Good Job PD!

CRAP!

Next thing you know some ACLU Air-Head will sue the city of Bakersfield for denying these bums their "constitutionally protected open-air homes and means of employment (panhandling)".

OK, seriously. It IS  about time the streets were cleaned of riff-raff.  It seems you can't go anywhere downtown without being acosted by panhandlers.  Hopefully, the BPD will enforce this with regularity instead of once every six to eight months,

Easiest way to turn a panhandler away is to ask them before they have a chance to ask you. Always works for me.

Great! Now the team can come into my neighborhood and start arresting. In the last two weeks I have had someone use the landscaping on the east side of my property along an alley for a latrine leaving the nasty messes for me to clean up. This morning while I was trimming shrubbery in a 3 hour period 2 bums pushing stolen shopping carts filled with trash and recyclables and one rode by on a bicycle with bags of cans tied on the side. Also some guy who couldn't speak a complete English sentence came by passing out business cards offering to trim (no doubt butcher) trees.

Deadbeats. Hang 'em!

They need to arrest the dog that keeps doing it's business on my front lawn. Either that or the neighbor that does yard work out front and lets her dog roam around while she pulls weeds.

That's funny, I work downtown and while on my lunch I had to call the police because some crazy bum was holding two dogs captive (that were not hers), yelling, and loitering directly in front an entrance to a business.

Then just thirty minutes ago when I was on my break, I was asked for change by a prostitute (a regular of the downtown area), and a cigarette from a transvestite (first time I have ever seen him/her down here). 

Seriously, no joke. 

I think they flushed them all out! =)

I feel sorry for the transients.   They were someone's child once.  Who knows what kind of trauma brought them to this place.

That said, I can understand people getting irritated at the problems they bring to a neighborhood.  Maybe donations to the Mission or the Homeless shelter would help.

Audrey -  You have a great heart!

Unfortunately, the only legal way we can "force" transients to get help is to arrest them, keep them in the drunk tank for a few hours until they sober up enough to be able to protect themselves on the street, and then give them a court date where the judge will recommend a free detox center or rehab, and release them again.  Half the time the transients never show up for court.  There was one guy who had been arrested, like hundreds of times (about once every three weeks for years) for PC 647(F) which was public intoxication.  He had so many bench warrants going it was crazy.  He hadn't seen a doctor or dentist in years, and the only time he ever got looked at by anyone with medical expertise was when he was arrested and he was booked at the jail and the jail nurse saw him.  Sadly, people are free in this country to slowly kill themselves, and there are very few avenues we the public have to help them.

If you really want to help, one nice local organization is "Food Not Bombs."  The local chapter was started by an old friend of mine.  Once a week these teenagers would cook these meals and have a free potluck downtown for the transients.  Home-cooked meals and conversation may seem small, but it was a big success, probably because the teenagers didn't try to preach.

Who knows what kind of trauma brought them to this place.

Nine times out of ten, it's because they like the effect that drugs and alcohol produce. I've known more than one person who was offered a job and a place to live if they would give up alcohol and drugs. They refused.

Cat

Is Food Not Bombs still in operation?   I thought it dispanded.  Remember that horrible soup you guys made for those poor street people.  (back when you didn't know how to cook)

JBS

They're addicted.  People with jobs, houses, families and goodies don't quit either.    And they have a LOT more to lose.

Mom, that horrible soup was YOUR recipe.  It was cheap to make (great for teenagers without much money) and difficult to ruin (great for teenagers who don't know how to cook.)

Recipe:

1 large pot

1/2 package of macaroni (any kind)

1 large can of tomato soup or 1 small can of tomato paste.

Whatever else you feel like throwing in.

Boil macaroni in pot.  When done, add sauce/paste.  Add whatever else you want (I like parmesan and lemon pepper and salt.)  Voila!  Done.

No, I don't know if Food Not Bombs is still in operation.  If not, wanna start it up again?

You guys messed up macaroni soup?   Ha ha ha ha

RE Food not Bombs.  All I'd want to make are pies, cookies and candy.  The homeless would go into sugar shock.  Can you imagine giving them a big piece of pecan pie ala mode when they haven't had anything to eat all day?

