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Poverty, drugs and desperately f*cked up people - the Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Avenue videos

I’m always amazed my the levels of poverty in the US and the people wandering around with completed untreated psychosis and other mental health issues. Things are bad here, but it’s always a warning against those who want to completely destroy what’s left of the welfare state.

It’s not just the cities-though LA has tent streets 2/300 meters long in places and scenes like in this video but I remember seeing little kids in Georgia who obviously had no shoes.

Yes poverty is ‘worse’ in the Global South but the US is still the richest country on Earth by a number of measures and it’s so shocking to be reminded of this.
 
it was my bud who began that line of articles.

www.inquirer.com

A Hidden Hellscape

In Philadelphia, just four miles from where America declared its independence, is a hidden-in-plain-sight wasteland along railroad tracks where the most desperate of Philadelphia's addicts have handed over their lives and liberty to heroin.
www.inquirer.com www.inquirer.com
 
A380 said:
I’m always amazed my the levels of poverty in the US and the people wandering around with completed untreated psychosis and other mental health issues. Things are bad here, but it’s always a warning against those who want to completely destroy what’s left of the welfare state.

It’s not just the cities-though LA has tent streets 2/300 meters long in places and scenes like in this video but I remember seeing little kids in Georgia who obviously had no shoes.

Yes poverty is ‘worse’ in the Global South but the US is still the richest country on Earth by a number of measures and it’s so shocking to be reminded of this.
Click to expand...
Vancouver while not in the US had much the same challenges as the West coast of the US in my experience.
 
A380 said:
I’m always amazed my the levels of poverty in the US and the people wandering around with completed untreated psychosis and other mental health issues. Things are bad here, but it’s always a warning against those who want to completely destroy what’s left of the welfare state.

It’s not just the cities-though LA has tent streets 2/300 meters long in places and scenes like in this video but I remember seeing little kids in Georgia who obviously had no shoes.

Yes poverty is ‘worse’ in the Global South but the US is still the richest country on Earth by a number of measures and it’s so shocking to be reminded of this.
Click to expand...

I live in a better neighborhood than that and we have people with untreated psychosis walking around too. I know the name and general biography of a number of these folks. Its the gift from the Reagan administration that decided to close mental institutions and provide services within the community. All a good thought, but the funds and infrastructure for treatment never showed up in enough amounts to deal with it. At the moment, our prisons are the biggest providers of mental health services.
 
Been to places like that, though not as bad, in the US. San Francisco was the most blatant one - gentrified perfection on one street and a block over the majority of people were homeless, addicts, suffering from mental health issues or all three. Was depressing just how clearly delineated the line was too, there was no way to claim ignorance about what was going on or that police - I'm guessing - had a policy of ignoring one side as long as they could keep the other clear. Was disgusting, really. Even in places I've been to with wider spread problems and similarly policed wealthy areas there was at least half a sense the the people who were pushed aside were still part of the city in some sense. They still existed in communities no matter how incapable those communities were of helping them. US though, may as well have walled the place in for all the connection it seemed to have to anyone or anything else.
 
Yuwipi Woman said:
I live in a better neighborhood than that and we have people with untreated psychosis walking around too. I know the name and general biography of a number of these folks. Its the gift from the Reagan administration that decided to close mental institutions and provide services within the community. All a good thought, but the funds and infrastructure for treatment never showed up in enough amounts to deal with it. At the moment, our prisons are the biggest providers of mental health services.
Click to expand...
I was told that by someone in San Francisco. They also told me that traditionally California had better benefits / welfare (and weather) so tended to attract people from other states. Not sure if that’s the case or just what the person believed.

Also met some tosser in a bar who referred to them as “bums”.
 
Elpenor said:
I was told that by someone in San Francisco. They also told me that traditionally California had better benefits / welfare (and weather) so tended to attract people from other states. Not sure if that’s the case or just what the person believed.

Also met some tosser in a bar who referred to them as “bums”.
Click to expand...

Don't know how true it is but commonly said that other cities send people on buses to San Francisco just to get rid of them, saying the same thing about the support they could get there. Less a choice more a free ticket and a problem made someone else's.
 
Elpenor said:
I was told that by someone in San Francisco. They also told me that traditionally California had better benefits / welfare (and weather) so tended to attract people from other states. Not sure if that’s the case or just what the person believed.

Also met some tosser in a bar who referred to them as “bums”.
Click to expand...

The benefits are better there, but I don't think it goes very far in California. I'm not certain why homeless folks are attracted to California. It may be as simple as the weather. Where I live we lose several people a year who freeze to death. I've noticed that there's a spring and fall migration as the weather changes. Also, some places manage their homeless population by offering them bus tickets.
 
I think the way the video is in slow-mo (presumably to account for the speed of the car) does make everyone appear a bit more zombie like.

Of course the whole thing is sad and tragic regardless
 
Edie said:
Oh gosh that’s incredibly sad :( Richest country in the world and they choose not to care for their vulnerable :mad:
Click to expand...

We have shelters people can go to, but often people choose not to for a variety of reasons. Some people are banned from the shelters, but if the temperature goes below a certain level, they allow everyone in regardless of previous bannings. But, even so, we lose 6-12 people every year. Not all of those are people who freeze to death, a lot of them seem to be car/pedestrian accidents that happen after dark. Some of them are violence. And some are people who died due to untreated medical problems or overdoses. Lately, we've lost of few due to fentanol-linked overdoses.
 
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Riklet said:
This is just misery porn.

Bit like those awful books about abusive childhoods. A Child Called It etc.
Click to expand...

I divide these into several classes. There's one channel that interviews homeless folks and then uses money from the channel to help people. There are channels that aren't actively hostile, but seem to be posting for the views (and the cash that generates). Then, there are actively hostile videos that are encouraging arrests or other, harsher "solutions." Not certain where this particular video falls, but you are correct in thinking there's a huge danger of exploitation here.
 
Edie said:
Or is it showing a problem so that it isn’t just ignored. It’s a fine line.
Click to expand...
I do have question marks though about the level of consent here (none) and people then just uploading your vulnerability onto the internet. There are lots of ways to raise awareness without filming like this. (Not watched the whole thing so I am unsure if this is addressed or more information given)

I always used to hate it on Facebook when someone would post videos of people "drunk" in public with no context. I remember challenging a friend of a friend that shared one pointing out they may not have been intoxicated and even so it's not okay to share that - they deleted me. All that would largely do is create hate directed at the person in the video and then by extension other people who are in similar situations.

Not keen personally.
 
The justification of this used to be that they are doing it in the street so that's their fault. Without acknowledging they don't have anywhere private enough to do it and most of us are lucky to have our home to be fucked in, or unwell in without having to live it in public with pricks filming you.
 
petee said:
in the article i linked to, my friend ans his co-writer went onto the tracks (also in Kensington) and interviewed face-to-face, the old-fashioned way. so there was consent there, if you wish to read about the situation.
Click to expand...
I wasn't including your article in that. I am intending to read it. :)
 
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