{"id":11643,"date":"2025-08-16T10:36:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T17:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11643"},"modified":"2025-08-16T10:37:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T17:37:42","slug":"san-franciscos-summer-of-tough-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11643","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco’s Summer of Tough Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maggie Grether reports<\/a> in the WSJ:<\/p>\n

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cities more power to penalize people for sleeping outside, handing city leaders a new tool with which to clear homeless people from the streets.<\/p>\n

Since then, San Francisco has been among the most aggressive in wielding it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow. For over 30 years, it has been an article of faith on the political left that taking any action against people who live on the streets and refuse to take any of the steps needed to be functional and self-supporting members of society was mean, cruel, heartless, and possibly Nazi. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve been called one of those names in this regard.<\/p>\n

And now the epicenter of the American left is “among the most aggressive” in cracking down. There is nothing like the convert zeal. When decades of so-called “progressive” mismanagement has given a city a problem that is among America’s worst, it becomes the strongest in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

I noted 15 years ago on what is now the archive blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Language is used to express thought, but sometimes the terms we use get in the way of proper analysis of the situation. One situation so impaired is discussion of “the homeless.” Use of a single term for everyone without a permanent residence tends to obscure the fact that different people are in that situation for very different reasons, and different causes call for different solutions. There are at least three subgroups, sometimes called the “have nots,” the “cannots,” and the “will nots.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Economic dislocation is the easiest to deal with. For this group, simply extending aid is indeed the solution. Unfortunately, that is a small part of the problem.<\/p>\n

A much larger group consists of people who are mentally ill, drug addicted, or both. When they refuse the treatment needed to resolve these problems, then a “tough love” approach is in order. Being an “enabler,” as they say in addiction psychology, is not actually helping. It is hurting.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the WSJ article devotes most of its space to the enforcement side of the effort and the reaction of its critics. It does give a little space to the larger approach of the city:<\/p>\n

Kunal Modi, the city\u2019s chief of health and human services, says the city is aiming for the right balance between enforcement and services.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is that we show up to any situation more like a Swiss army knife, where we have multiple tools and capabilities that are at our disposal,\u201d says Modi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The third group is what used to be called hobos in a more straightforward and less hand-wringing time. Hard as it may be to believe, some people would rather live on the streets as parasites than live a life of work and responsibility. “You can’t do that here; hit the road,” is the correct response for this group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maggie Grether reports in the WSJ: Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cities more power to penalize people for sleeping outside, handing city leaders a new tool with which to clear homeless people from the streets. Since then, San Francisco has been among the most aggressive in wielding it. Wow. For over 30 years, it has been an article of faith on the political left that taking any action against people who live on the streets and refuse to take any of the steps needed to be functional and self-supporting members of society was mean, cruel, heartless, and possibly Nazi. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve been called one of those names in this regard. And now the epicenter of the American left is “among the most aggressive” in cracking down. There is nothing like the convert zeal. When decades of so-called “progressive” mismanagement has given a city a problem that is among America’s worst, it becomes the strongest in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-order"],"yoast_head":"\nSan Francisco's Summer of Tough Love - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11643\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"San Francisco's Summer of Tough Love - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maggie Grether reports in the WSJ: Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cities more power to penalize people for sleeping outside, handing city leaders a new tool with which to clear homeless people from the streets. 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