Homelessness… Is it a crime?
By Demond A. Jackson
Los Angeles Police Department strikes again!!! On March 1, 2015, the LAPD shot and killed a homeless man on “Skid Row.” One of the officers was wearing a body camera so majority of the incident was caught on camera. From what’s being shown in the media, its was about six officers on the scene. The officers are claiming that they hit the homeless man with a Tazer guns and it didn’t subdue him. Next thing you know the officers are attacking the homeless man, and some how the homeless man ends up shot and killed. The shooting officers says the homeless man was attempting to take his firearm. Furthermore the homeless man is believed to be mentally ill. What’s got me thrown about this entire situation is… the outcome. As far as I’m concerned it doesn’t matter is the officers were right or wrong. The reason these officers engage this man was because of his circumstance.
Therefore, should it be a crime to be homeless? I mean.., if homelessness equates to criminality, then being poor might as well be next on the legislative list of conduct that should be deem criminal.
Come on people… isn’t it time that we as society, stop, take a close look at the legal system and how it’s governing is effecting the lives of innocent people who may not have any control over their current circumstance. With the economic situation in this country being so shaking, no ones prosperity is promised. During the financial crash of some the worlds biggest lending juggernauts (Fannie Mae and etc.) the banking industry found itself on the verge of bankruptcy. Wealthy American’s were running to their local banks in an attempt to withdraw their funds. The FDIC were claiming that no matter how much money these people may have had in their accounts, if the banking system crashes. They’ll only be able to recover crumbs of what their saving once were and the less fortunate most likely wouldn’t recover much of nothing. That being the case it should be unconstitutional for any nation or state to have laws that punish the unfortunate.
This homeless man wasn’t infringing on any one’s personal liberties. Therefore these officers should not have had jut cause to bother him i.e. giving them power to killing him. Let’s be real, life is already hard enough for the poverty stricken. It is no mystery that poverty increases the crime rate, suicide rates and drug abuse. Do we really need to punish those who are trying to make the best out of a bad situation without causing harm to another? It’s sad because this homeless individual surely doesn’t have the family support Michael Brown and some of the other victims of police brutality and lethal force. Who’s going to question how?, what? and why? did he lose his life. Yet and still these incident are worthy of attention, because lethal force should not be as ambiguous as it is… presently. Recently Attorney General Eric Holder publicly announced that his investigation of the Ferguson police department revealed overwhelming racial discrimination issues plaguing the department, but even so it wasn’t enough evidence to charge the officer with a hate crime. Officer who are not following proper rules and procedure no matter what the cause should be held accountable and this will only happen if we voice our grievances. At the end of the day people who’s are not willing to stand for something will be victims to anything.
I'm the son of an African American queen, born and raised in Los Angeles California, where I was groomed in its infectious gang culture. For the past decade and half, the federal Bureau of Prison has been a institution of self-education, self-evaluation and the reason I now possess knowledge of self. That being so, I now strive to expose the solution to the problems that our plaguing our communities, America's youth and this country as a whole. There's a saying: "There's nothing new up under the sun." Simply put, if there's one thing in this universe existence, that has seen all thing that mankind has done or not done, it is the sun. That means the moral dissension that taking place currently is nothing new. Historian have written about times where the moral fabric of a nation was so tattered where the only solution for change was war a destruction. This country was built and establish to be the nation it is today. By the disenfranchised, those who were being oppressed by the Queen and her fellow Aristocrats. Therefore if this country is to change once again for the better. It will begin and must begin with the actions and the voice of the disenfranchised i.e, America's minorities, poor and it's third class citizen the American Ex-felon. That being said I'm committed to "WRITING MY WRONGS..." and sewing seed of knowledge and truth that will blossom into peace, prosperity and positive change
Writing Contact:
DEMOND JACKSON #05934-088
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FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
PO BOX 3850
ADELANTO, CA 92301