Calling homeless criminals | Letters to the editor, Oct. 16, 2018

Homeless need help, not jail cell

I am replying to Eduardo Martinez in his letter that suggested that homelessness could be punishable by jail time. According to a 2017 homelessness survey for Fresno there were about 1,500 homeless people in the city. The maximum occupancy for the Fresno County Jail is about 2,400 inmates. If these people were punished by jail time, the Fresno County Jail would become overfilled. Even if only small amount of Fresno’s homeless were to be incarcerated, they would take up space where more dangerous criminals could be held.

Martinez also suggested that the law passed for homelessness could allow judges to order forced rehabilitation. The Baker Act (5150 act in California) allows a judge to force rehabilitation only if a person is a danger to themselves or others. If they need to be proven dangerous, it will cause a larger workload on local judges and district attorneys and it will pull their attention away from cases of real importance. Instead of incriminating the homeless, the city of Fresno should expand their resources for the homeless to get back on their feet.

Borgeas has good economic policy

The problem is it costs decent, hard-working people too much to live here. A socialized society requires continually skyrocketing taxation. The Brown administration is leaving a brutal economic legacy that will create tension for all Californians, especially those living at the edge of society.

Better, we should keep some of the money we earn. Andreas Borgeas offers a smart, fair economic policy for our state that will allow us to do just that. This is one major reason I support Andreas Borgeas for state Senator.

As a former City Council member, and current county supervisor, Andreas has experience and expertise in issues that are important to our state, such as water, growth, local economies, agriculture, etc.

Homeless need help, not jail cell

I am replying to Eduardo Martinez in his letter that suggested that homelessness could be punishable by jail time. According to a 2017 homelessness survey for Fresno there were about 1,500 homeless people in the city. The maximum occupancy for the Fresno County Jail is about 2,400 inmates. If these people were punished by jail time, the Fresno County Jail would become overfilled. Even if only small amount of Fresno’s homeless were to be incarcerated, they would take up space where more dangerous criminals could be held.

Martinez also suggested that the law passed for homelessness could allow judges to order forced rehabilitation. The Baker Act (5150 act in California) allows a judge to force rehabilitation only if a person is a danger to themselves or others. If they need to be proven dangerous, it will cause a larger workload on local judges and district attorneys and it will pull their attention away from cases of real importance. Instead of incriminating the homeless, the city of Fresno should expand their resources for the homeless to get back on their feet.

TJ Cox and his principal residence

I’m old enough to remember when TJ Cox relished being labeled “the smartest guy in the room” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Now, Cox can’t even give us a straight answer on whether he knows the definition of a principal residence. If he can’t figure that out (or at least give us a convincing lie), how can we expect him to deal with solving our water problems?

It’s time to call Cox’s antics what they are: tax fraud. And the only tax scam he can credibly talk about is the one he has perpetrated in Maryland.

Call him East Coast Cox or TJ Tax Scam. But don’t count on calling him congressman.

Need to reach out to young voters

To every candidate trying to gain the support of young voters, the solution is simple, “make us a priority and we will make you one.”

A recent opinion in The Bee stated the reason for young voters lack of participation in voting is because we feel it won’t make a difference. The author believes we need more choices to vote for; that won’t fix the problem, it would only make it worse. Young people and voters alike understand what happens in the world of politics today will affect our future tomorrow. Speaking as a young voter, I believe our generation isn’t voting simply due to the fact we are never a highly targeted group by political candidates because of our low voter turnout rates. The author writes, “Millions of dollars have been spent on voter registration efforts. But young voters still aren’t showing up to the polls.” Why hasn’t this amount of effort been directed at providing us with useful information, like who to vote for?

How does a candidate expect us to vote for them if we don’t know what they support or would like to accomplish in office if we have absolutely no idea who they are?