DAVID MARCUS: I've seen enough human suffering in homeless encampments to know Trump's new policy is right
When the ambulance arrived in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia two years ago an angry EMT got out and barked at the crowd Who called this in Standing next to my cameraman and above the prone body of a shirtless soul bedecked in boils and not moving I reported I did He didn t say a word he looked at me then down the street at the dozens of strung out bodies then back at me as if to say Look at all this what do you want me to do I had no answer HOMELESS PEOPLE CAN BE REMOVED FROM STREETS BY CITIES STATES IN NEW TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERLast week President Donald Trump did answer that question with a much-welcome executive order EO intended to bring back civil commitment in other words the ability to put people who are a danger to themselves or others in institutions even against their will Civil libertarians are in a tizzy over the EO They insist this is an abuse of due process and harkens to the bad old days when hundreds of thousands of Americans were committed to mental institutions sometimes for dubious reasons But in examining and judging Trump s proposed procedures here it is fundamental to understand and accept what the status quo on the ground is right now and it is nothing short of horrific I ve traveled to homeless encampments all over America from tucked-away Manhattan underpasses to the sprawling chaos of San Francisco's Tenderloin a place you literally smell a block before you enter SANTA MONICA BUSINESS OWNER OFFERING ONE-WAY FLIGHTS TO GET HOMELESS OUT OF CALIFORNIAIn these encampments your gag reflex is challenged by needles sticking out of necks and mountains of human detritus but the real soul-crushing existential sadness comes from knowing that these human beings are just being left to die For decades now Democrats have spent endless dollars on fruitless efforts to fix the homeless matter In California alone Gov Gavin Newsom has spent billion on failing to fix it and only in recent months admitted the encampments have to go What the Trump administration realizes is that Democrats refuse to accept is that homelessness is authentically two very distinct problems One is financial the other is a matter of addiction and mental wellbeing Financial homelessness is fairly easy to address The evicted mother living in her car can be given temporary housing and job assistance She really does just need a hand up Homelessness related to mental illness and addiction however isn t really a homelessness difficulty at all it's an addiction and mental illness concern and shockingly just letting people in tents shoot up in what was once a thriving commercial district doesn t solve it As I have wandered the streets of these hellscapes in city after city my question hasn t really been if these people would be better off in an institution but rather if they weren t in a de facto open-air institution already What does it matter if these places lack walls and locks They are cages nonetheless cruel prisons whether voluntary or not Opponents of civil commitment insist you cannot take away people s freedom But freedom to do what Shoot fentanyl every day until they die on a curbside pockets rifled by another desperate junkie CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONIf it was your child on these broken and brutal streets of death would you want them to be left in freedom to waste away or would you want them taken somewhere where they could be protected and helped Opponents will say that civil commitment can be abused They will point to the s when homosexuals were sent to institutions but it's not We aren t going to institutionalize gay people and we cannot be paralyzed by a bigoted past when trying to save lives currently Could there be abuses or mistakes made regarding civil commitment Sure but people are dying in the streets right now and we must trust ourselves to actively help them without stepping over the line Annoyed with me or not that day in Kensington the EMT revived the man at my feet who it turns out wasn t dead after all Instead he was angry because the Narcan that woke him up also negated the high he had paid for There are really only two sides to be on here the side that says we are going to do everything we can to save that man s life even against his will or the side that condemns him to an open-air prison of his own making President Trump has chosen wisely and if local governments take heed it is going to save a lot of lives across America CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAVID MARCUS
