homeless bunker bike horde

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/11/1...bikes-found-at-fountain-valley-homeless-camp/

 

Already posted here

 

How do you half-load a gun? If even one bullet is in it, chambered or not, it's loaded right?
Is that like a revolver with the spindle loaded, but not returned to its engaged position?
Sounds like fake news to me.

 

It had a half bullet in the chamber.

 

When I ride the bike path on LA river here in west valley, I have seen some homeless guys that have at least 50 bikes.

 

I can’t blame the hobos. They have very little and are desperate. If I were in their shoes, I expect I, too, would do whatever it takes with the skills I have to get by. Having said that, having a lot doesn’t preclude desperation. And I would do whatever it takes to get by in the shoes that I’m in.

 

I dream of being homeless, traveling by van with my bike, eating Top Ramen and stinking to high hell for 3 months. Then I wake up and go to work.

 

In that movie, The Road (also book), the dude had a revolver with only two rounds. That went a long way.

 

Not as glamorous as it seems! I call it Fair season!
Still beats having a real job.

 

How about they put all that effort to maybe getting a job and not being a burden on society? It's just a thought. And honestly, I'm not saying that with any malice.
You HAVE done what it takes to get by in the shoes you have. You went to college, got a career, got married, bought a home, provide for your family. Started with little and added to it.

I barely have a high school diploma, worked mostly for myself, started a bunch of small businesses on pennies and built them into pretty good money makers and then sold them. Last one bombed with the recession, but guess what, I applied at Northrop Grumman, got an interview, got a job, applied for the next level up and got it too! I'm actually making okay money and trying to be responsible to old debts I could actually write off in a bankruptcy, but chose not to do that and still whittle away at that debt because I feel responsible.

The point is, I feel as a society we all need to help the sick and mentally ill. Make shift chop saws, 1,000 bikes in a bunker, a half loaded 357 magnum is not helpless.
Since when are we suppose to provide bathrooms, and free healthcare, and entitlements to people rummaging through out backyards and eyeing inside parked cars?

If people would actually be responsible for their own lives, combined with practical protocol's for help and self help programs, we would not be in this dilemma. Nope! We rather feel sorry for people and not help them help themselves.

There is a feral cat that lives under our house. Love it. Have not had a mouse problem in years now. Now... Cathy has named the cat and has started feeding it. I'm now waiting on the dependency and the mice to return.

 

If we're talking allocations of public funds.. I'll take a tax to help the drug addicted and/or mentally ill over more money for a bullet train to Sacramento any day.

 

Amen brotha! Give the damn cat a driver’s license and it can be the OH-fficial iMTBtrails shuttle driver.

 

How about we teach the homeless the job skills to build the bullet train?

 

It's too late! The cat meows at the front door expecting it's next meal and has applied for a dahm EBT card.

 

I'm thinking the next step is that the cat will be living indoors with you pretty soon, lol.

 

Share with me how this is not a micro example of how society handles social problems?

 

You might (or might not) be surprised to hear the cat could do as good a job as some of the noise and air quality engineers analyzing the adverse effects of the proposed train on disadvantaged populations. Environmental justice and the gentrification of the communities through which the train would pass without a stop costs a lot of money.

 

One thing that is interesting is that in one part of the story the OC Register says it was in a flood control channel two miles north of the homeless encampment. And then in another spot it says it was 'beneath' the homeless encampment. Which is it?

Is my house two miles away from the 5 Freeway? Or is it on top of the 5 Freeway? Apparently the OC Register can't tell the difference...

 

Bottom of the article:
"Editors note: A previous version of this story quoted the sheriff’s department as saying the bicycles were found near the Fountain Valley homeless encampment. OC Public Works later clarified that the bikes were found two miles northeast of the camp, just south of the river’s Fairview Street overpass in Santa Ana. This story has been updated to reflect that information."

^^Gotta watch out for that "near" word. Kinda changes the story.

 

Hire the cat next time!

 

A little off topic but.. I’m debating becoming a single income family because of tax rates, meaning if we earn less we may actually net more and have a less stressful living arrangement. I wonder how much money the folks in the encampments have put into the system?

When we lived on the peninsula I had many brushes with homeless, often trying to help themselves to my garage contents. Many were young men who were just part of the traveling hippyish type and couldn’t care less about other people’s property or well being. I have a hard time feeling bad for most of those encampment people, sorry if I offend but I lived “like a bum” for too long while earning my current state.

