Santa Monica Pier visit

[ikeo1]

There’s an awful lot of desert for these people to do their drugs and build their forts in. Why they get to live at the beach for free while I work my ass off to pay property taxes much further inland is the big issue I have.

But as "Free" Americans, they are citizens right? People already complain here that their speech is censored let alone force people to live in the desert and fend for themselves. Who's going to enforce that?

I used to think the same thing, but you can't shoo Americans if they're not breaking the law. If they are on public property, its technically legal. That has nothing to do with democrat or republican, that's an American civil right to use public spaces.

I would agree if they get arrested for something, but someones got to pay to keep them at bay for society. The problem now is you add fentynyl to the mix and its even worse. I'm not sure if you've seen these people in person, but they look and act like zombies. The problem is they're only hurting themselves until they turn on people. The problem is the line is very very fine these days, its terrible.

 

[H. Bowman]

I don't mind paying for prisons.

 

[treelogger]

This will probably get deleted cuz muh politics but it is an asinine statement to say government had nothing to do with the current state of LA and the Bay

My politics is at the opposite end from yours, and yet I agree with your statement. At least for the cities and counties that I know well, the local government has made a conscious choice to go in all the way in supporting the homeless, which in turn (a) makes sure they remain long-term homeless, and (b) attracts more people to become homeless there.

 

[DuckDawg22]

But as "Free" Americans, they are citizens right? People already complain here that their speech is censored let alone force people to live in the desert and fend for themselves. Who's going to enforce that?

I used to think the same thing, but you can't shoo Americans if they're not breaking the law. If they are on public property, its technically legal. That has nothing to do with democrat or republican, that's an American civil right to use public spaces.

I would agree if they get arrested for something, but someones got to pay to keep them at bay for society. The problem now is you add fentynyl to the mix and its even worse. I'm not sure if you've seen these people in person, but they look and act like zombies. The problem is they're only hurting themselves until they turn on people. The problem is the line is very very fine these days, its terrible.

The definition of a "citizen" has been so grotesquely diluted over the past decade that I'm now of the belief that no, these people who do not pay taxes or contribute to society in ANY meaningful way while breaking laws without recourse that you or I would be jailed for are in fact, NOT, citizens. I would much rather my tax dollars be spent on vast prison complexes in the desert where these people can detox off of fentanyl and then get to work digging reservoirs in a modern day CCC. Upon completion of a CCC tour, you may regain your citizenship. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

 

[ToddS]

Yesterday I visited Santa Monica Pier with the family. Santa Monica Pier is run by Santa Monica Pier Corporation, which is a non-profit. I was debating whether to carry because hey, this is Santa Monica and it's not going to be CCW-friendly, plus I'm not 100% sure whether this property is covered by SB2. I decided to go ahead and do it. We parked in the garage nearest the pier and walked in. There were no "no guns" signs anywhere. The portion of the pier that is an "amusement park" was not clearly delineated, but it was obvious from the large sign at the entry to the roller coaster that only part of the pier is an amusement park, and most of it is private businesses. I did not set foot on the beach. I'm glad I brought my pistol because there were plenty of crazies, plus a guy dressed as a cop carrying a large baton and handcuffs, and it was pretty obvious he wasn't a real cop (I asked security and they said no, he wasn't security; and he was also walking in a group and smoking a cigarette). Maybe he stayed up all night and it was his Halloween costume with a fake baton, but I don't know-- the point is I felt better carrying than not due to all the crazies and criminals. Also, if there really were an incident when my wife and daughter were present and I didn't have my sidearm for no valid reason, I would feel a lot of guilt. I later checked the Pier web page and there is nothing at all about weapons, although they do aggressively prohibit smoking (lol). Wow, didn't expect this because in Santa Cruz, the Boardwalk security will confront you even if you have a pocketknife clip visible (actually happened to me). We're going to go back and hit the arcade again.

I thought it was weird when they asked me if that was a knife at the Santa Cruz boardwalk. I just replied no and he turned and left

 

[couragewolf]

It absolutely was a governmental choice to allow the invasion of homeless people to the beach cities. COVID was a glorious excuse for lazy and worthless government employees at all levels to work from home, not do their jobs and fast-track societal decay. Huntington Beach is trying to fight back and they get sued by the state at every turn. This will probably get deleted cuz muh politics but it is an asinine statement to say government had nothing to do with the current state of LA and the Bay

You say this like you don't live in a country where american citizens are allowed to go wherever the hell they please.

