“The city of Los Angeles has become a giant trash receptacle,” columnist Steve Lopez complained on Sunday. The decay covers large chunks of Skid Row, a sprawling 50-block area that is believed to be the base for around 4,200 homeless people. One LAPD officer is believed to have contracted Typhoid from the miasma.
“What century is this?” Lopez asked. “Is it the 21st century in the largest city of a state that ranks among the world’s most robust economies, or did someone turn back the calendar a few hundred years?” He described someone even dumping “a fat load of poop” in the streets among the rest of the dirt and depravity.
“It used to be that illegal dumpers were a little more discreet, tossing their refuse in fields and gullies and remote outposts,” Lopez wrote. “Now city streets are treated like dumpsters, or even toilets.”
The conditions are so untenable that LAPD officers are threatening to seek transfers after at least one developed typhoid, according to the Times. Five others are showing symptoms of intestinal issues. The LAPD said in a statement that “our police officers often patrol in adverse environments and can be exposed to various dangerous elements.”
Doctor warns Los Angeles collapsing into Third World health status… as the filth of progressivism has become undeniable.
The City of Angels is looking a whole lot more like a Den of Demons these days, as the second-largest city in the United States descends into “complete breakdown,” according to Dr. Drew Pinsky, a longtime L.A. resident and radio personality who gave his take on the current crumbling state of the world’s biggest entertainment hub during a recent episode of “The Ingraham Angle.”
Rampant illegal immigration, homelessness, rodent infestation, and infectious disease are just a few of the many serious problems afflicting today’s LA, according to reports. And in the eyes of Dr. Pinsky, the California mecca is now, in many ways, worse-off than many Third World countries because of it all.
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| Typhoid-carrying Fleas are found all over LA. Even the City
hall staff are being inflicted with Typhoid from fleabites. |
“We have a complete breakdown of the
basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now,” Dr. Pinsky stated
frankly to Laura Ingraham during the segment. “We have the three prongs of
airborne disease, tuberculosis is exploding, (and) rodent-borne. We are one of
the only cities in the country that doesn’t have a rodent control program, and
sanitation has broken down,” he further explained.
Dr. Pinsky’s contentions come on the heels of disturbing reports about the spread of life-threatening illnesses like typhoid fever and bubonic plague, both of which are making a comeback in L.A. An L.A. police officer reportedly contracted typhoid fever recently, and bubonic plague, which killed tens of millions of people during the 14th century, is also “likely” spreading in L.A. as well, according to Dr. Pinsky.
“This is unbelievable,” Dr. Pinsky says about the horrific conditions that plague L.A. in 2019. “I can’t believe I live in a city where this is not Third World. This is medieval. Third World countries are insulted if they are accused of being like this. No city on Earth tolerates this. The entire population is at risk.”
Despite having some of the highest tax rates in the country, Los Angeles is also crumbling at the infrastructure level. From buckling sidewalks to potholed thoroughfares to storm drains that can’t handle a little rain, the infrastructure that holds the second-largest U.S. city together is suffering from years of deferred maintenance.
Much of California – and much of the U.S. as a whole, for that matter – is in similar serious disrepair. San Francisco has become a giant toilet; Mississippi’s roadways are collapsing; and let’s not even talk about the bridges in Rhode Island.
One might try to exclusively blame Leftist politics for these failures, but let’s face it: Both blue and red states are stricken with the types of political corruption that are causing this country to become worse than a Third World country – or as Dr. Pinsky puts it, we have too many politicians that are “disgustingly negligent,” at best.
“[T]he government is somehow insisting that housing is the problem when in fact we have chronic mental illness, we have addiction, we have people who don’t want to leave the streets,” Dr. Pinsky went on to explain to Ingraham, speaking specifically in the context of L.A.
“They literally won’t take the housing if we give it to them. And that’s the population that’s vulnerable, and is going to get so ill this summer. It scares me for their well-being.” To learn more about how illegal immigration is only making things worse for America’s crumbling infrastructure, be sure to check out SanctuaryCities.Fetch.news.
