Break-in on Thomas Street near Miller Playfield

Break In. This morning (8/2/20)at around 5:30 a.m. a man in a grey hoodie broke into my house on E. Thomas St. near the Miller Playfield. He was slight and lean and white. He climbed in through my bathroom window. Luckily I woke up and he ran out of the house the same way he came in. The police came. But, what can they do? Ever since the homeless camps started cropping up, I feared something like this would happen and now it has. The homeless encampments are untouchable by the police. Too politically charged. The situation is dangerous and untenable. The Mayor and the City Council do nothing. The good neighbors make no demands of the Mayor and City Council to shut down the camps. They just spew ineffectual compassion in pointless posts. Hope this or worse doesn't happen to you.

(From the local Nextdoor group)

And a commonsense reply:

ok maybe we need to look at the granularity of experience and keep in mind stats are unreliable but every summer or earlier the “high pains grifters” arrive from more desolate parts to live of the cream of our latte-land. The seasonal pattern is clear to anyone involved with maintenance or security. Yet after six decades here, while improvements to building security is evident there’s no doubt street level disorder is on the increase. the drugs are cheaper, more available, more addictive, more life destructive if anyone cares to open the eyes....we don’t bother reporting many things and our standards have lowered.

And the original poster again:

I don't know if the man was homeless. He may have been homeless or not. What concerns me is that the homeless encampments are untouchable to the police and they degrade the neighborhood and attract down and out, messed up people. Some are good and some are desperate and out of it. I don't argue that they need help. But encampments in a public park is not help. It's foisting the problem onto a very specific neighborhood because the City can't or won't deal with it more broadly and properly. Until recently the Mayor was opposed to taxing the wealthy in the City to pay for the homeless as were a number of City Council members. I know poverty and inequality and injustice are the problem, but that's not going to be solved very soon. Defunding the police is not going to be enough. Plus, I'm not interested in calling a social worker when I'm robbed. I want the police and I want them to be able to do their job!