tfw a libertarian starts to sound like a Nazi
My neighborhood in Berkeley has seen 12,000 criminal incidents in a two-block radius in the past eight years. Directly adjacent to this area is People's Park, a massive encampment for homeless people and drug addicts. This is not a coincidence. The homeless in Berkeley steal from students, commit knifepoint robberies, assault female students, yell slurs at passersby, verbally abuse one another at the top of their lungs, wander into stores to steal and panhandle, go into drug-induced fits of incoherent rage, defecate on public transportation, trespass in classrooms during lectures, and litter everywhere. Due to years of crack and meth abuse, they have no capacity for rational thought and cannot be reasoned with. And they have absolutely nothing to lose, which makes them desperate and dangerous.
If you would feel comfortable letting your daughter walk through People's Park at 2 AM, you're either a sadist or completely delusional. I have far more empathy for my fellow students-- who have to tolerate these creatures on a daily basis-- than I do for a burnout crackhead who is a few inches away from going on a stabbing spree on Sproul Plaza.
We need to undo the moronic policies of the 1980s and provide new facilities where these people can be taken to handle withdrawal, and potentially seek medical care. Nobody is talking about beating up homeless people. We are just concerned for the safety of our communities, and we want to be able to go outside after dark without worrying that some chud will slit our throats for twenty bucks and a clean pair of pants.