Republicans Push To Legalize ‘Property Owners’ Killing Homeless People in Kentucky
Republicans Push To Legalize ‘Property Owners’ Killing Homeless People in Kentucky
In Kentucky, politicians are preparing to vote on a law that would authorize the use of force against unhoused people who are found to be camping on private property.
In Kentucky, politicians are preparing to vote on a law that would authorize the use of force against unhoused people who are found to be camping on private property.
Republican politicians in Kentucky are rallying behind a new bill that would authorize the use of force—and potentially deadly force—against unhoused people who are found to be camping on private property. The bill would also criminalize unsanctioned homeless encampments and restrict cities and towns from preempting state laws.
The bill, known as the “Safer Kentucky Act,” or HB5, would target homelessness, drug possession and mental illness by drastically increasing criminal penalties for a range of offenses. Introduced last week by Republican state representative Jared Bauman, it already has 52 sponsors in Kentucky’s House of Representatives. A vote is scheduled for this week.
Advocates are most alarmed by one aspect of the “Safer Kentucky Act” in particular: an anti-homeless provision that would authorize violence by property owners on people camping on their property. The bill says the use of force is “justifiable” if a defendant believes that criminal trespass, robbery or “unlawful camping” is occurring on their property.
the party of jesus, folks.
It's a shame American Evangelicals can't read, or they'd realize they've been worshipping a filthy commie the whole time.
Wait until they find out he was a brown skinned middle easterner.
Supply Side Jesus for sure.
A "Safer Kentucky Act" that makes it extremely unsafe for one of our nation's most vulnerable groups.
Absolute ghouls.
These are the type of people who watch The Purge and think "hell yeah, can't wait brother!" As if their old dumbassas wouldn't be amongst the first purged.
I've known quite a few Doomers and Accerationists and each one has never served in the military, completely obsessed with guns, and seem to be scared of anyone different, if TEOTWAWKI went down I'd be pointing my crew in their direction for easy loot if there was a need.
It’s funny in a sick way that Tales from the Crypt had an episode about eating the homeless by an organization named G.H.O.U.L.S
Well yes but those aren’t people /s
I know right? We need to do more to protect checks bill people who are trespassing and threaten you with or use force against you when you ask them to leave. Whatever will our most vulnerable do if they can't threaten to stab you when you ask them to respect your property?
"Safer Kentucky Act"
Orwellian is not a strong enough word. This shit is beyond parody.
It should be illegal to euphamize bills. What a load of deceptive shit.
Dystopian
Their plan to fight homelessness and mental illness is simple: Make them illegal! That should solve it.
Meanwhile, regulating firearms won’t work because then only criminals will have guns. These people are ducking evil.
This is the same crowd that wanted to fight COVID by just letting people die until it wasn't a problem anymore.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
...
so that I may hunt them for sport
Stay classy America!
These people can't have a shred of empathy. The homeless being treated like vermin. People at the lowest point of their lives, when they need help the most, are mistreated awfully by those in power.
Classic. Punish being poor.
If the options are to buy them bootsraps to pull themselves up by or shoot them, they are going to get shot.
The bill says the use of force is "justifiable" if a defendant believes that criminal trespass, robbery, or "unlawful camping" is occurring on their property.
Great, so not only does it let them shoot homeless people, it lets them do it even if they "believe" it's happening. So you can just shoot someone on your property for no reason at all, and say "well, I though they were performing a robbery".
"They were scoping the place out to put up a tent, I had to shoot them officer."
"They didn't have anything with them"
"But I believed that was their purpose"
"Alright, checks out, have a nice day sir."
- Somewhere in near future in Kentucky if this passes
Local police are reportedly opposed to the idea.
They say shooting random poor people is their job.
Then once passed, quietly reinterpret “property owners” as anyone with a right skin color. Just ask that Kenosha shooter how it’s done.
How fucking Christian of them...
Maybe the NRA should distribute guns to the homeless in an outreach program to show that conservatives do care about the downtrodden. Everyone has a right to bear arms, right? Isn't that the conservative mantra? Well, except for the homeless poor, minorities, etc...
Everyone has the right to bear arms! *
*Everyone defined exclusively as white,land owning, politically conservative male over the age of 35
I bet you could pull it of if you were a white conservative male living out of your pickup and had a gun to keep away those thieving (insert group conservatives love to hate on here).
2 (1) The use of physical force by a defendant upon another person is justifiable when the
3 defendant believes that such force is immediately necessary to prevent:
4 (a) The commission of criminal trespass, robbery, burglary, or other felony
5 involving the use of force, or under those circumstances permitted pursuant to
6 KRS 503.055, in a dwelling, building or upon real property in his or her
7 possession or in the possession of another person for whose protection he or
8 she acts;[ or]
9 (b) Theft, criminal mischief, or any trespassory taking of tangible, movable
10 property in his or her possession or in the possession of another person for
11 whose protection he or she acts; or
12 (c) The commission of unlawful camping in violation of Section 17 of this Act,
13 when the offense is occurring on property owned or leased by the defendant,
14 the individual engaged in unlawful camping has been told to cease, and the
15 individual committing the offense has used force or threatened to use force
16 against the defendant.I haven't been through all the amendments yet, and I'm not a lawyer, but the author of the article may have mischaracterized a portion of the bill.
