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ALPERN AT LARGE - The 2024 Olympic Games are over. So’s the pandemic. We can stop twisting ourselves into pretzels and show “we care” as some sort of virtue-signaling pandemic stunt, now.
Ally, ally oxen free!
Time to separate the homeless and shoplifting criminals who want help, and need help, and deserve help, from those who need either a fast-tracking to the county border or to the nearest jail cell.
Mayor Bass, after all the tax funds we’ve barfed into the “cottage industry” that is the “homeless” biz, your call to ask wealthy residents to cough up more money to help “the less fortunate” was not wonderful...it was cringeworthy.
Mayor Bass, after all the local and state funds we’ve thrown at the homeless problem, we don’t need to tolerate the well-known abundance of out-of-state lovelies who are racing to the Golden State--not just for our sunny climate but for our overindulging climate of benefits to those with no ties to the community.
Clearly Governor Newsom and other pols want a political future and are finally doing the right thing by enforcing vagrancy laws meant to preserve the peace and public health issues alike.
It's a darn shame we don’t do the right thing like, say, following the law, but when we’re too nice to those who need to obey the law, it becomes doggone MEAN to those who are following the law.
Why should our shopping experience at the supermarket or pharmacy be a miserable Mad Max-like wonderland of everything being locked up?
The Supreme Court did the right thing by making it clear we could enforce the law if there was a place for the homeless to go...but cities do NOT need to embrace those without ties to the community, and do NOT have any mandate to restrict our sidewalks and public venues for some at the expense of the majority.
Public transit, you say? FORGET IT IF YOU DON”T MAKE IT SAFE, Madame Mayor.
So let’s grow up, shape up, and step up to a delightful 2028 Olympics that are a showcase for a new, reinvigorated Los Angeles that is both kind and lawabiding.
Because the homeless do not have more rights than the rest of us.
Because shoplifting and swarming stores is not civilized.
Because we all have the right to safely use public transportation and access our sidewalks and public venues.
Do the right thing, Mayor Bass—it’s OK to tell those refusing to get help that they need to leave, and to demand the City be safe.
Otherwise, maybe another mayor—as with another Attorney General to replace the failed and universally-despised Gascón—is needed to truly make the 2028 OIympics one which our city, state, nation, and world deserve.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
