Great investigation. Lurie and all "centrist" California Democrats are too terrified of their base to cooperate with ICE and save lives with deportations. Most of the Hondurans are from the Siria Valley, where they have built mansions with their fortunes adorned with flags SF sports teams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2og-VL4Kyc
Saddening and sickening—the people’s lives down the toilets. Get ICE in there and ban/block all who try to return or face severe imprisonment. This is a national issue. SF laws can’t supersede, illegal. Pathetic California government.
My son lives there. He was just badly beat up by two clients of the dealers looking for money for their next fix. His face was black and blue and he lost a bunch of teeth, so some expensive dentistry I coming. He didn’t bother to report it. They get out right away, and that will just piss them off more, he said. This is the unseen collateral damage of a libertine drug culture that happens every day but doesn’t make the papers.
It is seen and known about collateral damage and people like your son accept it because they like living in SF or they are forced to live there to have the kind of job they want to have. And you need to ask your son the questions which are asked all the time. Who did you vote for? What have you done to change the culture? Do you actually like this culture and want to preserve it?
He’s extremely empathetic and instinctively liberal, though I’m not sure if he votes regularly. Like many bleeding hearts, he doesn’t connect the outcomes he deplores to the politics he supports.
My 30 yr old relative is a landlord there in a nice area looking out toward Sausalito...stray homeless try to sleep in their garage and litter all over. She is NOT sympathetic. or liberal. She is working to get Republicans elected.
That's extremely sad. He must wake up to reality, learn to think logically, and understand cause and effect. Noticing behavior patterns is self-preservation!
Too bad CBS’s Scott Pelley didn’t do a segment on 60 mins about it. I heard he is such a great & through investigator that he’d get the streets cleaned up. Pelley would just blame Trump for it…
What they really need is to turn their lives around-/the addicts, the dealers, and the government. And turn to and obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11-14.
Yes but part of prayer is to repent of getting off Jesus’ “straight and narrow path “, and get society back onto it. Which means taking some hard medicine: arrest and jail and deport criminals, stop sanctuary politics, stop open air drug markets; enable police. At the same time give the homeless and addicts some spiritual hope and hope of a new life.
So, Trump and ICE are vilified but in the final analysis are proven right? I surely do not understand the American liberal democratic movement. I guess democrats, are willing to sacrifice their own safety, country, addicts and law abiding citizens at the alter of what - pretending that all illegals are good people who contribute to the fabric of America? There is something seriously deviant, not in the criminals, but in the Americans who hold such views that go against all reason.
Their mindset is tribal and religious in nature, not based on the hard facts of the real world. Don't you know the world is only 6,000 years old, some saint or prophet from 2000 years ago knew everything that anyone ever needs to know about life, etc.
Democrats don't understand cause and effect. They are incapable of recognizing that the conditions around them are the result of their irrational and destructive policies. They think the world just is how it is, and if they wave their magic wand it'll get better. They believe only good things can come from their fantasies. It's the same with taxation and wealth. They think wealth just exists, and it's unfairly distributed, so they want to redistribute it more evenly, without recognizing the downstream effects of economic decline through the departure of the wealth creators. Essentially, Democrats, like any zealots, are unqualified to run anything.
Next time you see an anti-ICE attack on the streets, check out the sanctimonious look of bitter hatred on the faces of the truly ugly progressive women who are shrieking, screaming and screeching their vile slogans as they hurl rocks, boards and anything else that can cause injury to the agents. Then shake your head at the commentators on local news who wonder how any anyone can be opposed opposed to such a righteous and benign cause as sanctuary status that many cities and some states have adopted. The former are the foot soldiers for sanctuary cities and states.
Remember: this is all a policy choice. Powerful people are seeing this and deciding it's acceptable... that other aims (bureaucratic expansion, political expediency, fashion & social status) are more important than citizen safety and law & order.
I recently dropped in briefly to SF to visit the main branch of San Francisco Public Library. I arrived early (on Fridays they open at noon) and so I walked around a bit beforehand. It has been perhaps 20 years since I'd been into the city and the vibe has changed, and not for the better. The feeling was depressed, as if a once beautiful city, with monuments of architecture and art had grown long in the tooth and had not been cared for in a very long time. And while the UN Plaza/Civic Center is not quite within the Tenderloin proper, it was sad to experience. The spirit of a place, the physical bones of it, requires tending by an inspired people, and this part of the great "Baghdad by the Bay" is in need of such respect and love. Maybe instead of a month of pride for genders, we join together and remember a pride for the past that carried us to this point in time.
