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A mentally ill homeless guy walked onto a high school campus in my suburb, wearing all black, carrying a big duffel bag. Now, it’s reasonable to be concerned about that and want to identify who it is, assure he’s not carrying weapons onto the campus, and so forth.

But the community (as, perhaps, poorly represented on Facebook) is coming completely unhinged.

/1

Ken White

/2 The cops found him at a local Starbucks, identified him, determined he had no weapons, and gave him a trespassing ticket. The community is OUTRAGED. They’re stalking him around the community and taking pictures of him at Starbucks and McDonald’s and demanding that he be kicked out. They want him jailed or institutionalized.

/3 They’ve found his Twitter and Facebook accounts and are printing out the stuff there - kind of crazy, not notably crazy on Twitter — taking it to the police demanding he be arrested. They’re keeping meticulous logs of his activities.

I am considerably more afraid of my neighbors than I am of this mentally ill homeless guy.

/4 The real question is .. will I keep my mouth shut and stay out of the neighborhood group where people are wigging out? Or will I comment?

@Popehat imagine if that energy went into helping him find a suitable home and meaningful way to live his best life.

Wild community you live in, but not likely all that dissimilar to mine sadly.

@leffie @Popehat

suggestions like that zap all the energy out of an argument, tho-
try it @Popehat & report back, please.

@leffie @Popehat I was going to make the same comment.

It is striking that the words "...should be run out of town. He doesn't have to go to jail but he can't stay here." is used but not a single word about getting him help.

Should we not rather help those who need it instead of running them out of town like some form of unwanted animal?

@christo @leffie @Popehat

Probably said by someone that considers themselves a fine, upstanding Christian.

@leffie @Popehat just get on NextDoor and you will see all the same witch huntjng

@TheSteve0 I avoid that site for that very reason. It’s a shame because it could/should be useful if not for the FUD-sters.

@Popehat Ironically, some people still can't figure out why people with mental illness are at higher risk of being the victims of violence.

@Popehat @UncivilServant I was just thinking this exact thing while scrolling! Like we aren’t paranoid about being targeted by everyone but we quite literally *are* being targeted by everyone for mental illness lmao 🫠 I hate it here.

@Popehat I would be too. Yikes, I think I might be planning a move if I lived in your community.

@Popehat Thanks for sharing this. If for no other reason, just to confirm I’m not the only one seeing this pattern. It seems to be a social illness.

@jvagle @Popehat Not sure if it’s more PKD or Stephenson but yeah.

@Popehat Have they considered finding him healthcare and a place to live?

Might solve the issues they have.

@Nitro230 @Popehat What are you, some sort of Stalinist?

@Nitro230 @Popehat but if you solve an issue, what are we supposed to worry and complain about with righteous indignation

@aardvark @Popehat I assume that tens of pennies from their tax money are being spent to support people.

@Nitro230 @Popehat Well, technically, having him arrested is 'finding him a place to live' and having him institutionalized is 'finding him health care'.

@Nitro230 He has the right to reject that so long as he’s not a danger.

@Popehat I don't leave the house unless I have to.

@Popehat Pretty shocking to read a story where the cops are the ones behaving reasonably.

@Popehat the singular advantage of the Midwest is our crap weather keeps the riffraff out.

@RichardKeppler @Popehat it is a myth that homelessness has anything to do with good weather — data shows it is driven overwhelmingly by high housing costs

@http_error_418 @inarticulatequilter @Popehat I’m going to need to start clearly labeling jokes. IE “THIS IS A JOKE”

@RichardKeppler apologies. There were other responses to Popehat that were clearly not jokes (and, whew, some replies I’ve received appear to have taken your sarcasm well beyond face value) Thanks for at least letting me address the myth in response

@RichardKeppler @http_error_418 @inarticulatequilter @Popehat Yeah, mastodon culture doesn't readily "get" snarky/satiric responses. It is confusing when I say something outrageous and people want to engage me as though I am serious.

@inarticulatequilter @RichardKeppler @Popehat costs are high because of the weather. Bigger cities are found where the weather is best. Or are you saying liberal policies create homelessness?

@RichardKeppler @Popehat

What? Explain please. You can start with a definition of "riffraff".

@Popehat Sounds like your neighbors are guilty of stalking and should be reported to the police.

@Popehat Whatever you do, don't check your local Nextdoor. It's probably even worse.

@Popehat Statistically you *should* be more afraid of others. The conflation of mental illness with potential for violence has been definitively proven false. The “system” doesn’t want to take care of people with severe mental illness. It’s a grievous omission.

@Popehat The value of 'giving people something to do that doesn't actually impact them' is probably a force we need to figure out how to harness for good.

Like a SETI@home for people who spend time on Nextdoor.

@Oggie @Popehat This is why sports can be a force for good. If you're gonna hate someone for a dumb reason, hate a millionaire for missing a jump shot or striking out or whatever.

The exception are Philadelphia Eagles fans, who usually require a judge and courtroom in the stadium and I am not even joking.

@Popehat It's like you live in a neighborhood with that one Karen I have as a neighbor, but instead it's everyone in your neighborhood who is on Facebook.
It honestly sounds like a form of hell.

@Popehat Imagine if instead of spending 50-100k a year to imprison the person, they would advocate using even 50% of that to help the person.

@Popehat That second choice. Definitely the second one.

@Popehat do it! You won’t change any minds but you’ll aggravate yourself all day, which is what the internet is made for.

@Popehat oh comment for sure. Don’t let them have that echo chamber.

@Popehat tough call.

i preempted that shit long ago by not joining nextdoor. any mention i see/hear of the crap that goes on there reinforces the correctness of my choice.

@jbminn @Popehat Blanket statements and all, but the best description of Nextdoor I’ve ever read was that its primary function is to help you determine which people in your area are really racist versus just sorta borderline racist.

@Popehat Oh, I think we all know what you're going to do.

@Popehat We had an otherwise-rational neighbor ask us to remove large decorative rocks from our front yard lest antifa use them to attack us.

@12thRITS @Popehat That would definitely be the occasion to plan an antifa 4th of July block party!

@12thRITS @Popehat I'd almost forgotten about the 2020 paranoia about (checks notes)... bricks and gravel for construction projects ahead of what turned out to be peaceful walks by high school students. Whereas the "in-person votes = real votes" sign guy on the boulevard looks like he's close to snapping.

@12thRITS Antifa is a nearly unstoppable menace to America, whose only achilles heel is their completely inability to function without access to large, decorative lawn rocks.

@Popehat you do realize that while most of us haven't "met you" - we all have met you...
So this really isn't a question at all. 😇

@Popehat please just remember to post screenshots here 😎

@Popehat No reason not to chime in and push back on their lunacy, and maybe show other lurkers that there are still some sane people in the neighborhood.

(Well, no reason other than keeping your blood pressure under control.)

@Popehat tell them to mind their own business.

There but for the grace of God etc...