Off Topic: Los Angeles Members Please Check In

[Peter_Spaeth]

Yeah, we should let those homeless people rot and not take care of them, especially if they're gay or trans. Sure, SOME of these expenses listed by FOX seem egregious, but that's probably true of the budget of any major city anywhere, or state, or the federal government, regardless of the political leanings of the leadership. And as AJ posted, I don't think there's been any showing of any causal connection here. Nor has there been any showing that all the money spent on these programs would have gone to firefighting, there are probably lots of departments competing for city funds.

[G1911]

There is a wide reasonable chasm between funding drug needles for abusing illegal substances and transgender cafes for homeless people and not giving a rats ass. I'd love to stop having my money spent on the dumbest anti-science shit and enabling drug addicts. There is plenty of tax money to solve the real, actual problems in this state, from fires to homeless.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Perhaps you are skeptical of the CDC, and in some areas there is reason to be, but according to them, and probably many other agencies, needle exchange programs benefit more than the "abusers."


https://www.cdc.gov/syringe-services...php/index.html

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Perhaps you are skeptical of the CDC, and in some areas there is reason to be, but according to them, and probably many other agencies, needle exchange programs benefit more than the "abusers."


https://www.cdc.gov/syringe-services...php/index.html

I don't doubt there are positive health impacts from giving heroin junkies needles so they get less disease. I don't think, like most people in the US, that the government should be subsidizing the drug habits of illegal substances at all. "Abusers" in quotes is pretty funny though. I'm sure the heroin junky shooting up with a California paid for needle isn't an abuser of illegal substances . This board lol

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by G1911

"Abusers" in quotes is pretty funny though.

Good eye! I hadn't even noticed that yet.



A very curious use of quotation marks indeed.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Good eye! I hadn't even noticed that yet.



A very curious use of quotation marks indeed.

Well, sure, in one sense they are of course abusing but the term can have a very pejorative and contemptuous connotation implying some sort of moral failing, at least as I have heard it, and that may not necessarily be warranted in some cases.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Well, sure, in one sense they are of course abusing but the term can have a very pejorative and contemptuous connotation implying some sort of moral failing, at least as I have heard it, and that may not necessarily be warranted in some cases.

I'm sure the people shooting up heroin with taxpayer funded clean needles are guilty of no moral failing and are not always abusers of the illegal and deadly substance they are injecting into themselves. What a horrible implication it would be to suggest otherwise or to have contempt for the losers shooting up on the sidewalk .


Perhaps one day California will deal with actual problems instead of this kind of crap, but I doubt it. Subsidizing illegal drug use and denying human biology are higher up the priority list because reasons.

[gregndodgers]

"The LAFD budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year of $837 million was also dwarfed by the city’s homeless budget of $1.3 billion." See Note below for URL.

What? really? You're telling me that hard working families, businesses, and homeowners have to take a back seat to the homeless? That is a sign of incompetence. I am willing to help homeless but not at the expense of safety for the men and women who are out there being productive.

Oh, and since I work downtown near skid row, I know first hand that the $1.3 billion has really turned that place around. NOT. I have to wonder where that money is really going.

Note:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...b9d0e6b5&ei=10

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Yeah, we should let those homeless people rot and not take care of them, especially if they're gay or trans.

California's policy has been to facilitate homelessness by enabling those with substance abuse and psychiatric problems to squat on city, i.e. taxpayers', property! Letting a problem spread is no way to fight it.

[Peter_Spaeth]

It doesn't seem Ontario is doing much better. What do you suggest?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...bers-1.7426934