Legalized crime on the streets of San Francisco, intentionally promoted by members of one party. Fraud, crime and corruption have become key features of that party and its status quo.
Aside from all the bigger--and valid--criticism of progressive policies that enable this (I lived there years ago, this has been building for a long time), the very basic issue of allowing people to wear masks and balaclavas in public is insane. It used to be a guy in a ski mask meant 'evil shit is about to go down' and it should mean that again. Mask wearing outside in public should be illegal, period.
A century ago there was a book of photos of the NYC tenements called “How The Other Half Lives”. They were meant to shock and did. These photos of the Tenderloin are even more shocking, or ought to be. Californians, how much longer are you going to tolerate this?
I can get on board with mandatory inpatient treatment 100%. And with close supervision thereafter. But when it comes to dealers, I'm afraid I'm more of the Duterte or Bukele school of thought.
Calling Singapore totalitarian is absurd. It's a parliamentary democracy. Yes, it has some illiberal tendencies, but even its harsh laws are broadly supported by Singapore's citizens. And those that aren't do get changed.
The suggestion in my post is that the laws related to NONDRUG criminal offenses be strictly applied to crimes committed by the unhoused, and then the offender population sorted to identify the nonviolent population whose crimes could reasonably be viewed as a direct result of their drug abuse and addiction. With those who re-offend upon release subjected to another long stretch in "rehab jail".
"Close supervision thereafter" for everyone release from inpatient treatment for addiction dysfunction is a totalitarian fantasy We can't even keep track of our parolees.
(It's obvious that "routine impunity for crimes committed by homeless people" is not a policy solution. It's the evasion of a policy solution.)
I challenge you to make the case that Duterte's death-squad approach worked in the Philippines. Simply in practical terms, did the death squads work to suppress the illicit drugs trade?
I know the answer already. But apparently you do not.
As for El Salvador, there's considerable irony in the fact that the problems there originated in the US, due to a remittance economy derived from the illicit drugs retail trade in the US.
Any airline passenger who stops over in Singapore is liable to be subjected to a nonconsensual search of their body fluids for evidence of ingestion of a prohibited substance.
How is that not totalitarian?
"Illegal drugs
If you are suspected of consuming or possessing illegal drugs, police may:
Conduct unannounced drug tests and property searches, including upon entry into Singapore.
Require you to provide a urine or blood sample on short notice.
A positive finding or an unwillingness to participate can lead to denial of entry into Singapore, detention, or confiscation of your passport while under investigation.
Have been in Singapore a dozen times in 30 years. The last time, last year. The above is overly dramatic . Do no bring in drugs or attempt to procure them, and lock your luggage. No problem.
The policy exists because one of the busiest ports in the world would be perpetually knee deep in dope without it. Millions of containers coming in and out each year. It is only possible to inspect a small portion.
The byproduct is a nation that lacks crime, for all practical purpose. Women are safe walking anywhere at night. No dead college students from ingesting one wrong pill, trying to stay up and study or fall asleep after an all nighter.
Nor is the policy a surprise. Airline landing documents have had "Death to Drug Traffickers" stamped on them for decades. The island is awash in signs reminding citizens and tourists alike.
At the height of Biden's Open Border, 100K Americans perished from drugs each year. That amount has been reduced to roughly 70K, annually. In the 2020-2030 decade, more than 800K Americans will likely perish due to drugs. By comparison, WWII took 420K American lives.
A policy that permits the law enforcement authorities of a nation to do random drug testing of individuals on its soil for their "internal possession" of of forbidden substances--for trivial amounts of substances that they may not even be carrying in personal use quantities, but merely in their bloodstreams--has nothing to do with deterring smuggling, or dealing contraband.
That's a totalitarian policy. Nothing to emulate, although it sounds to me as if you'd sign off on it as a national policy in the US without the slightest criticism.
I'll put my command of the history of American substance use up against your scaremongering rhetorical high dudgeon any day. I suspect that you've pretty much exhausted everything you know about the subject with that half-handful of data points you've just waved around, indicating a cursory level of knowledge that vanishes entirely prior to to the year 2020.
A partial sample of what I know about the subject can be found in posts on my Substack page. Although I'm skeptical that you'll bother clicking on the link to my page, because I doubt that the social history of American drug use commands as much of your attention as gratuitous partisan rabbit-punching.
I lean more to Bukele than Duterte, but different conditions may require different approaches. The two of them are a continuum.
