Unreal: Seattle commission wants to give homeless space to get drunk, high

Seattle’s Community Police Commission — filled with reliably anti-cop, “progressive” activists — released a shocking recommendation last week: “safe consumption sites” in the city for homeless individuals to legally get drunk or high in public without fear of arrest.

Related: Seattle commission makes argument for public drinking sites

Though they admit that “[p]ublic consumption is often connected to other social and behavioral challenges, such as chemical dependence, mental illness and homelessness,” they argue that the homeless, “many of whom are African American and Native American, are disproportionately impacted by public consumption citations because they do not have anywhere else to go.”

This recommendation is shameful, dangerous and is more about pushing ideology so they can gloat about how “progressive” they are.

In essence, these activists see citing intoxicated or stoned homeless people as a crime against social justice. Nowhere is there legitimate concern over addressing the alcoholism and drug addiction that is likely a root cause of the person’s homelessness. Instead, they want to give them free public space to use because they see the homeless as props to push an ideology. You and I see them as human beings in desperate need of help, not as someone to enable down a path to worsening health and poverty.

Related: Watch Jason Rantz talk heroin on NBC Nightly News

The Commission report complains that those experiencing homelessness “often do not have access to private space” to drink alcohol.

Yeah? Too bad. A private space to indulge in a beer — or 12 — isn’t a right. With a large population of homeless people living with alcoholism, my concern isn’t giving them a space to get drunk; my concern is with getting them treatment for their alcoholism so they can get their lives back on track.

The Commission report further complains that “… drug use inside shelters and sanctioned encampments is against the rules in all facilities and formalized encampments of which we are aware.”

Oh the horror: you can’t go to shelters to get high and not only deepen your addiction but also introduce others to the dangerous drugs that are keeping you homeless. Rather than push for more treatment funding, they’d rather give an addict a space to shoot up. Hey, why not throw in a back rub and some mood lighting while we’re at it?

And, bizarrely, you hear some of these activists endorse the notion that if you give them safe consumption sites you’re creating an environment where they are not “… forced into public spaces to engage in that activity.” Sounds like the same NIMBY argument they so often use against people who don’t want to live near tent cities. But, of course, it misses the whole point.

Related: Seattle wants to essentially legalize heroin

We have programs in place, right now, that help treat addiction. They work. Yet, you don’t hear about them from activists because these programs don’t help push their ideological agendas.

These activists would rather spend money on safe-injection sites for fear that they’ll offend someone by judging their unhealthy behavior.

I don’t have that fear. I’ll judge these people: Your addiction is killing you.

It’s keeping you on the streets, away from loved ones and will lead to an early death. I desperately want you to get help and I will not enable the behavior that keeps you on the streets until you find a final resting home, dead in a ditch. Allowing you down that path isn’t compassionate. It’s cruel and informed ideology, not love.

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