Remember when Sacramento’s neoliberal consensus teamed up with conservative ghouls to blame unhoused folks for the rise in E. coli in the American River, and used it to harass them with more frequency?
Turns out that was all a massive lie, and that bird and dog droppings were to blame.
It’s a tale as old as California capitalism, using specious conservation concerns to mask one’s disdain for people experiencing homelessness (See: Friends of Ballona Wetlands in this LAT column). It also speaks to a larger concern over the convergence of neoliberal and conservative voices in the “right to housing” discourse (See: that same LAT column).
A recent Sacramento shooting that resulted in the accidental death of a 7-year-old girl has left many in the region asking questions about how and why something like this could happen. In 2020, homicides–three-quarters of which involved firearms–jumped 30% in California from the year before. But why?
Thanks to the passing of Assembly Bill 173 last September, public health professionals can finally start doing serious research on the determinants of gun violence in California and beyond.
Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always:
Twitter: @youknowkempa, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune, @guillotine4you, @aolbites
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