America's Newest Crime Spree

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"If you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this but that you first make thieves, and then punish them?" - Thomas More, Utopia

Obviously, I'm just another feeble-minded old man because I have difficulty understanding the newest crime spree to hit America. [If my feeble-mindedness were true, I would probably be elected in a landslide, but let's move on.] I guess that the problem I have with this new crime spree is that those who are actively committing these crimes are doing so simply because they have no other choice.

"Nature has some new plague to run in our streets. History some new wrinkle we are doomed to repeat."

Apparently, even the existing laws that are supposed to address (and theoretically, prevent) these crimes are simply ignored by these desperate criminals because, depending on whom you ask, "they simply have no respect for the laws that keep us all safe in an ordered society."

Here, in Texas, our motto is, "Don't Mess with Texas," but some lawmakers have decided to do exactly that and even take it a step further by messing with the homeless and the unsheltered. Yes, homelessness has been criminalized in many parts of Texas. Imagine a world where the state, in its infinite wisdom, has declared that NOT having a roof over your head is now a crime. Because, obviously, what Texas really needs is more people in jail than more affordable housing.

This is the equivalent of turning a rodeo into a prison yard - except that instead of bulls, we're dealing with a bunch of folks just trying to find a corner of the world where they can crash without getting a ticket.

According to the Texas Homeless Network, since 2011, there has been a national trend toward criminalizing actions associated with homelessness, including sitting or lying down in public, loitering, panhandling, and even sleeping in a car. The Texas Balance of State region, which encompasses 215 counties, or roughly 60 percent of Texas’ population, has also been facing local criminalization of homelessness.

What seems worse to me personally is that in 2021, Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill that bans homeless encampments on public property in Texas. The bill makes it illegal to set up shelter or store belongings for an extended period of time (but does not state the length of that 'extended period of time'). The offense is a class "C" misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500. Personally, I think that if someone who is homeless had $500 to pay such a ridiculous fine, they probably wouldn't be homeless, but maybe I'm just being naive.

"No where we can fly away, no where we can rest. The party is disrupted by an uninvited guest."

Let me just put this out there: criminalizing homelessness (or any other societal behavior) is probably not the most effective solution toward its prevention or toward addressing its immediate circumstances. Sure, just like almost every other issue facing a legislative process, homelessness is a complex issue with many constantly shifting parts. So, there is no single solution that will cover even many of its causes, but lawmakers still seem to want to believe that criminalizing anything that they dislike will make it simply go away. So, let me ask this; has criminalizing drug possession (not use, just having it) made it go away?

"Now's the time to make the time while hope is still in sight. Let us not go gently into the endless winter night."

In my opinion, criminalizing homelessness is a double whammy of absurdity. Not only does it infringe on personal freedoms, but it also seems to suggest that the best way to help "the least of these, my children" [Matt 25:40-45] is to throw them in the slammer. Why not just hand out eviction notices with a side of handcuffs? It’s like solving a parking problem by towing all the cars — sure, you’ve cleared the lot, but now everyone is just wandering around on foot.

How about instead, we start looking at and addressing some of the root causes of homelessness, such as affordable housing, support services, and even mental health services? These are all areas where the legislature and even private citizen groups (such as Jimmy's Helping Hands and Denton Basic Services) have full sway to address. Otherwise, it seems to me that we are being no better than Ebenezer Scrooge who, when asked to contribute money to a charitable cause at Christmas, asked, "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

So, let's embrace the Texas spirit of rugged individualism and find solutions that empower rather than penalize. After all, the only thing that should be criminal in Texas is not knowing how to make a proper brisket!