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While I'm sure the 9th Circuit's decisions aren't ideal, this feels like cope to me. It reminds me of the people who still, still, blame "Reagan shutting down the asylums" for the current homelessness epidemic.
Things were a lot worse a couple years ago. Our new mayor Bruce Harrell has done a decent job clearing out some of the worst encampments, proving that it's not actually impossible after all.
I don't know what it would be cope for. I agree completely that local politics can make things much worse or much better, but it is still the fact that the 9th Circuit has tied the hands of any polity that wants to do something about the problem.
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I am disinclined to blame Reagan, but deciding that crazy people should be free does seem like the primary root cause of people being accosted by belligerent vagrants.
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