The Hill Discovers Police Can Also Help the Poor
“We can reclaim our streets without criminalizing homelessness,” shouts The Hill, presenting this as a novel strategy rather than, say, a foundational principle of a functional society. The article praises San Antonio's approach, where police officers supposedly engage in 'compassionate' interactions with unhoused individuals. It's a heartwarming narrative of officers connecting people to
services—a service that would be, one might argue, less necessary if those services were adequately funded in the first place. What The Hill consistently omits is the systematic gutting of social safety nets that created this crisis. They frame it as a problem for law enforcement to 'solve,' rather than a failure of political will and economic policy. While police budgets swell, often padded with
federal funds that could otherwise go to housing or mental health, funding for actual solutions dwindles. It's 'compassion' theater, staging police as social workers after decades of policies have eroded the very fabric that prevents homelessness.