All these people you wish weren't there literally have the exact same rights as you up until they commit some form of crime.

 

[couragewolf]

The definition of a "citizen" has been so grotesquely diluted over the past decade that I'm now of the belief that no, these people who do not pay taxes or contribute to society in ANY meaningful way while breaking laws without recourse that you or I would be jailed for are in fact, NOT, citizens. I would much rather my tax dollars be spent on vast prison complexes in the desert where these people can detox off of fentanyl and then get to work digging reservoirs in a modern day CCC. Upon completion of a CCC tour, you may regain your citizenship. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

The constitution is toilet paper crowd back in action

 

[DuckDawg22]

You say this like you don't live in a country where american citizens are allowed to go wherever the hell they please.

All these people you wish weren't there literally have the exact same rights as you up until they commit some form of crime.

open air drug use is no longer a crime? Public intoxication? Littering? I could keep going.

 

[couragewolf]

open air drug use is no longer a crime? Public intoxication? Littering? I could keep going.

Almost all of those things are enforceable crimes so are the several billions we're giving police every year not enough or what

 

[DuckDawg22]

Almost all of those things are enforceable crimes so are the several billions we're giving police every year not enough or what

Right back to where we started, that this is a government problem that no one has the appetite to solve. Too many ways to launder taxpayer dollars to actually "fix" the homeless problem

 

[couragewolf]

Right back to where we started, that this is a government problem that no one has the appetite to solve. Too many ways to launder taxpayer dollars to actually "fix" the homeless problem

All I'm saying is I've been to a number of countries people warn us about how evil their governments are and they don't have any of these problems we do and they actually mostly just take care of people.

 

[Jimi Jah]

Those countries are mostly homogenous people, they are the same race and have lived there for thousands of years. There is a commonality that is missing in the USA.

The USA is now a collection of various peoples with nothing in common except economics, except for the new s o c i a l i s t s.

 

[NorCALSpeed]

All I'm saying is I've been to a number of countries people warn us about how evil their governments are and they don't have any of these problems we do and they actually mostly just take care of people.

Dictatorships are great for some until they suddenly aren't.

 

[couragewolf]

Dictatorships are great for some until they suddenly aren't.

I mean, basically we can say this about every form of government

 

[Experimentalist]

The fact Newsom was able to clear out SF for 48 hours when Xi visited shows it’s very much a choice.

I don't venture into SF often, but I found myself there on business during the week of the Asian Pacific Economic Conference (APEC).

I had to commute between North and South SF each morning, taking slightly different routes each time. I lack a baseline for comparison, but it appeared to me the homeless were simply displaced away from APEC to other areas.

On a tangential note I very nearly wound up striking a bicyclist with my car; the rider steadfastly ignored both traffic signals and the surrounding environment, riding off the sidewalk and into my lane. Fortunately I was tracking and very aggressively braked in time to avoid them. A large Chevy rental SUV coming to a hot grinding halt mere feet away had no effect on the rider, who never so much as blinked. They just stared ahead and continued on their way.

The take-home lesson? Don't do drugs kids. Or more broadly, if you want a particular outcome you need to take the actions necessary to effect that outcome. Drugs usually don't lead to productive outcomes.

 

[Deleted member 16735]

I lived in the Tenderloin in SF late 90s til 2003, in many ways it was worse, there were less homeless but it was more violent than it is today. It wasn't full of people paying 5k for a studio, I paid 400 bucks. The drugs were way different, it was all uppers then but now it's all opioids. Back then at least a lot of the addicts had apartments, a lot in my building. At one point my building was raided and my roommate was subpoenaed as a witness, it was a whole thing. But one day my uncle who grew up in SF came to visit, we are walking down Larkin and he's like wow, this place used to be so much worse in the 70s and 80s. It's easy to assume that things are worse now if you never lived in the city but it's really not. Urbanism has a whole set of issue that are very hard to navigate, they aren't the result of "progressive policy" because progressive policy would be to ensure that the homeless had comes and addicts get treatment and so on and so forth. The answer to these issues is much deeper than just "make crime illegal".