 

Particularly given the fact that there is no indication, anywhere, that the criminals involved in this cache of stolen property were homeless, or in fact had anything to do with the homeless encampment. Other more recent stories say as much.

And what's up with the fact that the tunnel is currently back in use? How about having the Police check the location every day? Just waiting until it gets filled back up with stolen property before you check back in?

 

So here's a problem... Can't kill 'em. Can't really house 'em. Can't institutionalize or imprison them. Shouldn't feed 'em. So if they starve, they get scraped up and taken to the ER who cannot just watch them die for lack of payment (something about a hippocratic oath, I think). So what's the solution beyond the "go get a job" rhetoric?

These are genuine questions. I really don't know the answer. If we feed, house, educate and otherwise pay for everyone, it's no wonder people flock here and reproduce like rabbits. "I can't afford one, so I'll have five!"


EDIT:
Incidentally, we may all be one egomaniacal boss or crazy litigant away from being unemployed and uninsured at any moment. Just sayin'.

 

The drug culture of the 60’s and 70’s to now, has done us in for sure! And enter in the new opioid epidemic, I believe it has definitely set us in motion for a pretty bleek future. I think Mikie posted up somewhere how many mentaly ill people are in the homeless population, I’m not sure it’s very accurate, are they interveiwing all these people?
Can a person do drugs for most of there life and not have some sort of mental illness. My wife and I are having this conversation now, she thinks brain damage from drugs and mental illness are two different things, I disagree.
I would be willing to bet that 100 per cent of homeless do drugs when they can get it. I just got back from Vegas, it’s frightening!
The only way is to either step over them, or pay, and I mean really pay to support them and there habits. Look at San Diego with the HEPATITIS outbreak, about a third world country having to wash down the streets! Man did we have it good not to long ago! BTW education doesn’t seem to work when it comes to drugs now does it?

 

There are three types of inhabitants along SART -

(1) The GENUINELY NEEDY, who have lost everything through no fault of their own, the economy/lost job etc etc, but who, with some proper help who are able to get back on their feet.
(2) Those who GENUINELY CAN'T help themselves. They have various mental etc issues, some of which can be helped with some medication, others require long term care.
(3) Then there are those who are quite happy to live in squalor, lay around in their own heroin induced diarrhea for days on end until their need for a fix stirs them into action where they either beg or commit some sort of crime to raise the $

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act prevents discussion of patients. But lets just say I have a "reliable source" who tells me number three isn't a one-off scenario...

 

I'm sure it's not...

 

Just curious how this would work since the tax rate never exceeds 100% of your income at any level? Do you have deductions that would be deductible since they would exceed the percentage of AGI with the lower income level or would you benefit from deductions that are phased out at the higher income levels? Does AMT have an impact here? I think you’re in finance so I am truly interested in your take. I’ve looked at the same scenario and while taking away one income would lower the % of income we’d pay in taxes, out net would always be lower.

 

You’re right with regard to taxes (I think) but
I think you’re forgetting to deduct the cost of childcare for a two income family. So even though with regard to income and taxes you’re netting less you also don’t have the childcare overhead when one parent stays at home = more money (potentially) in the bank.

 

Good point. We’re empty nesters so I haven’t had to consider child care costs for a looooong time. We just wrote our last college tuition check a few months ago as well and it feels like we both got raises.

 

200 years ago they’d be gathered up on a boat and sent to Australia. 400 years ago they’d be gathered up on a boat and sunk in the ocean. So generally life is getting better for everyone. I can image a few of them looking through my window into my house, with my fridge in the kitchen and three bikes and another fridge in the garage, and think to themselves, what the hell kind of sense does that make?

I mean, wouldn’t it be interesting to give up buying all the extra “stuff” we can’t eat or drink or use for shelter and warmth and hygiene so that the leftovers could be exchanged for the aforementioned necessities to donate to Joe Schmoe and San Juan and Li Fangelo, perhaps into perpetuity? Everyone give 5% of salary (or savings for you housewives and/or retirees) to habitat for humanity and fruits for vegetables and medications for addictions, LLC. Maybe create a removable forehead tattoo for the recipients of this operation and establish a conceptual framework of graduation toward independence with honor or humiliation for failure.

Under this scenario, any shenannegans would be met with a swift public exhibition and any viable organs would be donated to the needy.

Americans are gonna spend 100 billion this holiday season, hahaha!

Edit: except for the veterans out there. Those folks should each get a puppy as well, and a pat on the back, and maybe some kind words.