I wrote about the Hepatitis outbreak in San Diego back in September.
The pro-crime lobby has been pushing to "decriminalize" a variety of offenses including public urination and defecation. Why should quality of life matter? Why should you have the right not to have the front of your house used as a toilet? Private property is passe. Broken windows policing is a school to prison pipeline that is nothing less than modern day slavery.
That attitude led to a major outbreak.
San Diego has begun sanitary street washing efforts after county officials demanded the city act on a plan to address the “fecally contaminated environment” downtown. The city and county have been wrestling with a way to address an ongoing hepatitis A outbreak that has been linked to at least 15 deaths and 400 hospitalizations.
Now that outbreak has spread to Los Angeles.
An outbreak of hepatitis A is spreading through Los Angeles County after leaping from a large homeless contingent in San Diego, threatening thousands of people and fueling criticism that local officials have not done enough to contain the deadly liver disease.
But you know whose fault it is? That's right. Taxpayers. For not providing toilets.
In a prescient warning, a June 2017 report by a collection of nonprofits called the LA Central Providers Collaborative sounded the alarm about crowding and living conditions on Skid Row, citing the city’s own predictions about the increased risk for hepatitis A and other diseases.
“One would think that Los Angeles, one of the greatest cities in the world, would exceed these minimal standards. However, this Audit finds that in Skid Row, Los Angeles fails to meet even the standards for a refugee camp,” the report said. “During overnight hours, there are only nine public toilets available for 1,777 unsheltered homeless people on Skid Row, and these toilets are largely inaccessible.”
Except if the outbreak is this bad from street defecation, providing outdoor toilets would only do so much. The trouble is we are dealing with a population of unstable people. And they shouldn't be allowed to live on the street to begin with. Giving them things doesn't solve the problem. Legalizing homelessness caused this problem. And it hasn't done the homeless any favors.