Why it Happens
Focusing on the purely logical to start off with, the procedure is simple. On the surface level, arresting homeless people is a (seemingly) effective way to remove them from the streets. It is definitely the fastest solution and by far the easiest. Besides, we already have a lot of prisons built (with plenty more on the way), and a police force just itching for “some real action”, so why not?
However, one would need to be a small child or have a child-like view of the world to think that this is a truly effective, much less sustainable, and even much less ethical, solution.
Why it Doesn't Work
Continuing with the purely logical, the annual expenditure of an individual prisoner in Portland, much less a group of them, easily out ways the annual cost of housing and feeding an individual who isn’t incarcerated. According to a briefing by the Oregon Department of Corrections, the daily cost of an adult in custody is, on average, $173.88. Annually, that would be exactly $63,466.20. Looking around a few sources like sofi.com and portlandrealestate.com, the average annual cost of living in Portland is around $47,779. With the understanding that the leftover $15,687.2 will go towards paying for the prison’s staff and other costs like maintenance, one should wonder why even waste over $15,000 on a process that only services to make the subject of it miserable. Even if that $15,687.20 must be spent, there surely must be a better use of it, one that actually may be of some help to the person subjected to it, and may genuinely help them to avoid this situation in the future, instead of simply punishing them. How is punishment supposed to help a homeless person? A thief could be tough not to steal (although, a kleptomaniac couldn’t be helped through prison time either). A homeless person cannot simply “learn” not to be homeless.
Why We Should Know Better
Now that we can, finally, stop ignoring what should be obvious, it is baffling that one could declare any argument in favor of arresting the homeless in any way ethical. Unfortunately, many “brave” soles have tried.
“If they had worked harder, they wouldn’t be homeless in the first place. Thus, it's their own fault.”
No one, no matter how close to the person, cannot know all the ins and outs of a person’s life. How do we know how hard that person has worked, and how many struggles and obstacles they’ve faced? Does everyone know, much less care about everything you’ve had to go through in life? You’ve likely come across at least somebody who was apathetic toward your hardships and suffering. Do you really want to be that kind of person? Don’t you want to be better than that, happier than that?
Let’s say, in a specific example, this was true. Let’s say that, Bob (for example), was unmotivated, uninvolved, and just plain didn’t feel like working at no stinking job! Now, you might think that Bob is lazy, and maybe even that Bob is wasting his life. Would you, at any point in your life, want to punish Bob? Would you feel justified in yelling at Bob, or even tackling him? Does it make sense, for no other reason than Bob being “lazy”, to lock him in your basement, demean him constantly, and feed him poorly prepared food? If not, then why does it make sense for anyone else to do it? If you wouldn’t want to keep Bob as a prisoner, then why do you feel like the police should? Do you feel this way with everyone you meet that you mildly dislike? The old expression “treat others as you’d like them to be treated”, as cliche as it is, goes both ways. If you're fine with not having Bob help you in exchange for you not helping him, then you should be fine with the police not hurting Bob in exchange for you not wanting to be the one to hurt him either.
What We Can Do About It
So, if none of us rational and ethical people of the world should want the police to be our main tool in terms of the homeless, what can be done to udo this egregious error? Aside from the obvious steps of finding the homeless person, or people, someplace to peacefully move to (a subject beyond the scope of this article), there are some personal measures that all of us, yes even you, can take.
One action (a reactionary one, I admit) is to report any abuse or harassment that you, or someone you know and trust, have witnessed. There are multiple ways to do so, one of the more convenient ones being an online police complaint which can be filed at the Portland Oregon Federal Website or the equivalents for your local city. If you or someone you know is undergoing such harassment, websites such as dontcallthepolice.com can provide sources of support for anyone undergoing this (and many other) situations where police involvement may make the situation worse.
Another, more grand, action one may take is to help the creation of legal measures and laws that help enforce the fair treatment of the homeless. Websites like Oregon Secretary of State go into more detail on how that may be accomplished. While this route is much more proactive, it is also one that requires a larger sense of cooperation amongst a large community, and (as much as we like to believe otherwise) still doesn't 100% prevent this problem, only making the offending cop(s) just a bit more careful how often, and to what extent, they harass and abuse.
Ultimately, the best solution to the problem is some amalgamation of both ideas: taking the individual initiative to report what we see and building the communal desire and expectation of preventing this heinous behavior in the first place. As difficult as this would be, it’s less difficult (hopefully) than watching any more officers get away with treating people like they're some kind of lower beast, especially at our expense.
Resources:
https://www.oregon.gov/doc/Documents/agency-quick-facts.pdf
https://www.sofi.com/cost-of-living-in-oregon/
https://www.portlandrealestate.com/blog/oregon-cost-of-living-guide/
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/cor/
https://dontcallthepolice.com/portland/
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