lots are federal property under the jurisdiction of the NPS as part of Anacostia Park. Although leased to DC Events, any use is subject to approval by the National Capital Planning Commission consistent with applicable zoning restrictions. Oh, then there the fact DC can’t forcibly relocate I housed persons to a parking lot segregated from the community. People experiencing homelessness have constitutional rights too. No shelters allow pets, most do not permit more than two pieces of luggage and most do not permit couples of opposite sex. But glad you have this all figured out. The folks living in Kingman Park and Hill East appreciate your concern about city parks.
Anonymous
01/04/2023 18:31
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I amazed at the amount of tents by the Whitehurst Freeway. I feel like I have never seen it this bad in the 20 years I’ve been here.
How is it affecting you? You don’t live in a tent. Do you just not like seeing poor people?
Umm. I have heart and feel it’s shameful for the nation’s Capitol to have so many homeless people. There should be more interventions and mental health services dedicated to this population. What are you doing to “help” - besides be a jerk on DCUM? My husband is on the Board of a Washington DC area food insecurity charity and we sponsor several events a year in addition to donating. What are you doing to help?
Anonymous
01/04/2023 18:30
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:
I actually think this is not a bad idea because I agree with you that parks (or sidewalks, in the case of Dupont Circle) are not for camping; however, there are already sufficient shelters, the issue is that mentally unbalanced homeless people do not want to use them---the non-violent mentally ill quite rightly don't want to be jammed into close quarters with the more volatile and potentially violent mentally ill. Add to that that most homeless shelters do not allow people to stay in them all day and drink/do drugs. Quonset huts would essentially be an outdoor mental hospital---and just having a police presence wouldn't be sufficient---you would need trained staff capable of handling and de-escalating situations. What you are describing is almost like Hamsterdam in "The Wire".
Not to mention that there are thousands of hard working home owners and residents near RFK Stadium that do not want hundreds of mentally ill people congregated in and roaming their neighborhood. There’s a good reason why the states built sanitaria in the middle of rural locations.
Absent warehousing the homeless against their will in mental institutions, it’s preferable to have them dispersed throughout the city. This ensures that no single neighborhood is bearing the brunt of the problems. It also reduces interactions between homeless individuals, which reduces the chances for violent incidents.
I wonder whether the family of the Logan Circle jogger stabbed to death by the mentally ill homeless guy shares your views. We have had 40 years of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, a policy created by a confluence of civil rights advocates and the Reaganites ---who didn't want to spend money for institutions. During that time period, and exacerbated by factors such as growing income inequality and the decline of the middle class, the mentally ill homeless population has skyrocketed. How are the seriously mentally ill treated in Western European countries?
Anonymous
01/04/2023 17:42
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
How is it affecting you? You don’t live in a tent. Do you just not like seeing poor people?
The parks are not for camping. Set up Quonset dorms with facilities, including dining and a health clinic at the unused RFK parking lot.
I actually think this is not a bad idea because I agree with you that parks (or sidewalks, in the case of Dupont Circle) are not for camping; however, there are already sufficient shelters, the issue is that mentally unbalanced homeless people do not want to use them---the non-violent mentally ill quite rightly don't want to be jammed into close quarters with the more volatile and potentially violent mentally ill. Add to that that most homeless shelters do not allow people to stay in them all day and drink/do drugs. Quonset huts would essentially be an outdoor mental hospital---and just having a police presence wouldn't be sufficient---you would need trained staff capable of handling and de-escalating situations. What you are describing is almost like Hamsterdam in "The Wire".
Not to mention that there are thousands of hard working home owners and residents near RFK Stadium that do not want hundreds of mentally ill people congregated in and roaming their neighborhood. There’s a good reason why the states built sanitaria in the middle of rural locations.
Absent warehousing the homeless against their will in mental institutions, it’s preferable to have them dispersed throughout the city. This ensures that no single neighborhood is bearing the brunt of the problems. It also reduces interactions between homeless individuals, which reduces the chances for violent incidents.
Anonymous
01/04/2023 17:24
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:
How is it affecting you? You don’t live in a tent. Do you just not like seeing poor people?
The parks are not for camping. Set up Quonset dorms with facilities, including dining and a health clinic at the unused RFK parking lot.
I actually think this is not a bad idea because I agree with you that parks (or sidewalks, in the case of Dupont Circle) are not for camping; however, there are already sufficient shelters, the issue is that mentally unbalanced homeless people do not want to use them---the non-violent mentally ill quite rightly don't want to be jammed into close quarters with the more volatile and potentially violent mentally ill. Add to that that most homeless shelters do not allow people to stay in them all day and drink/do drugs. Quonset huts would essentially be an outdoor mental hospital---and just having a police presence wouldn't be sufficient---you would need trained staff capable of handling and de-escalating situations. What you are describing is almost like Hamsterdam in "The Wire".
Anonymous
01/04/2023 16:46
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I amazed at the amount of tents by the Whitehurst Freeway. I feel like I have never seen it this bad in the 20 years I’ve been here.
Actually the tents there are a LOT like it was 20+ years ago
They didn’t have tents 20 years ago. It was refrigerator boxes.
Anonymous
01/04/2023 16:45
Subject: Re:Person beaten to death in dc ellipse this morning
Anonymous wrote:I amazed at the amount of tents by the Whitehurst Freeway. I feel like I have never seen it this bad in the 20 years I’ve been here.
Actually the tents there are a LOT like it was 20+ years ago