Officials in Tennessee passed a new bill making it a felony to make a campsite on public land, affecting people experiencing homelessness. CNN's Nick Watt reports. #CNN #News
Pitching a tent on public land is now a felony in Tennessee
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Prisons must not be getting enough free labor!
Sounds about right! In the south companies with state contracts move there companies inside the prison for that cheap labor. Prisoners fought fires in California and can get jobs at fire departments if released.
@Anthony Abney and they will be released; many before their time due to overcrowded complexities. But they want us to assume that because a prison is private it isn’t overcrowded; when in actuality it’s just the opposite
Prisoners just lay around…this is sad to harass these people…
Yeah I forgot about the greed factor I guess everything isn’t racially or class motivated when the love for money is the Root of All Evil 1timothy 6:10
Southern states are criminalizing homelessness while having high rates of homelessness and poverty disproportionate to their size.
it seems that the population is becoming homeless
@Daniel In the Lion’s Den than leave to go to another state. If you can’t stand the heat stay out of the fire pit.
@Michael Finnigan 😂😂😂 you think sunshine ☀️ and rainbows 🌈 will be thing after your solution. With the amount of drugs smuggled through this country, the objective is to have customers consume awful substance, not stay off the streets clean. Get real kid.
California has the highest homelessness rate.
Mississippi has the lowest homeless population in the country because they do a housing first policy which every state should adopt.
@UC8tdg8jIOvNwbiMF20RXeOA You mean the state that let the levees go to heck lol. Wow.
@Ivan Rousseau Mississippi has the lowest per capita homelessness. The top ten per capita homelessness states are all blue.
@Kyle Grant you understand that is not a cause and effect?
@Th Ba Its per capita you Muppet.
This is shameful. Criminalizing poverty just makes it worse
@smkxodnwbwkdns You seem to have alot of excuses. No one in the usa has to be homeless. its a choice.
@JD We need to reopen the crazy bins. And throw these people there.
@Kyle Grant thats like saying no one in the usa has to do drugs or has to be a manic depressive, its a choice. its not excuses, its empathy and knowledge, something you aren’t familiar with?
what party made this law?
I just don’t understand these people these days I really don’t? It’s always people making all the rules who have all the money, food, clothes & a home but are not going around trying to help people who these laws are affecting. It’s so easy to say get a home or go to jail? Been there, done that and some of these shelters don’t treat people like human beings honestly.
@LakePlay I became homeless after my husband died from cancer, while I was going through cancer treatment, our home was foreclosed on bc it was the recession and I lost every penny due to the Wallstreet frauds. I worked, as did my husband, from our teen years until our 60’s! I helped MANY people in my life. I was homeless for 1 yr until community services helped me to get housing assistance. I am still living with the health problems as a result of cancer surgeries, chemo and grief and loss. Sometimes life choices are not the choices you wish you had. Please find it in your heart to know that not all homeless people are alcoholics, drug addicts, lazy or losers. We are sometimes ordinary good, hard working people that are trying to survive the most painful times of our life. Whatever “choices” you believe I could/should have made to change my life situation would have surely been made. Trust me there was nothing worse than being homeless!
@Rita Galvan I’m sorry to hear that. You’re in a very small minority. Most homeless are there because of drugs and alcohol. Some are mentally ill.
@LakePlay I understand what you are saying and a lack of mental health treatment does impact the homeless situation. Almost all people who suffer from substance abuse also have diagnosed mental illness. I think people would be shocked at how many people end up homeless over a SERIES of sad unfortunate life situations beyond their control. Back in 2007-2009 MANY working people lost their jobs, homes, health insurance etc due to the recession and the unscrupulous banking industry at that time. My husband was employed in the automotive industry which flatlined. We were BOTH diagnosed with different cancer 2 days apart from each other. I was shocked at how many people in our “affluent” neighborhood lost their jobs, homes, savings and never recovered above poverty level. Who wants someone in their 60’s when they can hire a kid just out of college for $30,000? Your whole life gets turned upside down and you’re just grateful to survive cancer and get a roof over your head in the ghetto. Because that is where housing programs put you because “nice” neighborhoods don’t want you, and all the houses in the ghetto are owned by slum lords that are wealthy off the backs of the poor. Thank you for your comment and allowing me to tell you my experience. I appreciate it.
Tennessee, showing everyone how to make things go from bad to worse, amazing.
@LakePlay I wouldn’t argue the semantics between a hand up or a hand out as long as those less fortunate are treated in a humane way. Criminalisation is not a solution.
@newport 11 bullshit! I live in Tennessee and we don’t have free housing for the homeless. You can get on a 3yr waiting list for subsidized housing, but it’s not free. I love my state but we are hardly the best. If we were our bridges and roads wouldn’t suck so badly.
@Rider 38 You have no idea about me. Out of sight out of mind isn’t solution, helping them find an intermediary accommodations that don’t dehumanize them further is a solution. Comments like yours makes you part of the peanut gallery.
@Michelle Kline have you heard of TN-ARR?
@Barry Lenihan People cannot be living on the streets like as if they are living in the wild. If people do not want housing and not follow the rules like the rest of us, then hey, put them in the wild with their tents. Why do they need to live amongst the tax payers and not follow the rule of law? How many homeless people do you have living with you now?
The law makers should take a pay cut and make cheaper housing for them than make them criminals for hard times!
Tasak 16
https://youtu.be/CWfd8OjWkwg
Agreed
If only they actually had a heart. They would my friend 👍
Nothing says being the best (self-proclaimed) country in the world than treating your homeless in such a shameful and dehumanizing way.
