Mayor
Babtiste and the Homeless
by Joan Conrow formerly printed in The Kaua`i
When Mayor Baptiste
was running for office, he liked to adorn his campaign literature
and newspaper ads with a heart. Of course, it was all a ruse designed
to get votes. The real Baptiste is the man who moved to evict the
homeless from county parks — just as we were entering America’s
much-revered holiday season.
I’ve heard people applaud his heartlessness, saying the beach
parks have become a haven for lowlife ice addicts and dirty, dredlocked
hippies with EBT cards, all of whom deserve to have their asses
kicked out so taxpayers who are clean, shorn and addicted to legal
stuff can use the beaches in peace.
I don’t think most of the “dredhead” kids will
be impacted by the mayor’s plan, however, because they frequent
beaches that require a walk and cops don’t generally venture
far from their patrol cars. By the time the cops and state conservation
officers do try to roust them, they’ve already moved somewhere
else.
As for the “ice addicts,” who are now vilified as unredeemable
scum (never mind that physicians routinely prescribe the very same
crystal meth to our nation’s military elite, the bomber pilots,
and parents and schools regularly feed ice-like Ritalin to young
kids), where are they supposed to go? We have no treatment programs
on Kauai. And like the flower children, they don’t tend to
hang around waiting for the cops to show up.
No, the people hit hardest by the evictions are the ones with kids,
the ones with disabilities who can’t make the hike to the
remote beaches, the ones who need access to a shower so they can
go to work clean, the ones who feel some semblance of safety in
a park, the ones who don’t have families here to take them
in, the ones with no money, no credit and no hope of pulling themselves
up by their slipper straps.
Yes, Baptiste rounded up the poorest, weakest and most desperate
members of our society. He diverted the police from real crimes
and directed them to instead bully the single mothers, native Hawaiians,
alternative lifestyle folks and working poor who simply can’t
afford a rental on this island. And if they didn’t comply
with the order to leave, they were threatened with arrest and jail,
which means their kids could be thrown into the Child Protective
Services system. What does that solve, and how much does that approach
ultimately cost the taxpayer?
Baptiste claims he’s lost sleep (presumably in a comfy bed)
over his decision. He insists that businesses are up in arms over
the campers, which the Chamber of Commerce denies, and that the
parks are a hotbed of crime, which was news to the cops. He also
said he’s working on a homeless shelter (we’re the only
island without one) and more affordable housing. However, those
services could be years away, and it’s unclear what folks
are supposed to do in the meantime.
But why pick on the homeless at all? They’re just one of many
factors affecting our public beaches. Other, far more pressing issues
include pollution from human sewage, siltation from unregulated
grubbing and grading, decrepit restrooms, the proliferation of beachfront
vacation rentals in regions not designated as Visitor Destination
Areas, shoreline encroachment by greedy homeowners, and accesses
lost or closed due to county malfeasance.
Certainly it’s much easier to attack and criminalize the homeless
than deal with such political landmines as reforming the public
works department and a kapakahi property tax system, creating truly
affordable housing, improving social services, adopting sensible
land use policies, obtaining beach accesses through eminent domain
proceedings, and halting the relentless gentrification of this island
fueled by the very same crowd that happily coughs up dough for political
campaigns.
When I see Hawaiians and families crying because they have no place
to go if they can’t camp at the beach parks, when I hear locals
tell me they no longer pick shells or fish because they feel shy,
even ashamed, to pursue such activities at beaches now crowded by
extravagant homes and overrun by tourists, I know that something
has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Of course, the process of setting things right requires intelligent,
thoughtful leadership from a mayor who has political courage and
yes, a heart. Which is precisely why we’re getting instead
an ineffective, mean-spirited, short-sighted, reactionary plan whose
implementation depends upon the use of guns and threats.
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