HORRIFIC pictures from downtown Los Angeles show the deepening problems the city faces with litter and rodents — as a typhoid fever outbreak has rattled the metropolis. The Californian city took a decision last week not to cap the amount of possessions homeless people can have on Skid Row, making some worried the area's public health crisis will get worse.
Authorities are now saying they'll get rid of fridges, sofas and other large items littered throughout a 50-block area downtown. But in a statement, councilman Joe Buscaino said: "The settlement will only perpetuate the public health crisis that already exists in Skid Row and will set a precedent for the rest of the city that will normalise encampments.
"The city is sending a clear signal that we are turning the sidewalks in Skid Row into free, unlimited public storage, doing a disservice to the residents of Los Angeles, especially to those living on the streets."
Countless rows of tents also stretch across the streets of Skid Row, which gives refuge to about 4,200 homeless people mostly living in shantytown communities. A law was passed in 2016 which restricted the amount of belongings a homeless person could keep on the pavement to 60 gallons.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Community Action Network, who campaigned for new rules about property, said: "I hope this is the signal this is the sign, the proverbial crossroads, that insists we spend our money and our time on things that actually get people off the street.
"In the interim, it is our hope that at least this provides some legal guardrails both for the houseless people on the street as well as those public servants who are paid to treat the public humanely and responsibly."
On Thursday last week, an LA Police detective was diagnosed with typhoid fever — a rare illness usually spread through contaminated water. At least five other officers who work in the same station also started showing symptoms of the sickness.
The six cops work in the Central Division station, where an investigation into unsafe and unsanitary conditions led to $5,000 worth of fines earlier this month. The division covers Skid Row and downtown LA — with the officers calling for the homeless encampments to be cleaned up to stop the spread of illness.
Other cases in the area have seen cops diagnosed with hepatitis A and staph infections. LA Police Protective League treasurer Robert Harris said: "The last thing I need is my members coming to work worried about contracting an infectious disease and bringing it home to their families."
And union spokesman Dustin DeRollo said cops in Skid Row had to walk through "faeces, urine and trash" on their beats. In an opinion piece for the LA Times, reporter Steve Lopez called the sanitary crisis "the collapse of a city that's lost control".
He added: "We've got thousands of people huddled on the streets, many of them withering away with physical and mental disease. Sidewalks have disappeared, hidden by tents and the kinds of makeshift shanties you see in Third World places." While typhoid fever is uncommon in the US, it affects 22 million people annually around the world.
CatsUSA Pest Control, brought in to assess areas outside LA City Hall and nearby buildings, warned that homeless people create “harborage for rodents,” according to the report issued Dec. 28 and obtained last month through a public records request by a frequent critic of City Hall.
The company said it found “poor sanitary conditions” — including leftover food, human waste and hypodermic needles — and recommended that the city clear away the homeless population living in the Civic Center.
The findings were a topic of internal discussion for staffers at the Department of General Services, the agency that maintains city buildings. The day the one-page report was issued, a maintenance official sent an email to the department’s general manager, Tony Royster, describing the filth that had accumulated in the pits that surround City Hall, which are covered by metal grates.
“The homeless are using the grated areas above the pits as their bathroom and relieving themselves,” wrote David Costa, building construction and maintenance superintendent. “This is also attracting the rats. Custodial will need to do some hazmat cleaning of the grates and the pits. There are even hypodermic needles being tossed in the pits along with human waste and other garbage.”
Councilman Joe Buscaino, who has criticized the city over its handling of sidewalk cleanups of homeless people, was the only council member to argue during council meetings that the camps attract vermin.
He said he was unaware of CatsUSA’s findings until he was contacted by The Times last month and said he always viewed the encampments, not Parker Center, as the reason for the surge in rats. “At the onset of this mess, I saw a correlation between the rat infestation and these encampments surrounding the Civic Center,” Buscaino said. “I’ve worked skid row as a police officer. I’ve done cleanups as a council member.”