Singapore has standards. If you don't like them, don't travel there. It's not like they're random or capricious. The city is clear about its rules and consequences.
Singapore also has standards is expects its citizens to uphold even when out of the country. America does too: someone who has sex with an underage prostitute in Thailand will discover that. (see the PROTECT Act.) There is no difference other than you would likely support extraterritorial jurisdiction for sex crimes but not for drug crimes. But Singapore isn't obligated to adhere to your arbitrary distinction.
I have never travelled there and would likely hesitate to do so, in part because Singapore's laws are rather draconian. But the citizens have chosen those laws. And thus they are not "totalitarian".
Brian, I've already outlined my policy suggestions for how to confront dysfunctional drug abuse and addiction in at least one Substack page post that I've already linked elsewhere in the thread.
But no one seems to want to offer any commentary on my page posts on this topic. Perhaps because addressing my ideas would require the admission that there are other ways to address the problem. A set of detailed suggestions that doesn't resemble either the dithering denial and non-response of bliss ninny Democrats or the Bukele-style martial law mass detention sweeps that you apparently endorse, which require suspending the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution.
Come on, readers, visit my Substack page to read and comment on my posts, instead of being herded into thinking that the policy must consist of one or the other of those two failed extremes!
(But most of you are on Phones, aren't you? And you have no time for an actual Substack Page Post. I'd venture that some of you don't even know how to access a Substack author's Page archive.)
As it is, I have to rewrite bits and pieces of my ideas in every Notes discussion on this topic. I can't buy a serious discussion about these ideas on my own page. It's rare that I even manage to elicit a reply to them in Notes. When I do hear from a critic, most often they've misconstrued my observations to fit a pre-existing frame.
When it comes to social media discussions of serious political topics, for all the rote performances of tail-chasing acrimony or sneering agreement-fests, it's just surface veneer.
Underneath, there's a layer of chickenshit silence ten miles deep.
The reasons for my “distinction”- defining Singapore as a totalitarian state- are objective, not subjective. The fact that they’re clear about their statutes does not change the grounds for my reasoning. I quoted the US State Department’s summary of the powers the government of Singapore has granted to their police.
Among other abrogations of civil liberties, the citizens of Singapore have implicitly assented to provisions that permit the police to demand tests for the criminal offense of “internal possession” of legally forbidden substances, simply on the order of duly ordained police authority. That unconditional surrender of individual bodily autonomy to State control isn’t merely “draconian”, it’s essentially totalitarian. The fact that the citizenry may arguably have voluntarily agreed to it does nothing to change the facts and their clear implication.
I do realize that the government there is under no obligation to change their ways. That doesn’t mean that I’m obligated to launder their reputation with irrelevant observations.
Meanwhile, CA progressives are tripping over themselves hating ICE, protesting, and voting on one issue only: who can stand up to Trump (meaning obstructing deportations and dishing out federal money in handouts to illegals by all means necessary). I wonder what degree of self-destruction would it take for these people to ever wake up?
The Hondos running wild is an obvious effect of sanctuary city and state policy. Duh- you obstruct the Federal law involvement, and the foreign criminals abuse the loophole. All these psychopathic empathetic liberals think that they just are helping the innocent maid or farm worker, but refuse to see that they are facilitating vicious criminals. When the destruction becomes obvious, they refuse to admit that their “religion “ of fanatical liberalism, driven by misplaced empathy and Trump hatred, is just plain wrong.
Great investigation. Lurie and all "centrist" California Democrats are too terrified of their base to cooperate with ICE and save lives with deportations. Most of the Hondurans are from the Siria Valley, where they have built mansions with their fortunes adorned with flags SF sports teams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2og-VL4Kyc
Too terrified of their base, but apparently not that terrified of seeing their city turn into one big s**t hole.
The only way the city will get rid of these criminals is if the toxic empathy party is voted out.
Not likely in Navy Blue San Francisco.
Saddening and sickening—the people’s lives down the toilets. Get ICE in there and ban/block all who try to return or face severe imprisonment. This is a national issue. SF laws can’t supersede, illegal. Pathetic California government.
My son lives there. He was just badly beat up by two clients of the dealers looking for money for their next fix. His face was black and blue and he lost a bunch of teeth, so some expensive dentistry I coming. He didn’t bother to report it. They get out right away, and that will just piss them off more, he said. This is the unseen collateral damage of a libertine drug culture that happens every day but doesn’t make the papers.
