By now everyone has heard that the Supreme Court upheld a town’s power to ban “camping” in public places like parks and sidewalks. Dissenting, Justice Sotomayor wrote “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime.” Well, elimination is a biological necessity too. If there is no toilet nearby, would Justice Sotomayor say I have a constitutional right to defecate on the street?
In America there are several main reasons for long-term homelessness. One is deinstitutionalization of people who need residential mental care. Another is drug addiction. And some people, believe it or not, simply prefer living on the street. Of course shelters should be provided, but even when they are, quite a few people refuse to live in them, mainly because they have rules. The street doesn’t.
I would gladly support dealing with these problems. What decent person wouldn’t? But turning public places into sewers doesn’t help anyone. It isn’t a response, but an excuse for no response. The only thing it is good for is giving a hypocritical display of compassion.
Progressivism is a class ideology, and wealthy contempt for ordinary people has no limits. Progressives don’t want strangers sleeping and defecating in their own yards or driveways. The reason they don’t mind letting them do such things in parks and on sidewalks is that these places are used by the little people, people who can’t afford to vacation in nice clean resorts and who have to walk where they want to go.