Denver is a progressive sanctuary city, so that is par for the course wrt stuff happening in my home state of Colorado these days.
I have recently taken on the homeless issue in Denver as a cause to fret about. Denver periodically does a sweep of homeless from their favorite street. They return within 24 hours and the Denver Post points out that there are enough shelter beds, food, and accommodations available for them, so Denver has done everything they could. They are freezing to death in the dark but hey... we did all that is reasonable for them, it's their choice.
Hold on! The deal is they are aware enough to predict conflict they could not deal with in a shelter. They are schizo and unstable enough to, well, ... do nothing that could save their own lives. They are disoriented and impossible to communicate with effectively.
So ok, they are dangerous, impossible to deal with, contribute nothing of value. Their deaths don't even get reported as news worthy. But Hang On, we provide care and treatment for serial killers, rapists, heinous criminals and child rapists then we turn them loose again on society. Nobody gives a crap about these homeless people but clearly they are making the same choice suicidal people make and we give them a minimum of 72 hours of shelter and services, or more, until we are convinced they are no longer a threat to themselves or others. These homeless who don't take shelter in sub-freezing weather is a threat to themselves and going into the normal shelter is a threat to others. Where is the justice considering how we deal with other people who are on the deadly fringe of society?
That's true nation wide I suppose. |