It is seen and known about collateral damage and people like your son accept it because they like living in SF or they are forced to live there to have the kind of job they want to have. And you need to ask your son the questions which are asked all the time. Who did you vote for? What have you done to change the culture? Do you actually like this culture and want to preserve it?
He’s extremely empathetic and instinctively liberal, though I’m not sure if he votes regularly. Like many bleeding hearts, he doesn’t connect the outcomes he deplores to the politics he supports.
That's pretty much what we see everywhere.
My 30 yr old relative is a landlord there in a nice area looking out toward Sausalito...stray homeless try to sleep in their garage and litter all over. She is NOT sympathetic. or liberal. She is working to get Republicans elected.
That’s a tall order in SF
Your poor Son- I hope that he recovers and also realizes that his former attitude was too naive for the rough and harsh world that we live in!!
That's extremely sad. He must wake up to reality, learn to think logically, and understand cause and effect. Noticing behavior patterns is self-preservation!
Sadly, these people never do.
Sorry your son went through that.
Apprecciate that Brian.
Too bad CBS’s Scott Pelley didn’t do a segment on 60 mins about it. I heard he is such a great & through investigator that he’d get the streets cleaned up. Pelley would just blame Trump for it…
What they really need is to turn their lives around-/the addicts, the dealers, and the government. And turn to and obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11-14.
NOT gonna happen. Too much $ being made.
We need divine intervention literally. Prayer and the word of Jesus Christ is needed.
San Francisco needs Court Ordered substance abuse and mental illness treatment. We did this in Colorado and had no one living on the street
Yes but part of prayer is to repent of getting off Jesus’ “straight and narrow path “, and get society back onto it. Which means taking some hard medicine: arrest and jail and deport criminals, stop sanctuary politics, stop open air drug markets; enable police. At the same time give the homeless and addicts some spiritual hope and hope of a new life.
Correct. Repent and sin no more ... Jesus said those words I don't know how many times.
The drug dealers should be put to death.
The hand of the Law definitely needs to consider the unlawful deaths of many.
The current penalties are clearly no deterrent.
So, Trump and ICE are vilified but in the final analysis are proven right? I surely do not understand the American liberal democratic movement. I guess democrats, are willing to sacrifice their own safety, country, addicts and law abiding citizens at the alter of what - pretending that all illegals are good people who contribute to the fabric of America? There is something seriously deviant, not in the criminals, but in the Americans who hold such views that go against all reason.
Their mindset is tribal and religious in nature, not based on the hard facts of the real world. Don't you know the world is only 6,000 years old, some saint or prophet from 2000 years ago knew everything that anyone ever needs to know about life, etc.
Misplaced compassion
Democrats don't understand cause and effect. They are incapable of recognizing that the conditions around them are the result of their irrational and destructive policies. They think the world just is how it is, and if they wave their magic wand it'll get better. They believe only good things can come from their fantasies. It's the same with taxation and wealth. They think wealth just exists, and it's unfairly distributed, so they want to redistribute it more evenly, without recognizing the downstream effects of economic decline through the departure of the wealth creators. Essentially, Democrats, like any zealots, are unqualified to run anything.
That's exactly right; logical thinking is a thing of the past.
Please continue with such excellent reporting and investigation.
Next time you see an anti-ICE attack on the streets, check out the sanctimonious look of bitter hatred on the faces of the truly ugly progressive women who are shrieking, screaming and screeching their vile slogans as they hurl rocks, boards and anything else that can cause injury to the agents. Then shake your head at the commentators on local news who wonder how any anyone can be opposed opposed to such a righteous and benign cause as sanctuary status that many cities and some states have adopted. The former are the foot soldiers for sanctuary cities and states.
Remember: this is all a policy choice. Powerful people are seeing this and deciding it's acceptable... that other aims (bureaucratic expansion, political expediency, fashion & social status) are more important than citizen safety and law & order.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/bukeles-rebuke
I recently dropped in briefly to SF to visit the main branch of San Francisco Public Library. I arrived early (on Fridays they open at noon) and so I walked around a bit beforehand. It has been perhaps 20 years since I'd been into the city and the vibe has changed, and not for the better. The feeling was depressed, as if a once beautiful city, with monuments of architecture and art had grown long in the tooth and had not been cared for in a very long time. And while the UN Plaza/Civic Center is not quite within the Tenderloin proper, it was sad to experience. The spirit of a place, the physical bones of it, requires tending by an inspired people, and this part of the great "Baghdad by the Bay" is in need of such respect and love. Maybe instead of a month of pride for genders, we join together and remember a pride for the past that carried us to this point in time.