Gosh I miss baking.

Audrey, there are functional alcoholics, and then there are Plain Old Drunks, which is what I was. The PODs have to decide what is most important to them. I went from being a homeless drunk to a student at Fresno State because of one thing: I stopped drinking.

You cannot give the alcoholic or addict pity; that is the worst thing to do. Once they have detoxed, you must give them cold reality or they'll never recover. If they don't want to live life on life's terms, then you might as well just hand them a gun and let them get it over with (except they'd sell it and use the money to get loaded). Good riddance to them.

Yeah, and I'd probably rely on my tried and true boring recipes:  meatloaf, shake & bake chicken, spaghetti, etc.  My friend who used to run it was a staunch vegetarian, so he only brought vegetarian stuff.  I'm not sure if that was a Food Not Bombs thing or just HIS thing.

It would be impossible for me to not feel sympathetic  for a human being who's cold, sick or hungry.  Even if it's their own doing.  

Where do we draw the line at who's worthy of our care and respect?   Do you think it's OK for a man to drink if he's neatly dressed in a suit and brings home a paycheck.  Or is it Ok for a woman to drink if dinner's on the table and she can function until the kids are in bed.

As long as we look at the homeless as unworthy or less than human the longer it will take to eradicate the problem.  And the longer it will take us to achieve our own humanity.

That's really harsh JBS. Good for you your life change. About living drunk ,I think your way off base by assuming everyone lives life according to your terms. Everyone is different, I'm sure you know that.

I don't know anyone who stands up and says I want to be a drunk or drug addict, or otherwise socially dysfunctional.

--virgil

Heck JBS~ I feel sorry for you working at Sears,let alone a homeless person...

I believe the city stopped those feed the homeless groups~ attractive nuisance,they want them on the east side from what I can gather.

The homeless are made up of "crazies",addicts,vet's and the plain unlucky.

 Speaking as a retired Paramedic, the homeless, or as we used to call them,  derelicts (DERO's for short) were quite contented in their condition as long as they have their favorite libation to alter their consciousness.  Alcohol, Pot, Cocaine, - WHATEVER, as long as it got them good and high they were happy.  Heck, I've even seen them eat Sterno! 

We would drag them kicking and screaming to detox and as soon as their time was up, they were back on the streets panhandling, getting high, stealing, getting high, urinating in public and getting high.   

Occasionally, one would wake up and decide not to live that lifestyle any more - but they were few and far between.

When pinned down as to WHY they choose that lifestyle, they offer up a myriad of excuses ranging from "My parents don't like me" to blaming it all on the government  -  Anything but accepting responsibility for their own actions.

One thing is certain:  Society can wish otherwise all they want but, they will remain DERO's until THEY decide they are sick of their circumstances and are willing to change.

 http://www.bakhc.com/ Oh yeah I forgot to mention families.

No one is born with the hope that they'll grow up to be homeless.   Until we understand WHAT makes them degrade to that point, we'll never understand them or be able to treat them.  It's so easy to say it's a "lifestyle" they choose.  How do you know? 

When you say it's a choice  it absolves you of all responsibility for another "sick" human being.    When you call them a derogatory term and lump them into a category ("dero's" )  you take away their humanity and then you don't have to treat them humanely.  

I don't ever want someone to take me to the hospital if all I am to them is a condition.    I'll drive myself first.

So much for Christian charity.   Phooey

Wow, that was really awesome, Mom.  You know, it's these kinds of issues that make me associate myself with the liberals over the conservatives.  Too bad the liberals aren't really chiming in here.

If the transients don't want to straighten up, fine.  I still say we should do our best to treat their medical issues (like they do in San Francisco where vans with medical staff drive around and check out the homeless to make sure they aren't too sick, etc.)  I also think that addressing the drug crisis would be a huge step in the right direction, but I never really hear our legislators mention it.

Thanks, Sage. If you spent a year at Teen Challenge, you'd think working at Sears was the next thing to heaven. At Sears, they generally try to use logic to solve problems; at T.C., it's prayer. Logic works demonstrably better.

audrey: Leave your address. I'll send the bums in our 'hood to your house and you can show us how to do it right.

