If Virginia is for lovers, then Oregon is for homeless people. And if you happen to live there and aren't a lunatic, it's way past time for you to get out.
The state's majority Democrats just passed legislation decriminalizing homelessness in most public spaces and for nearly every reason, meaning that people will now be able to camp out literally anywhere they choose -- public, taxpayer-supported parks, city streets, sidewalks, and in front of businesses. And there is nothing anyone who opposes this reckless insanity can do about it.
House Bill 3115, which passed the Senate Wednesday afternoon and is en route to Gov. Kate Brown’s desk, is a response to a 2018 landmark homelessness case that impacted most western states with an intent to better support individuals experiencing homelessness.
While local governments should already be following rules set forth by the case known as Martin v. Boise, the bill, written at the behest of House Speaker Tina Kotek, forces cities to officially change any ordinance language still on the books to be in line with the court decision. It passed the Senate 28-10 on a largely party line vote, with Sen. Betsy Johnson of Scappoose the lone Democrat to vote no.
Speaking of left-wing lunatics, judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (the most overturned court in the land by the U.S. Supreme Court) ruled that governments don't have the authority (somehow) to criminalize any conduct that results from not having a home of their own. "To punish a homeless individual for sleeping outside when there aren’t enough shelter beds would be comparable to punishing that individual for the fact that they are homeless, a consequence the court described as a cruel and unusual," The Oregonian reported, a reference to the court's interpretation of such laws as being violations of the Eighth Amendment.
Alison McIntosh, policy director for the Oregon Housing Alliance who obviously does not have to deal with a gaggle of homeless people herself (although maybe she should have to), claimed that as is, some cities go around the ruling by enforcing "no camping" ordinances on some public property but not all public lands.
“This does not solve the problem, though, for either people experiencing homelessness or law enforcement,” she wrote. “It does not provide people experiencing homelessness clear guidance about where they can or cannot sit or sleep.”
Not everyone in the state is a lunatic. The Marion County Board of Commissioners opposed the bill because, members said, the measure "would limit local control of the homeless crisis facing Oregon" and would "place residents in our communities at risk by restricting local government's power to limit homeless camps."
First and foremost, the reason why what we used to call vagrancy was disallowed was because it disrupted the normal, healthy function of a civil society, one that thrives on having rules that enhance the quality of life, not demean or detract from it. Taxpayers in communities should have an expectation that their dollars are going to maintain the civil society, not disassemble it and create chaos on their streets and in public spaces they, too have a right to use unmolested.
Secondly, weren't these intolerable Democrats in Oregon and around the country concerned about public safety and health when they locked down residents for months on end and made them close their businesses due to COVID? If city leaders had the authority to do that last year, why do they now lack the authority to keep their own streets, sidewalks and public spaces free from filthy conditions that breed violence and disease?
This is insanity on steroids. One by one, day by day, moment by moment, the Democratic Marxist party is demolishing the remaining vestiges of our republic. And when it collapses, so, too, with the rest of Western-style democracy.
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