Lega Action Against Venice Clean-Up

The expanse of poverty in Venice Beach exploded into an expanding problem, and the city took needed action to correct the matter. The poverty of homeless does require greater attention than merely pushing people on the street into alleys or out of the area altogether. However, simply permitting homeless people to take up the sidewalk as home is not acceptable. The city serves everyone, not just those who do not have a home at the present time.

Following the clean-up, a number of homeless individuals complained that their belongings were removed, and now they are seeking compensatory damages. To expect the city to compensate individuals whose belongings were lost or discarded in the forced clean-up of the region will only impact the entire city negatively. A civil suit will benefit lawyers; it will not aid loiterers or looters who need a job, who need a change of mind and view of their current circumstances.

Furthermore, civil actions against the city on behalf of the homeless merely extend the culture of state dependence, which is a crime in itself for individuals who have less wealth and diminished access to health care because of a government that wants to control and dole out more. Poverty only worsens to the extent that the government provides handouts rather than teaching individuals to use the hands at the ends of their arms and their hearts and minds in tune with the truth of who they are and what they can be.

Any satisfied legal claims will not rid the poor of their infamy. The court system cannot distribute justice or redistribute wealth without warranting greater dangers to the impoverished individuals themselves and to the community at large.

On another note, there can be no notion more appalling than the insidious insight that "The street scene [of homeless] of Venice is part of what makes Venice Beach Venice and is part of what draws millions of people here." Individuals who have lost homes, lost hope, and lost a wholesome approach to overcoming their lot, do not deserve to be demeaned as a natural graffiti element for any city. They needed to be assisted, or they at least need to be assisted to segregating themselves in another area. Venice Beach is a warm and welcoming place, but long-lasting shanties and vagrants harm, rather than add charm, to the community as a whole.