There have been a series of renewed attacks against homeless people in Fresno over the last couple of weeks. These attacks have been carried out by city officials, a vigilante businessman, and gang members. This week also featured a Press Conference where our mayor announced a crack down on crime in homeless areas. Asked if homeless people should be concerned about the increased police presence in their encampments, mayor Alan Autry reminded his audience that jail might be a good thing for homeless people. "In my studies of this over the last 15 or 20 years, a lot of folks made a decision to get off drugs and pursue a better life while in a jail cell," Autry said. Looking on the sunny side of the jail experience, Autry concluded that jail might be "the only place they could go to get dried out or off of it for a while."

Autry also commented on the ongoing lawsuit against the City of Fresno by homeless people who had their property taken and immediately destroyed by the city. Autry said "I still feel that when we took the encampment that we did it was a good thing. When we cleaned out all of the horrible stuff that was there, hypodermic needles, mattresses that had hepatitis all over them, that a good thing was done. But, the way it was done in terms of unfolding to the media was poorly done and I have regrets on that because if we had done this same type of process, even though the right thing was done, I do not agree with the court decision." In other words, if the city had properly spun the taking of homeless peoples property to the media, it would not have been a problem. The entire Press Conference centered on treating homelessness as a police problem. There were no proposals about ending homelessness, rather the approach was to put an end to the homeless through police suppression.

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