Hear Me Out: the SCOTUS Grants Pass v. Johnson Decision is a Declaration of War
By Jim Clark
Groundcover vendor No. 139
People experiencing homelessness survive by sleeping in tents and alleys and bushes. Sleep and safe shelter are second to food and water, which means homeless people are literally barely hanging on to their lives. And now the United States Supreme Court has said it is okay to further punish people for trying to survive homelessness.
In the case City of Grants Pass, Ore. v. Johnson, the Supreme Court was asked to determine if punishing homeless people for trespassing is cruel and unusual, per the U.S. Constitution.
This June, they decided it is not: the Constitution does not protect the homeless from arrest or financial penalties — even though our economic and penal system put them there.
Our lives as Americans are 100% built around and governed by our economic system. For those close to the bottom, the grind is getting some kind of job then entering an endless cycle of going to work and paying bills. The bills include some of the very things that support life — food and shelter specifically. Without these things, survival is impossible. The life-support things are commodified, so the only access you have to them is with money.
Meaning if you don’t work in the system, you don’t get to live in the system. America is a pay-to-play country, and by play we mean survive. In America, you must be part of the economic system or you will die a slow death.
Americans die every day from malnutrition, exposure to the elements, critical mental illnesses and from the violence of surviving on the street. And now, additionally, being homeless is a criminal act in America.
The prevailing attitude towards people experiencing homelessness in our country is that it was their fault, due to some moral failing like “laziness,” and they could get out of their situation if they wanted to do so.
The fact of the matter is, every homeless person I’ve met wants to get out of poverty. What people don’t realize is how hard that is in a capitalist system. In our system, one has to compete to survive. But the playing field is not even. To begin, most people need a cell phone and a car to get a job. Both cost money. You also need to be able to interview and prove you can make it to work. You also need to be clean and presentable when you go to work.
Some people can pull themselves up, but it still doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen without a safe, reliable place to sleep. There is a stark parallel between being homeless and being displaced by war. In war, people are forced to leave their homes by a military system either because soldiers force them at gunpoint, or because their homes were destroyed by weapons of war. In America, people are forced to leave their homes by a capitalist system either by cops forcing them to leave at gunpoint, or just having their tents and belongings destroyed by a bulldozer. In war, people who are displaced are seen as an enemy, in America, the homeless are considered a nuisance, a word not as strong as “enemy” but equally dehumanizing. In war, refugees end up sleeping in tents; in America the homeless do as well, but now that can be disrupted at gunpoint. If you think “gunpoint” is too strong I must remind you, cops carry guns, are not afraid to use them, and have a license to kill. In other words, they are soldiers charged with “protecting and serving” capitalist interests.
America has demonstrated a certain hatred towards the homeless. It is seen in other nations that practice genocide. One earmark of genocide is forcing people out of their homes and into the streets where their chances of dying increase. This is the exact same thing the U.S. Supreme Court just did!
The reality is that punishing humans for trying to survive is a hate crime. Pay attention to anyone who supports such treatment. The hate is visceral. You can hear it, you can taste it.
People who have never wanted for anything stand in judgment of the homeless, find them unworthy and deserving of being exterminated. This is what they mean when they say “the solution to homelessness is a bus ticket out of town.” Or jail. Or death. They don’t care, just get them out of their backyard.
What this decision allows for is sinister. Any town, county, state or federal entity can declare homelessness a form of vagrancy and disorderly conduct. This means a person can be picked up for sitting on a bench too long. If you think that doesn’t happen, you’re deluded. It happens every day and now there is no defense you can make against it. If you happen to have a warrant, you can end up in prison, and guess what? Many states still allow chattel slavery.
People are owned by the penal system and forced labor is not considered cruel and unusual.
But it doesn’t stop with the homeless. The sayings “one paycheck away from losing housing” or “one car breakdown away from losing a job” describe real situations. The working poor (including myself when I had a job but nowhere to live) have never been so at risk from becoming refugees of war. If you lost that job because the car broke down and now you don’t have that check to pay rent, your chances of becoming homeless are near 100%. You may end up sleeping on the street; literally, this is how it happens. Then people can be fined for trespassing and punished by incarceration. This is business as usual in America.
The Supreme Court of the United States has created an atmosphere so similar to genocidal nations that their decision could be taken as a declaration of war against the homeless. The poor must take it that way. Americans have kicked the last refuge out from under our feet. We must unite against this passive-aggressive attack. Wake up. The rich have always despised the poor, have always seen us as disposable cattle, and have always resented having to pay us to produce the wealth they enjoy. Technology replaces wage slaves everyday. Now they want to incarcerate us. And guess what? Prisons are so poorly managed that you may contract a disease or simply be killed by a fellow inmate. Homelessness can be a death sentence if it leads to prison. Since it is now illegal to be homeless anywhere, catching charges for trespassing on federal land can result in a felony punishable by prison according to our Constitution.
The song “Talkin’ ‘bout a Revolution” by Tracy Chapman has a line that goes “poor people gonna rise up and get their share. Poor people gonna rise up and take what’s theirs.” It is time.
