Progressive policy is all carrots on crime, drugs, homelessness — it’s failing utterly
The “Carrots only” policy wrecks lives, communities and cities. All undertaken in the name of compassion, the marquee virtue of contemporary progressives. It’s time to bring back sticks.
Human waste, an open-air drug market and homeless camps on the doorstep of Biden's Portland hotel: Fed up with the failed 'woke experiment' and murder rate, residents tell DailyMail.com why they are abandoning Democrats
Residents say they are sick of crime, drug use and homelessness in the center of Portland, Oregon
They could be about to do the unthinkable and elect a Republican as governor for the first time in 40 years
They blame 'woke policies' and years of Democratic leadership for allowing people to use hard drugs in public
The result is a city where drug casualties crash out on street corners and tented encampment are growing
Business owners say the problem is keeping tourists away and turning down town into a no-go area
Joe Biden could have seen it all for himself if he had walked just a few blocks from his Friday night hotel
When President Joe Biden flew into Oregon to try to shore up his party's nominee for governor he would not have had far to look to see the problem.
He spent Friday night at the luxury Duniway Hotel in downtown Portland, a property at risk of foreclosure as visitors stay away from the city center.
And if he had taken a morning stroll, he could have seen for himself the results of the 2020 decision to decriminalize hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
The casualties were everywhere. Two blocks from the hotel lobby a man was folded up on a street corner, his body draped around a rolled-up sleeping bag.
Shoppers pretended not to notice his unconscious figure as they headed towards a Nordstrom department store.
'You walk with blinders,' said Charlene, a 21-year-old student, who carried a Zara bag. 'Otherwise you wouldn't come here at all.'
Two blocks further on, a woman covered in a gray robe stood frozen at a drinking fountain, her clothing and drug-induced turning her into a living statue.
In a small city center park, morning dog walkers strolled past benches filled with droop-headed drug users.
One man flattened a piece of foil before putting a lighter to it, and inhaling the results through a pipe in plain view of a children's playground.
This is Portland, where hipsters line up for at Voodoo Donuts for their world famous confections next to an abandoned theater where rake-thin drug users sit on the sidewalk waiting for their next fix - or for their last one to wear off.
The hotels are near empty and restaurant owners say their customers don't feel safe.
A coffeeshop where an oat milk latte would sell for $5 is closed, its doorway filled with sleeping bodies and the scent or urine in the morning.
Portland set a record for murders last year. It reported 90 homicides - shattering the previous high of 66 - and could be about to surpass it this year.
Such is the level of anger that liberal Oregon could be about to do the unthinkable and elect its first Republican governor since 1982.
The Democratic candidate Linda Kotek has seen a 16-point win for Biden two years ago eaten away by independent candidate Betsy Johnson who has described how the City of Roses has become a 'city of roaches.'
Kotek helped introduce legislation that placed restrictions on what the state's cities could do to remove homeless people from the streets, at about the same time that hard drugs were decriminalized.
As a result Christine Drazan, the Republican candidate, has seized on anger and resentment at the way downtown has filled with homeless encampments and drug casualties.
'They just don't seem to get it,' she says in a 30-second ad released this week. 'It's time for a change, like declaring homelessness the emergency that it is.'
Progressive policy is all carrots on crime, drugs and homelessness — and it’s failing utterly
By New York Post Editorial Board / September 28, 2022
Oregon’s disastrous 18-month-old experiment in drug legalization is a lesson in why progressive social policy routinely fails: It’s all carrots, no sticks.
The state dropped punishments for possession of heroin, meth, cocaine, and other hard drugs to a fine. The result? Less than 1% of eligible users admitted to the state’s costly therapy program —while opioid overdoses have shot up by 56%.
It’s the same story in New York, where criminal justice “reforms” has more teens carrying and shooting guns — and more getting shot. Young and old, serial offenders walk free until they get caught drawing innocent blood.
Or look at San Francisco, where woke politicians offered nothing but services and treatment as the homeless, many with mental health or addiction issues, overwhelm the city (and ignore the offers). ‘Frisco’s last tally of homeless hit 7,800, the second-highest level since 2005.
Look at the southern border, where President Biden, national Dems, and big-name non-profits are beckoning illegal migrants in by the million with material aid and whiffs of de facto citizenship.
All policies vastly increase the amount of human suffering in the world — and all are undertaken in the name of compassion, the marquee virtue of contemporary progressives.
But making it easier for a heroin addict to shoot up is the opposite of compassion. So is removing real consequences when a kid starts heading down a criminal path. And letting homeless people suffer and die instead of forcing them to get off the street and get help. And waving illegal migrants in with zero plan for them to find jobs or housing and zero concern for the border towns overwhelmed by the influx.
That America’s most vulnerable groups are overrepresented among criminals, addicts, and the homeless, and so are disproportionately harmed by these terrible policies, doesn’t seem to ruffle lefty feathers in the slightest — proving yet again that progressive politicos and officials are all talks when it comes to actually help the disadvantaged.
“Carrots only” policy wrecks lives, communities and cities. It’s time to bring back sticks.
A homeless person on the streets of NYC.