Fresno’s homeless holding us ‘hostage’? Are they Navy Seals?

While we wait for our Fresno City Council to hold its second vote on the homeless law, I’d like to reflect on the numbers Councilmember Steve Brandau is throwing around. He states that 600 homeless people are holding 515,000 “hostage.” I’m aware these numbers are rounded.

Let’s go to the calculator, shall we? These numbers mean that, according to Brandau and company, 0.001 percent of Fresno controls the happiness and welfare of the other 99.999 percent.

That’s amazing. Incredible. Unbelievable.

Slightly more than 1/1000th of a percent of our population is doing this. Without guns. Without a military. Without training of any kind. Without support.

I’m not sure 600 Navy Seals could pull that off. Or 600 Spartans. Or 600 anyone.

And, yet, here our council tells us we are at the mercy of 600 homeless people whose only weapon is their appearance. And the only recourse we have is to allow our police to threaten them with incarceration or forced participation in a bureaucracy that hasn’t proven itself.

Perhaps it’s time to admit that the answer to chronic homelessness is not one of either/or, but one of how can we help. And, then actually commit to it.

This story was originally published August 22, 2017 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Fresno’s homeless holding us ‘hostage’? Are they Navy Seals?."