THE AUDACITY: Cities Plan to Deter Homelessness With Heavier Policing and Empty Promises

The The Marshall Project reports:

Because why solve a housing crisis with actual affordable housing when you can just threaten unhoused people with jail cells? Cities are slapping a shiny new label on old-school police coercion, calling it ‘focused deterrence.’ It is the same old stick disguised as a carrot.

Tucson and other cities are trying “focused deterrence,” which targets a group of people with tougher consequences, and offers of social services.

— The Marshall Project

Threatening vulnerable people with handcuffs until they magically stop being poor isn’t public safety—it is state-sanctioned harassment. Don’t fall for the rebrand.