Catpaw

Perhaps you missed my post above:

That said, I can understand people getting irritated at the problems they bring to a neighborhood.  Maybe donations to the Mission or the Homeless shelter would help.

Did I ever imply that they weren't a problem to the areas they inhabit, or to all of us for that matter?    If they're in your neighborhood you should be in the forefront of solving the problem, not  reworking the old prejudices.   Because that sure as hell hasn't been working.

I don't know anyone who stands up and says I want to be a drunk or drug addict

Neither do I, Virgil, but once it becomes obvious that alcohol and/or drugs have become the #1 priority in a person's life, they are faced with a very difficult decision: Whether or not they will admit they're not like everyone else. Many people drink in bars because it gives them a sense of camaraderie; they're part of that group. Giving up drinking means giving up being a part of those people who seem to have such a good time and trading them in for a group of people who have chosen to look their problem in the eye and deal with it, which isn't nearly as much fun, especially when you do your personal inventory and find out that a lot of negative things that happened to you in your life were your fault.

Virgil, I didn't say that recovery meant living life on my terms; it means living life on life's terms, which means that you are no longer a victim. Of anything. You have to put up with all of life's B.S., and do it completely sober. It isn't fun, but then no one ever said that life was supposed to be. People just assumed that's how it was.

Good job BPD!  I work across the street of 19th and L and fear for the kids in the dance studio.  The miscreants of life live in the hotels by the Cinema 19 and walk past the studio to get to Chester.  I have called the police twice in the past 3 weeks for 1) someone beating up a transient, and 2) a crazy transient yelling the F word and flipping an imaginary person off.  There are crazy transients all over downtown.  I even get pan handlers walking up to the drive through at the Jack in the Box and Sonic.  I do not go there anymore.  A transient came into 24th Street Cafe the other day asking for money.  Lets hope BPD transports the transients to Frisco and drop them off.

I'm going to turn this blog over to the people who convinced  themselves that homelessness is a lifestyle, a choice.  I'm going to do sometthing more worthwhile, like hem a skirt, shave my legs or take out the garbage.

Audrey, in 1994 a guy in a San Diego food line bragged to me that he'd "been living on the street for seven years." He was as proud of that as an Olympic athlete is of a gold medal. Another told me he had a choice: Stay away from drugs, and be able to sit in an easy chair with a remote in his hand, or "tweak" and be homeless. He chose the latter.

85% of the homeless are either alcoholics, addicts, or mentally ill. Only the mentally ill have a legitimate excuse.

JBS~ I meant no offense.I worked retail once,it can make you um,grouchy.

I do what I can for these folks~ usually small change. When I got my big" raise"(from $500 a month to $800) I gave my gardener a raise.In my walks to stores I see this gentleman,always gave him change.That first check I gave him $20(big deal),I never saw him again. He looked like the right age for a Vietnam Vet,but he never talked or had a sign....could have been anything really. But to me he was someone I could pay it forward to. There but the grace of God go I.

Catherine, I never knew that San Francisco implemented a program with medical staff to check on the transients. Maybe if that had been in place fifteen years ago I never would have moved back to Bakersfield!

After college, I lived on the corner of Haight & Central in a two bedroom apartment with three roommates because that was all I could afford. That lasted about eight months after I got so sick of stepping over 14 year-old heroin addicts passed out in the doorway to my building. Plus the fact that the parking was terrible and it would have cost as much as my rent to garage my car.

The final straw was getting out of a cab after a night out and seeing a pile a Christmas trees on fire steps from my building with no emergency services in sight. At the tender age of 23, I decided it was time to come home. 

I hear ya, Vanity.  San Francisco gives me the creeps. 

