I'm not generally one for despair and surrender but I see no good resolution of this growing crisis. The drug addicts and illegal immigrants are not going to turn into productive citizens overnight and there is presently scant legal means to force them off city streets they defile and out of the stores they loot. Further, as Stuart illustrates above, there is absolutely no political will to tackle this problem. "That's unacceptable" is an absurdly cowardly response to the situation. Of course, any forceful response will be condemned as inhumane and stopped.
I only see two possible scenarios:
1. Massive flight from the cities by everyone who has the means to do so.
2. Open revolt and vigilante type attacks on the druggies and other street dwellers.
It will more likely be a combination of both as politicians refuse to act and the police either resign en masse or quit doing their jobs out of futility.
So then what? Just like all previous migration patterns, the unwashed mob moves first to the outer reaches of the city and then to the inner suburban communities. I doubt that the more affluent suburbs will see the effects anywhere near as much as the working class communities. However, I don't see the blue collar communities having much tolerance for ruination. Those communities have a much larger percentage of lower middle class and middle class homeowners, people who have put time and treasure into their property. These folks have seen the devastation in the cities and are not about to see their property values trashed by street-sleeping junkies. This inevitably ends violently.
I'm not generally one for despair and surrender but I see no good resolution of this growing crisis. The drug addicts and illegal immigrants are not going to turn into productive citizens overnight and there is presently scant legal means to force them off city streets they defile and out of the stores they loot. Further, as Stuart illustrates above, there is absolutely no political will to tackle this problem. "That's unacceptable" is an absurdly cowardly response to the situation. Of course, any forceful response will be condemned as inhumane and stopped.
I only see two possible scenarios:
1. Massive flight from the cities by everyone who has the means to do so.
2. Open revolt and vigilante type attacks on the druggies and other street dwellers.
It will more likely be a combination of both as politicians refuse to act and the police either resign en masse or quit doing their jobs out of futility.
So then what? Just like all previous migration patterns, the unwashed mob moves first to the outer reaches of the city and then to the inner suburban communities. I doubt that the more affluent suburbs will see the effects anywhere near as much as the working class communities. However, I don't see the blue collar communities having much tolerance for ruination. Those communities have a much larger percentage of lower middle class and middle class homeowners, people who have put time and treasure into their property. These folks have seen the devastation in the cities and are not about to see their property values trashed by street-sleeping junkies. This inevitably ends violently.