Bulldozers Brutually Move In! Trump Set to Dismantle Homeless Tents en masse
By Stephen Wilson, one of our reporters abroad
“I was trying to erect my tent on a field while lots of children kept running around all over the place. So I paused and just sat on a mat. One kid cycled up and over the edge of my mat but then retreated when he saw my dismay. He at least shot me an apologetic look which is more than can be said for previous kids who had kept striking me for amusement when I was trying to sleep. With all those children running around I gave up attempting to put up the tent here. It was evidently the wrong spot. So I went to the entrance of some university, put down a mat, lay down and tried to sleep. This was also in vain. Some teacher I recognized from earlier times approached me, bent down and was about to ask me something. I asked him something first 'What can I do for you?' Then I woke up from the dream. I was relieved to wake up with a roof over my head. But I recall earlier times when I was homeless. The striking impact of being homeless never leaves you. It lingers on. It keeps haunting you in your dreams.
“In your dreams you are either homeless or about to be made homeless,” remarked a person to StreetSense who preferred that we did not mention his name. But the dream expresses the deep anxiety , angst and insecurity of many homeless people who put up a tent. And given some reports you hear, no wonder. In recent days bulldozers arrived without warning to dismantle a homeless tent encampment in Atlanta. A homeless person named Cornelius Taylor was sleeping in his tent and was crushed to death by a bulldozer. He lived among other homeless along the old Wheat Sstreet within the vicinity of Ebenezer Baptist Church. This is a church where the famous preacher Martin Luther King had spoken. By the way, he was also an advocate for the homeless as well for civil rights. One of the campers stated. “I was here and nobody warned anybody who was doing the job,” said William Franklin.
Sylvia Broome, who does outreach in the neighborhood for the non-profit charity Remerge stated she had known Taylor for years. She stated he had a good heart and liked to draw. “He had dreams, ambitions, had a family, was a good friend of mine and he's gone.” It's ironic that a harmless man such as Cornelius Taylor was nicknamed 'Psycho' by local people. Didn't they mix things up? Shouldn't the guys who drove those bulldozers be referred to as the real 'psychopaths'? How can you have an accident where someone drives a bulldozer over a tent without warning when someone could very possibly be staying in it? The apology by the Atlanta mayor is not much consolation. Homeless advocates are angry, indignant, and are calling for a full inquiry.
Unfortunately, given the toxic rhetoric being stoked by a new government against the homeless such incidents are likely to shoot up. Last year we witnessed at least 100 cities make sweeping attempts to make homeless tents illegal following a Supreme Court decision. The Trump government is set to further escalate the bans on homeless camping, arrest those who violate bans, and create special cities of the homeless where they'll be kept like prisoners.
As many as an estimated 800,000 people in America are homeless while millions of people spend 50 or 60% of their income on housing. In contrast, the richest three people in America possess more wealth than the bottom half of Americans. Since the November election, the wealth of those people has risen by more than 233 billion dollars. Instead of using this money to aid the homeless those people are bankrolling extreme right wing movements in Europe or dreaming of sending tourists to Mars. Such people don't need to travel to other planets. They already live on another planet!
Trump has no empathy or understanding of the homeless, refugees or anyone who finds themselves in dire straits. On the contrary, he seems outraged by their conspicuous presence on the streets and in parks. He has stated,
“The homeless have no right to turn every park and sidewalk into a place for them to squat and do drugs. We'll ban urban camping and force people to have treatment. The violators of these bans will be arrested but they will be given the option to accept treatment and services. If they are willing to be rehabilitated.”
Trump and his minions view the homeless as criminals in need of 'reform'. Such an approach sees a solution to homelessness as arresting them and building more prisons and psychiatric hospitals. The idea that building more affordable and accessible housing, instituting rent controls and offering decent wages to people is openly scorned. As Trump supporters dismisses this approach and deride Housing First as a solution on the grounds it doesn't work because some homeless people who get new houses can't manage them.
Trump and those in his close circle are united. They all ignore all the research which suggests otherwise. For instance, Kurz complains, “It's housing, housing, housing. They don't want anything else.” Actually this is just nonsense. Most homeless people do hold jobs and they dp want something else rather than homes. Like anyone, they have dreams and aspirations. For example, the late Cornelius Taylor liked to draw and may have dreamt of becoming a professional artist.
We are already witnessing unprecedented grief and pain when around 900,000 people applying for asylum had their applications under the Aps scheme scrapped. They can no longer get appointments to petition the authorities for asylum. The Mexican border has been closed, and the Gulf of Mexico has been renamed the Gulf of America.
Not content with this callousness, the new government are picking on the most defenceless of people: children. A new law has been passed which denies children born on American soil the right to American citizenship blatantly violating the 14th Amendment of the American government.
The American government also threatens to arrest any politician, official or person offering sanctuary cities to refugees. It will be illegal for schools or churches to offer sanctuary to refugees. Even in the Middle-Ages churches were allowed to offers sanctuary to refugees.
Thankfully, we are already seeing resistance to those extreme measures. Lawyers are already contesting those measures and organizations such as the aptly called 'Homes Not Handcuffs' are publicly denouncing such crude methods in favour of well researched and constructive alternatives for helping the homeless, migrants and refugees.
Housing advocates must not succumb to despair but continue determined and resolute resistance. We should not be intimidated !