@Critical Think-Tank LOL No such thing as an illegal citizen. – Critical Think-Tank? I don’t think so.
@Racharina B. These people need help. They are human beings. And a lot of them are mentally unstable which is a sickness. They deserve better.
@Barry Lenihan I totally agree with your comment.
@Nancy Lee
Can’t fix crazy.
@JD what about it? Product of our failed economic system
I’m in Nashville, and there’s always a homeless person outside the door. In the Winter, they try to sleep under carports with heat, They get chased out by the police.Now this. Some of them are decent human beings,and police know this.🖤
@TRUMP JROkay, You go first.Trump worshiper.
@natosha marzucco What a wonderful person you are. God gave you compassion and a good heart. If more people did what you do, the problem might definitely get a whole lot better.
Why don’t they get them into housing? It’s the crucial first step to get someone off the streets and into rehab if that’s needed.
When that woman said “we’ve tried everything”, she’s missing the most crucial step
“Pro life”.
These monsters HATE you the moment you clear the birth canal.
more like the moment they turn 18. once your 18 you mean nothing
But I’m guessing it’s still legal for financial firms and hedge funds to buy up everything from apartment buildings to trailer parks and then let those units sit vacant so they can profit off artificial scarcity?
@GrainOfSand you seem to be missing the main point: public vs private land…
@GrainOfSand “Open out lawn yo?” I take it your education has proven insufficient.
Billionaires are writing these bills?
If there’s anything that should be a felony it should be that.
Imagine getting a felony for being homeless. We truly live in a cursed country.
Well now at least people will think twice before becoming homeless!
Remember that the Bible was kicked out of school
See that (R) By his name?
@Deborah Freedman I’m really starting to hate how you fascists misuse the term “taxpayers”
Anyone besides me think this country’s been stepping backwards on everything we do criminalizing homelessness is a felony ?
People don’t like seeing their house and land value turn to crap you fool!!!!!
@squidatsea you should have bought in a nicer neighborhood squidpee 🤣🤣🤣
Fifty years ago I lived in TN and made what was then minimum wage. I could get public subsidized housing, thank heaven, or I’d be where these people are now. I kept up schooling wherever I could, got better jobs and moved to Maryland for even better. I am now in my 70s and am living in my own home. Public housing 50 years ago made it possible.
You’re a different breed. You worked hard and pulled yourself up and out of those circumstances. I don’t think that most homeless people have that work ethic. Having worked in the San Francisco Bay Area has given me a fair amount of data that I have seen with my own eyes, to inform that belief.
Instead of aiding the homeless, these states are simply going to incarcerate them. This is cruelty at its best
at least they will have a roof over their head.
if you are that concerned why don’t you take 5 or 6 of them under your roof
perhaps Tennessee does not want to go down the same path as CA – can you blame them
@Bill Barr Yes! The state should be responsible and offer a good solution to these people.
@Bill Barr Tennessee should be more perceptive than CA: treat the illness, not the symptom.
@Tele Bubbahow are the state responsible for them?
For each person charged with putting a piece of cloth over their head to protect themselves from the elements, the government should be charged 5 times as much for not providing a more permanent structure over these people’s heads. The money to pay the fines need to come directly out of the politicians’ pockets and then that money needs to go into a building fund for those permanent structures to house those people. The uncaring sadistic F-ers.
A quick google search shows that trespassing on private property in Tennessee is only a Class C misdemeanor, which carries a punishment of no more than 30 days in jail and a 50$ fine. Much less than the felony conviction of 6 years in prison for camping on public property.
So my suggestion, just find out where one of these politicians live and camp on their lawn.
On one hand this seems completely heartless to those who are genuinely down on their luck.
But on the other hand, I don’t want to see public parks become shanty towns that have hypodermic needles scattered on the ground.
@The Wraith What you want is irrelevant. We are going through an industrial revolution. There will be 2x as many homeless by 2025.
@William Springer Your exaggerated prediction is irrelevent, not to mention, laughable.
Then you’re trespassing on private property which is also a crime
Housing costs have skyrocketed. The stress that makes one gain weight and have “bad hair” for a person unable to buy the basics and afford to hold on to a home or apartment is stress that makes it hard to concentrate or maintain energy. It’s a snowball effect. The disparity in income, rising costs of housing, and the effects of high levels of stress beget a downward spiral. Warehousing people, labor and interent camps!!! Really, this is the best we can do. This country is making the poor poorer, the middle class less educated and more apathetic. This is so small and idiotic of this country. We are burning up. Water reservoirs are drying up. But heaven forfend we grow a pair collectively and lift people out of poverty, make reasonable tax laws that stop putting the burden of paying for this country on those least able to afford it. History is full of cautionary tales. The wealthy French put gold on their furniture-gold toilets?! They needed money so what did they do in the midst of a famine? They passed the burden onto the poor. So are we going to make the same mistake? “Let them eat cake?” No, apparently they’ve thought of that and we’re going to put all those people in jail so they are out of sight and mind and can’t rebel! It’s so gluttonous and vile, it’s disgusting! Maybe stop turning housing into a commodity to trade on the markets!
That’s showing some real love and compassion for your citizens. Are hungry kids getting a free lunch now a misdemeanor, too? That’s some cold shite. Tennessee owned by the private prison industry?
I’m from Oregon. We need something for the homeless, but they don’t need a felony conviction.