{"id":23365,"date":"2022-08-27T15:13:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T22:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=23365"},"modified":"2022-08-27T15:13:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-27T22:13:59","slug":"the-young-turks-embrace-of-tough-on-crime-demagoguery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/08\/27\/the-young-turks-embrace-of-tough-on-crime-demagoguery\/","title":{"rendered":"THE YOUNG TURKS\u2019 EMBRACE OF \u2018TOUGH ON CRIME\u2019 DEMAGOGUERY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

POSTED IN PRISONS AND POLICING<\/a><\/strong> (therealnews.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accepting the premise that we can arrest our way out of poverty, while fear-mongering about one-off cases of violence, is Breitbart-Lite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY\u00a0ADAM JOHNSON<\/a><\/strong> AUGUST 25, 2022 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Los Angeles county sheriff deputies stand by as crews begin removing a homeless encampment in front of the Veterans Administration in Westwood, CA, on Nov. 1, 2021. Photo by David Crane\/MediaNews Group\/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent weeks, the nominally progressive media outlet The Young Turks has tripled down on its fear-mongering crusade regarding crime and the purported evils of cash-bail reform. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, co-hosts of TYT\u2019s flagship news program, have run multiple segments and engaged in dubious Twitter battles focusing on the supposed out-of-control crime wave gripping blue states, and on the failure of the left to \u201cgrapple with this reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taken together, Uygur and Kasparian have lent their influential voices to a panicked, tough-on-crime media chorus that has been growing louder over the past two years and is helping to undermine hard-fought bail reforms in cities and towns across the country<\/a>. Both of these figures have large platforms, and they are wielding their influence at the exact moment the left should be (1) defending bail reform and other decarceration measures against a tidal wave of fear mongering, and (2) offering real solutions to the social problems caused by poverty\u2014namely, social supports, in the form of universal programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s begin with Uygur and Kasparian\u2019s rant against homeless encampments in the summer of 2021, in which they called on police to \u201cclean up\u201d encampments in Los Angeles, lending support to an ordinance making its way through the City Council at the time that aimed to outlaw sitting, loitering, or camping outdoors in what activist says amounts to roughly 20 percent of the city<\/a>. (This ordinance has since passed<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do believe there are progressives\u2026 in places like California who have made terrible decisions,\u201d Kasparian says in the 2021 segment. \u201cOne of those terrible decisions is essentially doing away with anti-camping laws\u2026, allowing people to camp out wherever they want whenever they want.\u201d She then goes on to say, \u201cWe have a homeless problem in California\u201d and proceeds\u2014with a sneering tone\u2014to pin that problem on unhoused people refusing public housing because they \u201cdon\u2019t want\u201d said housing, \u201cdon\u2019t want to follow the rules in the public housing,\u201d and would \u201crather camp out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

yeah that much has been clear for a minute (this is from june 2021) pic.twitter.com\/sH9EsJXZMd<\/a><\/p>— \uff4b (@lawfulspice) August 20, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>