Legalized crime on the streets of San Francisco, intentionally promoted by members of one party. Fraud, crime and corruption have become key features of that party and its status quo.
Aside from all the bigger--and valid--criticism of progressive policies that enable this (I lived there years ago, this has been building for a long time), the very basic issue of allowing people to wear masks and balaclavas in public is insane. It used to be a guy in a ski mask meant 'evil shit is about to go down' and it should mean that again. Mask wearing outside in public should be illegal, period.
A century ago there was a book of photos of the NYC tenements called “How The Other Half Lives”. They were meant to shock and did. These photos of the Tenderloin are even more shocking, or ought to be. Californians, how much longer are you going to tolerate this?
Karl Malden would be aghast.
I tried to post a pic of him and Douglas but it wouldn’t let me :(
This is a policy choice. You want to know how to fix this (even in a highly pluralistic society) look to Singapore: https://www.tembusulaw.com/insights/singapore-drug-laws/
This can be fixed. Maybe Singapore's methods are too rough for you, but realize you're choosing chaos and criminality over order and morality.
I support a sane approach to pervasive street criminality and dysfunctional drug addiction. I've written about it on my Substack page. https://adwjeditor.substack.com/p/i-support-forced-inpatient-recovery
But there's no need to go Full Totalitarian, like Singapore.
I can get on board with mandatory inpatient treatment 100%. And with close supervision thereafter. But when it comes to dealers, I'm afraid I'm more of the Duterte or Bukele school of thought.
Calling Singapore totalitarian is absurd. It's a parliamentary democracy. Yes, it has some illiberal tendencies, but even its harsh laws are broadly supported by Singapore's citizens. And those that aren't do get changed.
The suggestion in my post is that the laws related to NONDRUG criminal offenses be strictly applied to crimes committed by the unhoused, and then the offender population sorted to identify the nonviolent population whose crimes could reasonably be viewed as a direct result of their drug abuse and addiction. With those who re-offend upon release subjected to another long stretch in "rehab jail".
"Close supervision thereafter" for everyone release from inpatient treatment for addiction dysfunction is a totalitarian fantasy We can't even keep track of our parolees.
(It's obvious that "routine impunity for crimes committed by homeless people" is not a policy solution. It's the evasion of a policy solution.)
I challenge you to make the case that Duterte's death-squad approach worked in the Philippines. Simply in practical terms, did the death squads work to suppress the illicit drugs trade?
I know the answer already. But apparently you do not.
As for El Salvador, there's considerable irony in the fact that the problems there originated in the US, due to a remittance economy derived from the illicit drugs retail trade in the US.
Any airline passenger who stops over in Singapore is liable to be subjected to a nonconsensual search of their body fluids for evidence of ingestion of a prohibited substance.
How is that not totalitarian?
"Illegal drugs
If you are suspected of consuming or possessing illegal drugs, police may:
Conduct unannounced drug tests and property searches, including upon entry into Singapore.
Require you to provide a urine or blood sample on short notice.
A positive finding or an unwillingness to participate can lead to denial of entry into Singapore, detention, or confiscation of your passport while under investigation.
Singaporean authorities may arrest and convict any permanent residents of Singapore even if they have consumed illegal drugs outside of Singapore." https://travel.state.gov/en/international-travel/travel-advisories/singapore.html#local
Have been in Singapore a dozen times in 30 years. The last time, last year. The above is overly dramatic . Do no bring in drugs or attempt to procure them, and lock your luggage. No problem.
The policy exists because one of the busiest ports in the world would be perpetually knee deep in dope without it. Millions of containers coming in and out each year. It is only possible to inspect a small portion.
The byproduct is a nation that lacks crime, for all practical purpose. Women are safe walking anywhere at night. No dead college students from ingesting one wrong pill, trying to stay up and study or fall asleep after an all nighter.
Nor is the policy a surprise. Airline landing documents have had "Death to Drug Traffickers" stamped on them for decades. The island is awash in signs reminding citizens and tourists alike.
At the height of Biden's Open Border, 100K Americans perished from drugs each year. That amount has been reduced to roughly 70K, annually. In the 2020-2030 decade, more than 800K Americans will likely perish due to drugs. By comparison, WWII took 420K American lives.
A policy that permits the law enforcement authorities of a nation to do random drug testing of individuals on its soil for their "internal possession" of of forbidden substances--for trivial amounts of substances that they may not even be carrying in personal use quantities, but merely in their bloodstreams--has nothing to do with deterring smuggling, or dealing contraband.