The report was included in a larger trove of city correspondence about the city’s pest problem that was obtained by Eric Preven, a member of the Studio City Neighborhood Council. Preven secured the records through the California Public Records Act and shared them with The Times.
The documents provide a window into the alarm from city employees over rat sightings, rodent droppings and other pest-related issues. On Dec. 28, one exasperated department head emailed General Services noting that her staff had removed food and plants, but had discovered that rodents also were eating paper.
“In my 31 years, I have never seen anything like this,” wrote City Clerk Holly Wolcott. “I again have to ask if efforts can be increased.” The documents also show there were pest complaints — rats, mice or fleas — made at about 20 different locations within City Hall for a five-month period through February.
Preven said the report he obtained and the conditions it describes show a clear need for public restrooms to be installed outside City Hall. “It’s the only humane, hygienic thing to do,” he said.
Since the rodent issues were identified, city agencies have trimmed trees in the Civic Center and removed vegetation. Those efforts have been carried out amid larger concerns about the spread of disease in downtown and other neighborhoods, as Los Angeles County prepares to reveal its annual point-in-time report on Tuesday that will probably show an increase in the number of people living on the streets.
Last month, state officials fined General Services and the LAPD after uncovering a rodent infestation and other unsanitary conditions at the agency’s Central Division station in skid row. General Services has filed an appeal.
The LAPD said one of its employees at the station has contracted the strain of bacteria that causes typhoid fever, although it’s unclear how the worker became ill. County health officials also declared a typhus outbreak last year in downtown L.A. and one Los Angeles city employee, Deputy City Atty. Elizabeth Greenwood, has filed a $5-million legal claim against the city, saying she contracted typhus while working in her office at City Hall East.
Greenwood said she believes she contracted the disease from a flea. Typhus can be spread to humans through flea bites or contact with the feces of infected fleas; its symptoms include a rash, fever and fatigue.
Asked about the December report from CatsUSA, Greenwood said through her attorney that the city did not take seriously the recommendations of its own pest control firm. “Ms. Greenwood believes weekly cleaning of the trash and human waste is not sufficient,” said Gayle Eskridge, Greenwood’s lawyer. “Ms. Greenwood states that the trash, urine and feces are occurring on a daily basis.”
The legal debate over how to handle Downtown LA's tent encampments continued this week with a new injunction limiting the city's options. The legal debate over how to handle Downtown LA's tent encampments continued this week with a new injunction limiting the city's options.
A U.S. district court judge ruled Wednesday the city of Los Angeles will have to stop seizing the property of homeless people on Skid Row and surrounding areas without notice — a temporary injunction that clashes with the latest attempts to clear downtown L.A.'s sidewalks.
The ruling comes as part of a federal lawsuit filed against the city earlier this year by four homeless individuals and two advocacy groups. And it comes as the city is trying to implement a new law to limit the amount of property a homeless person can have on the street to 60 gallons worth.
The lawsuit, Mitchell v. City of Los Angeles, was filed in March. The four homeless plaintiffs, the Los Angeles Community Action Network, and the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, allege that homeless people on Skid Row have repeatedly had tents and other personal property, including medication and legal documents, seized or destroyed by police or city sanitation workers.
The injunction calls for a halt on seizure of the property of homeless people on Skid Row and the surrounding areas without providing advance notice or storing the items. “Although a preliminary injunction will place additional burdens on the city to keep Los Angeles safe, Plaintiffs risk greater harm if the preliminary injunction is not granted,” Federal District Judge James Otero wrote in the court order. “To put it bluntly, Plaintiffs may not survive without some of the essential property that has been confiscated.”
The injunction may hinder officials trying to enforce the new city law on homeless property. L.A.'s City Council passed the law unanimously (with two members absent) and Mayor Eric Garcetti signed it earlier this month. The text of the ordinance says it is designed to “balance the needs of all of the City’s residents,” by keeping the streets clear and accessible to everyone, but allowing homeless people to keep essential property.
It requires tents to be taken down between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. and limits a homeless person to 60 gallons worth of property on the street. In some cases, it allows for seizure of property without prior notice.
