The Times says Police Chief William Bratton remains cagey about a new round of negotiations with the ACLU, but City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo apparently found a way to let the police address Skid Row's squalor while skirting the ACLU's objections to the civil rights violations it says are contained in the city's anti-vagrancy ordinance:
Bratton is quoted as saying things went forward because there were more than 100 open beds available in Skid Row shelters that the displaced street-campers could migrate to for the night, or a string of nights ...
One of the (many) things that I found myself agreeing with during last week's LAPD ride-along through Skid Row is the notion that addicted and mentally ill people can't find their own way to health, let alone housing, until they agree to participate in their own treatment and recovery.
If nudging them into the care of a shelter can help push that decision for even a few of them, then the LAPD sweep has definitely accomplished something meaningful.
What will be more meaningful in the long term is if the California Department of Mental Health starts spending some of those Prop. 63 millions on ongoing outreach, counseling and treatment programs on Skid Row, where it's desperately needed.
UPDATEEric at blogdowntown posts info on tonight's October Skid Row Neighborhood Walk.
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 11:19 AM