It's entirely about asserting a prerogative of State control and enclosure over personal behavior, at the most intimate level of body autonomy. Forever. https://www.reddit.com/r/LSD/comments/1guz79l/police_in_singapore_doing_random_drug_tests_in/
That's a totalitarian policy. Nothing to emulate, although it sounds to me as if you'd sign off on it as a national policy in the US without the slightest criticism.
I'll put my command of the history of American substance use up against your scaremongering rhetorical high dudgeon any day. I suspect that you've pretty much exhausted everything you know about the subject with that half-handful of data points you've just waved around, indicating a cursory level of knowledge that vanishes entirely prior to to the year 2020.
A partial sample of what I know about the subject can be found in posts on my Substack page. Although I'm skeptical that you'll bother clicking on the link to my page, because I doubt that the social history of American drug use commands as much of your attention as gratuitous partisan rabbit-punching.
I lean more to Bukele than Duterte, but different conditions may require different approaches. The two of them are a continuum.
Singapore has standards. If you don't like them, don't travel there. It's not like they're random or capricious. The city is clear about its rules and consequences.
Singapore also has standards is expects its citizens to uphold even when out of the country. America does too: someone who has sex with an underage prostitute in Thailand will discover that. (see the PROTECT Act.) There is no difference other than you would likely support extraterritorial jurisdiction for sex crimes but not for drug crimes. But Singapore isn't obligated to adhere to your arbitrary distinction.
I have never travelled there and would likely hesitate to do so, in part because Singapore's laws are rather draconian. But the citizens have chosen those laws. And thus they are not "totalitarian".
Brian, I've already outlined my policy suggestions for how to confront dysfunctional drug abuse and addiction in at least one Substack page post that I've already linked elsewhere in the thread.
But no one seems to want to offer any commentary on my page posts on this topic. Perhaps because addressing my ideas would require the admission that there are other ways to address the problem. A set of detailed suggestions that doesn't resemble either the dithering denial and non-response of bliss ninny Democrats or the Bukele-style martial law mass detention sweeps that you apparently endorse, which require suspending the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution.
Come on, readers, visit my Substack page to read and comment on my posts, instead of being herded into thinking that the policy must consist of one or the other of those two failed extremes!
(But most of you are on Phones, aren't you? And you have no time for an actual Substack Page Post. I'd venture that some of you don't even know how to access a Substack author's Page archive.)
As it is, I have to rewrite bits and pieces of my ideas in every Notes discussion on this topic. I can't buy a serious discussion about these ideas on my own page. It's rare that I even manage to elicit a reply to them in Notes. When I do hear from a critic, most often they've misconstrued my observations to fit a pre-existing frame.
When it comes to social media discussions of serious political topics, for all the rote performances of tail-chasing acrimony or sneering agreement-fests, it's just surface veneer.
Underneath, there's a layer of chickenshit silence ten miles deep.
The reasons for my “distinction”- defining Singapore as a totalitarian state- are objective, not subjective. The fact that they’re clear about their statutes does not change the grounds for my reasoning. I quoted the US State Department’s summary of the powers the government of Singapore has granted to their police.
Among other abrogations of civil liberties, the citizens of Singapore have implicitly assented to provisions that permit the police to demand tests for the criminal offense of “internal possession” of legally forbidden substances, simply on the order of duly ordained police authority. That unconditional surrender of individual bodily autonomy to State control isn’t merely “draconian”, it’s essentially totalitarian. The fact that the citizenry may arguably have voluntarily agreed to it does nothing to change the facts and their clear implication.
I do realize that the government there is under no obligation to change their ways. That doesn’t mean that I’m obligated to launder their reputation with irrelevant observations.
Meanwhile, CA progressives are tripping over themselves hating ICE, protesting, and voting on one issue only: who can stand up to Trump (meaning obstructing deportations and dishing out federal money in handouts to illegals by all means necessary). I wonder what degree of self-destruction would it take for these people to ever wake up?
The Hondos running wild is an obvious effect of sanctuary city and state policy. Duh- you obstruct the Federal law involvement, and the foreign criminals abuse the loophole. All these psychopathic empathetic liberals think that they just are helping the innocent maid or farm worker, but refuse to see that they are facilitating vicious criminals. When the destruction becomes obvious, they refuse to admit that their “religion “ of fanatical liberalism, driven by misplaced empathy and Trump hatred, is just plain wrong.