Protect the homeless in Norfolk

Where's the bus shelter? 

Get rid of the Ghent Neighborhood League. 

In July, early reports indicated that the homeless in Ghent were responsible for the theft of benches in Stockley Gardens and a bus shelter at the corner of Olney Avenue and Mowbrey Arch.

But the reports were false.

According to people familiar with the situation, the reports were perpetrated by members of the Ghent Neighborhood League, an advocate for fighting crime by trimming bushes and getting rid of benches.

The landscape crime fighting technique has been implemented by cities nationwide to cut back on groups of homeless individuals hanging out and doing nothing and scaring young mothers with babies.

A scholar at Harvard, who asked not to be identified, said the technique never works and in his 30-years of research has only served to weaken the constitutional rights of individuals.

A major city decided to end its program due to unsuccessful results. Instead, the city offered the homeless jobs, water and food.

City officials declined to be identified for this article.

In Ghent, efforts to rid the rarefied and tony neighborhood of homeless hanging out in the shade during days of extreme heat failed. So the Ghent Neighborhood League decided the city must do something.

Prior to taking away the benches and trimming the bushes, a group of homeless were rousted by cops in a mid-afternoon raid. Several police cars converged on Stockley Gardens and rousted the homeless, who quietly left the scene.

Bring your own chairs now

None were issued tickets, according to people familiar with the situation.

A constitutional lawyer, who asked not to be identified, said the marginalization of the homeless is a growing trend among cities and neighborhoods.

“Society has finally decided that the individual, if homeless and penniless, is less equal than the property owner,” the lawyer said.

“If you have AIDs, you are marginalized,” he said. “If you have a bipolar disorder, you are marginalized. We are in the business of marginalizing our own citizens because we think they are felons and will commit a crime.”

Attempts to contact GNL president, Paige Rose, were unsuccessful.

“They are like cockroaches,” said a homeowner who asked not to be identified for fear the homeless would urinate on her bushes in retaliation for her comments. “They are everywhere and you can’t get rid of them.”

Homelessness has become a nationwide epidemic. Attempts to deal with it have failed.

Homelessness has been identified with crime, studies show. Other studies, sponsored by the Republican National Committee, show that the homeless are shiftless, lazy and incompetent.

The democrats, always keen to oppose anything Republican, issued their own study, showing the homeless need to be enabled. 

One local non-profit, which opposes gay marriage and is associated with a local religious conglomerate, said the homeless should be sent to China in decrepit ships that will be scrapped on arrival in Shanghai.

Published by Indie News Network LLC