I'm not commenting on the particulars of this proposed bill one way or the other, but I was going to say that I wish these articles would at least link to the actual language of the proposed statute so I can decide whether I agree with the article writer's interpretation or if it's clickbait. (The same with court opinions. And heck, quotes are taken out of context all the time as well. Link me the original source in case I don't want trust the spoon feeding.)
but I was going to say that I wish these articles would at least link to the actual language of the proposed statute
Link to bill: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/24rs/hb5.html
It's kind of a pet peeve of mine too.
How?
The article says:
The bill says the use of force is “justifiable” if a defendant believes that criminal trespass, robbery or “unlawful camping” is occurring on their property.
The bill says:
2 (1) The use of physical force by a defendant upon another person is justifiable when the
3 defendant believes that such force is immediately necessary to prevent:
... 12 (c) The commission of unlawful camping in violation of Section 17 of this Act,
13 when the offense is occurring on property owned or leased by the defendant,
14 the individual engaged in unlawful camping has been told to cease, and the
15 individual committing the offense has used force or threatened to use force
16 against the defendant.
Wooooow... That's pretty egregious. Basically if you trespass you can get murdered within the constraints of the law.
Welcome to fucking Liberia
Basically if you trespass you can get murdered within the constraints of the law.
More accurately if you're if you're trespassing, have been asked to leave, and in turn responded by using force or threatening force then the person you are trespassing against can use force against you. They don't have to just let you do as you please until you pose an immediate risk of death or serious injury to them.
So, for example, under this bill: If an unhoused person sets up camp in your front yard and makes a godawful mess of it, you can't shoot him. If you ask him to leave, and he does, you can't shoot him. If you ask him to leave and he just ignores you, or tells you to fuck off, you can't shoot him. If you ask him to leave and he threatens to stab you to death if you try to make him leave, then you can shoot him.
In what way?
The article says:
The bill says the use of force is “justifiable” if a defendant believes that criminal trespass, robbery or “unlawful camping” is occurring on their property.The law says:
2 (1) The use of physical force by a defendant upon another person is justifiable when the
3 defendant believes that such force is immediately necessary to prevent:
...
12 (c) The commission of unlawful camping in violation of Section 17 of this Act,
13 when the offense is occurring on property owned or leased by the defendant,
14 the individual engaged in unlawful camping has been told to cease, and the
15 individual committing the offense has used force or threatened to use force
16 against the defendant.Not mentioning that force is not authorized unless the person camping unlawfully has either used force or threatened to use force already is a glaring omission.
Like, where else are they supposed to go? They refuse to build any kind of a shelter becuse nobody wants to have one around them. Ironically instead they spend all their money building billion dollar sports stadiums. They just want to criminalize being poor.
Such a difficult societal ill to solve. (Or maybe not?) On the one hand nobody wants, nor should be forced to deal with a homeless encampment in their backyard. On the other, where is one supposed to go? To the woods to survive off the land? Can't as it's mostly private property and it's illegal to camp, or stay longer than 2 weeks in any one spot on all government owned land (of which I am aware, including all those millions of acres of BLM land). So, we need an alternative and as you suggested, our priorities as a society seem to be askew. Then what about those who we simply can't house and feed and stabilize for myriad reasons (mental health being a big, if not the biggest one)? Some people will say we can't just continue "throwing money at xyz unsolvable problem." And I see validity in this. Others may perhaps argue that a professional sports stadium brings in revenue to the city beyond what is paid out of the tax coffers. (I'd like to see the math if stadiums ever end up providing a return on investment for a city--I have significant doubts.) Anyone out there have some legitimate ideas on solving the problem besides sending people to the woods to die or be arrested vs building huge encampments that I foresee quickly becoming superfund sites? Is there a model out there that could be applied to the US?
Man, bad week to be homeless! By Friday they'll be legalizing priests' ability to crucify homeless people who trespass.
They want the purge to be real so badly.
This is going to be a great example for all the 2a nuts that more than just homeowners have weapons.
Waiting to hear about the first time a would-be victim manages to outdraw the bloodthirsty landowner coming for them. Will they get a pass as an act of self defense or would they be charged under the old laws?
No because they will be trespassers and the homeowner would have been defending their property.
But if the trespassers claim manifest destiny before the bullet hits them and the bloodthirsty land owner doesn't perform a perfect parry by reciting the bill of rights in under 3 seconds the land gets turned into a wildlife refuge.
anyone remember when "hunting the homeless for sport" was an exaggeration of republican politics?
I have a coworker from Kentucky and he says that some of the sanctuary cities that the illegals were being bussed to threatened to bus them to the surrounding red states is why they’re passing laws like this. It’s a scare tactic to the left and the good ole boys in Kentucky are itching to shoot someone legally so the R’s get guaranteed reelection.
Hmm, Opens up The GOP playbook
Looks like the proper response is to arm the homeless, drug dealers, and mentally unstable.
So if the homeless guy shoots back in response, it's all fair game because it was in self-defence, right? Right?
Sure would be a shame if the homeless learnee how to make improvised claymore mines.
The "Stop Hitting Yourself Act"
In what fucking world does housing status have to do with knowing your target?
