[PJ] Democrat cities have allowed hundreds of homeless encampments to pop up along the West Coast.Homelessness isn’t new to places like San Francisco, L.A., Seattle, Sacramento, and so on. I was in Portland 12 years ago for a comedy gig. The park in front of the club looked like a scene from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. Today it looks like the Walking Dead.
Homeless camps are popping up all over the West Coast and bringing violence, drugs, weapons, and defecation with them. When I was a kid, camping meant fishing and catching toads, not getting shot and stepping in people poop.
Los Angeles has seen a 50% increase in homelessness over the last five years. LA’s Venice Beach homeless encampment recently had an explosion and a shooting. The question city officials are asking: where did they find the ammo?
A local barbershop owner was attacked by a homeless man and his pit bull. The victim, Kevin Buttress, was knocked unconscious by a skateboard. Before you know it we will see a swarm of recalcitrant, shaggy-bearded homeless dudes riding Segues through crowds on the boardwalk. The skateboard-swinging attacker was arrested but was returned to the Venice Beach boardwalk within days because of jailhouse Covid restrictions. Buttress said shootings, stabbings, and violent crime are now common on the boardwalk of one of Los Angele’s most famous beaches. The Venice boardwalk is known for restaurants, shops, street performers, and now 200+ tents of "mostly peaceful" bomb-tossing bums.
Shop keepers used to clear a tent or two away from their businesses every morning pre-Covid. Now the homeless have had a year to multiply and barnacle themselves in place. There are hundreds of homeless people and they ain’t going anywhere.
Crime stats provided by the LAPD to the city council indicate a 177% rise in violent crime and a 162% climb in assault with a deadly weapon by a homeless person. With what they spend on guns, skateboards, and dog food you’d think they could get an apartment. There were at least two major fires from the encampment. One spread from a tent and destroyed an entire building. A dog named Togo was burned to death when a homeless person threw an accelerant into Togo’s home.