At a Washtenaw Camp Outreach meeting we discussed the implications of the Johnsons versus Grants Pass case in the supreme court this past summer. The case was to determine if it was cruel and unusual punishment for sleeping outside due to being in a state of homelessness. The Supreme Court decision was that it is not cruel or unusual to fine or jail people for sleeping outside. 

This means it is okay to charge people with a felony for being homeless which is identified as having something under you or over you while sleeping, asking for food or money, accepting food or money (some places have made it illegal to feed the hungry. It is illegal to share food in some places.)

Rents are typically raised and gentrification happens so people who are living “wholesome lives” – paying bills, going to work, raising families, consuming, being good citizens and supporting the system – get priced out of their homes and become homeless. 

Section 8 is being cut by several states making it so people who are currently homeless and waiting on section 8 no longer have any help coming. In fact, they are now at risk of imprisonment.

Tennessee puts it together almost – In Tennessee, “homelessness” is a class E felony which can carry a year in prison. Tennessee JUST RECENTLY voted to take prison slavery out of their constitution. Instead, the percentage of privately owned prisons increased by 29% three years ago. Places like McDonalds, Kroger, and Coca Cola use prison labor. JCPenney pays 90 cents an hour for prison labor. Thomas Jefferson paid his slaves more in the 1700’s American economy. Meaning if you are homeless in the united states, you could become a slave to the system that put you there. In America, you must work on your own free will, or you will be forced to do it in a prison. 

It isn’t putting at risk humans to work with a job and a purpose, it is still putting more money (and power) ein the hands of the rich. What do you think they will do with it? Continue to dismantle the working class. Send enough of them to prison to eliminate the rest of the workforce with free/cheap labor and robotics. 

Lowered wages and higher cost of living will force more and more people into homelessness.

Life expectancy among the homeless ranges from 42-52. If they don’t put people in prison, they will just starve them out.

Where will they go? They don’t care. They will be dead or in prison soon.

The city of Ypsilanti’s resolution that includes the use of police to manage the street/homeless population in the downtown area is evidence that the ramifications of the Grant’s Pass decision have landed on our doorstep. The council knows what the ramifications are just as well as we do. They know they can impose whatever penalty they want to get rid of the homeless. They know that the people on the fence about how to solve the problem will sleep easier at night with this proposal because they do not see the ramifications. They just know they want the problem to stop and it seems fair to have the police keep things in order so people can shop.

The upper class in our area, the Stewart Beal’s among us, also know how the SC decision works. They also understand the system and how it works. This court decision and this Ypsilanti resolution and the attitude among the homeless-hostile are all linked, and the rich know it. They are setting the stage for something far more sinister than chasing drunks off their doorstep. They are committing politicide through mass incarceration, population transfer, and withholding of resources – grossly through the removal of section 8 and indirectly by funding police over restoration, rehabilitation and other mental/community health programs.