My sister and a friend and I went to San Francisco one time, and we were so freaked out.  Our hotel was right between Market and Mission, not far from the opera house.  Our first night there was the "burning man" thing, where people who take themselves too seriously wander the street with a burning effigy and moan a lot--right past our hotel.  We drove past them late at night and wondered "what the hell is going on?"  So later we walked to Burger King around the corner and several of the burning man people were there, either drunk or high, I don't know which.  One of them cut in front of us in line and began climbing on the counter and dancing around with the happy meal toys.  Yeah.  The rest of them had roller skates on and rolled around the restaurant like it was a skating rink.  So the next day, unbeknownst to us, was the bicycle thing (I forget what it was called) where every bicyclist in the city rides up Market and yells and screams--again, right past our hotel.  Good times.  So we decided to escape to Baker Beach.  Some man came up and said he had been stranded and it was miles back to his house and would we give him a ride?  He was pretty desperate, so we did.  Then he invited himself to hang out with us (NOT part of the deal) and said he just had to go up to his apartment and grab some stuff.  We watched as he scaled the building's walls and climbed into a third-story window.  Yeah.  So we drove off.  I don't vacation in San Francisco anymore. 

Catherine, it didn't creep me out, I just couldn't afford to live there without being surrounded by crime and drugs! My "rich" college friends had apartments in the Marina and we partied on Union Street, the Balboa Cafe, etc. If I came from an ambulance-chasing family from Marin I could live as a young girl should in San Francisco, my bako parents made me work for it. And for me, it wasn't worth it. 

What are you saying about the "Burning Man" festival in SF? That happens in the desert, don't you know?

Apparently, Burning Man "starts" in San Francisco and "ends" in the desert.  That's what they said, anyway.  I think they were just looking for a reason to walk around and wail as a group. 

Anything on par with the "Burning Man" effigy could only start in San Francisco.

When I spent a summer in San Fran, I stayed with friends in Bernal Heights on the south side of town. It's one of the residential areas, so rather low key compared to Market or Haight. There was a nice little row of shops a couple blocks away and the BART was just a 20 minute walk. The area did have a bit of a crime problem, but I never personally had an issue while visiting my friends. If you ever decide to brave such a vacation again, try staying at one of the outlying areas like that. Stay close to a BART station so you can take the BART in to town to do the touristy thing during the day and then sleep peacefully at night.

Sage

I usually give someone a buck if they ask for it.  Who knows MAYBE THEY DO NEED IT.  If they're a con, I'll let God worry about their lie.

:-) me too Audrey.

I usually read the comments left and laugh, and even though I don't post , I enjoy most of you. The comment from Roysan just turns my stomach. I worked for our local bus system for more than a year, 99 percent of that spent in their downtown kiosk at night. I have seen the best and worst, and your comment about BPD dropping the transients off in San Francisco makes me sick. How would you...any of you feel if your lifestyle, or class of living...or lack thereof...was suddenly deemed undesireable by the general population of Bakersfield and you were trucked off to God knows where? 

I look back at my time in the window as one of the best ever. Yep, I dealt with junkies shooting up in the bathrooms, prostitutes working behind the dumpsters, and I will not disagree that a large portion of the homeless population is there by choice due to some type of addiction. JBS quotes it as 85 percent. But what about the other 15?  What about Mary, who isn't addicted to anything but cigarettes, but who's mental condition is so bad she's sane for a few minutes a day? Do we truck her off? The kids who are homeless because they don't want to live in a house where mom is tweaking and dads crawling in bed with them...and Jamison's a big messed up joke...do we truck them off too?

I don't go to church, shame on me...but I do believe in God, and that we should be following his word, helping, not judging...and I can't pass up a homeless person or someone in trouble without thinking that they are in my path for a reason...a test, perhaps? I don't give money...if they say they are hungry, I buy them food...

But think about this the next time you shudder at the dirty person walking by...how do you know it's not God? How do you know you are not being tested, and by scorning another man, failing your test? 

Whoever said it up there is right...Christian charity...phooey.

JBS, just saw your past from last night...

It's freaking hard living with a dysfunctinal condition which is only cured by a supreme force of will. read William James on this - a lot of insights...

My argument is that some are stronger than others. We don't live in trees anymore; in other words, what's good for them is good for us/you. It behooves us as civil individuals to explore ways to decrease what causes blight.

--virgil