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Even at the most compassionate, how the fuck is letting mentally ill people scream, shit, shoot up and otherwise behave in a feral manner in public spaces like this any benefit at all to them? The violent do need to be locked up (and that means put in appropriate but secure treatment and not just stick 'em in a cell and forget 'em) because they are actively dangerous, and the others are a threat to themselves and need something as basic as shelter, hygiene, and medical treatment where appropriate.
Treating them like urban foxes is not good enough.
Yeah, I can't fathom how somebody thinks that letting them loose on the street is the more compassionate alternative to an asylum. I used to do some volunteering with homeless outreach and it was awful the kind of situations these guys would end up in. Not only were they often simply incapable of meaningfully taking care of themselves, they of course had to deal with other violent mentally ill homeless, as well as the more lucid and crueler homeless who would simply steal off of them or beat them up.
I've mentioned it before but it does seem emblematic of a neoliberal society that many people find state violence as unconscionable but are plenty willing to "outsource" that to the streets, or to prison gangs, etc.
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