 

[couragewolf]

I lived in the Tenderloin in SF late 90s til 2003, in many ways it was worse, there were less homeless but it was more violent than it is today. It wasn't full of people paying 5k for a studio, I paid 400 bucks. The drugs were way different, it was all uppers then but now it's all opioids. Back then at least a lot of the addicts had apartments, a lot in my building. At one point my building was raided and my roommate was subpoenaed as a witness, it was a whole thing. But one day my uncle who grew up in SF came to visit, we are walking down Larkin and he's like wow, this place used to be so much worse in the 70s and 80s. It's easy to assume that things are worse now if you never lived in the city but it's really not. Urbanism has a whole set of issue that are very hard to navigate, they aren't the result of "progressive policy" because progressive policy would be to ensure that the homeless had comes and addicts get treatment and so on and so forth. The answer to these issues is much deeper than just "make crime illegal".

Everything is statistically far better than it was 30 years ago from all respects.

We are now seeing a slight decline in most major cities but nothing like what we had in the 70s-80s. Makes it hard to take these Karens proclaiming what warzones the cities are when they're nothing compared to how bad they used to be and you remember how bad they used to be.

I lived in Portland in the 90s when s were openly raiding non white businesses and trashing their places, throwing molotovs at bars that catered to non s, stabbing people in the streets. Just mayhem. People now see a little protest and they're crying about how terrifying the place is. It's shocking how our soft living standards have made so many people horrified of the slightest event.

I can remember a guy walking up to a group of people and just breaking a bottle and sticking it right in the dudes adams apple that was sitting down. You would never see something like that now.

 

[NorCALSpeed]

Everything is statistically far better than it was 30 years ago from all respects.

We are now seeing a slight decline in most major cities but nothing like what we had in the 70s-80s. Makes it hard to take these Karens proclaiming what warzones the cities are when they're nothing compared to how bad they used to be and you remember how bad they used to be.

I lived in Portland in the 90s when s were openly raiding non white businesses and trashing their places, throwing molotovs at bars that catered to non s, stabbing people in the streets. Just mayhem. People now see a little protest and they're crying about how terrifying the place is. It's shocking how our soft living standards have made so many people horrified of the slightest event.

I can remember a guy walking up to a group of people and just breaking a bottle and sticking it right in the dudes adams apple that was sitting down. You would never see something like that now.

This. One of the sadly effective tricks the "news" has played in the last few years is selling its viewers the idea that crime is up and rampant. It's a very simple yet effective trick and cementing your base so you can present yourself as the great savior.

 

[captain america]

Yesterday I visited Santa Monica Pier with the family. Santa Monica Pier is run by Santa Monica Pier Corporation, which is a non-profit. I was debating whether to carry because hey, this is Santa Monica and it's not going to be CCW-friendly, plus I'm not 100% sure whether this property is covered by SB2. I decided to go ahead and do it. We parked in the garage nearest the pier and walked in. There were no "no guns" signs anywhere. The portion of the pier that is an "amusement park" was not clearly delineated, but it was obvious from the large sign at the entry to the roller coaster that only part of the pier is an amusement park, and most of it is private businesses. I did not set foot on the beach. I'm glad I brought my pistol because there were plenty of crazies, plus a guy dressed as a cop carrying a large baton and handcuffs, and it was pretty obvious he wasn't a real cop (I asked security and they said no, he wasn't security; and he was also walking in a group and smoking a cigarette). Maybe he stayed up all night and it was his Halloween costume with a fake baton, but I don't know-- the point is I felt better carrying than not due to all the crazies and criminals. Also, if there really were an incident when my wife and daughter were present and I didn't have my sidearm for no valid reason, I would feel a lot of guilt. I later checked the Pier web page and there is nothing at all about weapons, although they do aggressively prohibit smoking (lol). Wow, didn't expect this because in Santa Cruz, the Boardwalk security will confront you even if you have a pocketknife clip visible (actually happened to me). We're going to go back and hit the arcade again.

+1 about the boardwalk security. they seen my pocket knife and told me to go put it away,

 

[Jimi Jah]

Crime reporting is down. Many don't bother anymore due to lax enforcement and liberal DA's.