GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM KIDNAPPS HOMELESS

NEWSOM’S ROUNDUP

By: Derek Varsalona

Governor Gavin Newsom must like the movie Toy Story a lot.  He especially must be in favor of Woody’s Roundup.  That is exactly what Governor Gavin Newsom is doing, instead of Woody.  The California voters overwhelmingly passed a law that would round up homeless people and put them into health care and mental health facilities.  I agree, the homeless is a plight on the American streets.  It probably increases crime.  But rounding up the mentally ill and forcing them into treatment facilities is inhumane and will do nothing to solve the mental health crisis.  I used to volunteer at Nassau County Social Services in Uniondale, NY.  I worked with homeless people.  Most of them said that it is safer on the streets than it is in a homeless shelter.

The California people overwhelmingly voted for the government to use draconian measures to round up homeless people and force them into housing against their will.  So basically what the California voters did was legalize kidnapping.  How is rounding up a homeless person and forcing them into confinement going to help the person?  Putting the person in harm's way, so you can fill a need to feel safe only makes it less safe for the homeless person.  The homeless person's right to live freely where they want is more important than your need to feel safe and it offers a false sense of security.

This policy does nothing to address the need for mental health services that are greatly underfunded in America.  I agree in major cities we do have a crime problem.  But that crime problem is compounded by a greater mental health problem in this country that I think was prolonged by the Corona Virus Pandemic.  

With the Corona Virus Pandemic, we say the use of government force to lock down the people, strip their civil liberties, and force people into isolation.  Well, I can tell you by rounding up the homeless people and forcing them into housing and mental institutions it shows that the people of California and Governor Newsom learned nothing about governing during a pandemic.  As always comments accepted.

Gavin Newsom rounding up Homeless
Photo: John Curiel 

Source: The Associated Press. “ California Voters Pass Proposition 1 to Tackle The State’s Homeless Crisis.” Sacramento: Thursday, March 21, 2024.

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/21/1239811952/california-proposition-1-homeless