EDITORIAL DOWNTOWN CRIMES CITY HALL WAGES WAR ON HOMELESS FOR DEVELOPERS' PROFITS.

HERE in the City of Angels, gang members roam the streets with impunity. Cops don't chase criminals or respond to burglar alarms. And politicians shamelessly sell their souls and public policy to special interests.

Join a gang, commit a crime or corrupt the political process and you're safe - just don't think about sitting on a curb, at least not near Skid Row.

Last fall, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance that ``prohibits anyone from sitting, lying or sleeping on any public sidewalk, street or alley at all times anywhere.''

``Anywhere,'' in the reality of selective law enforcement, only means ``downtown L.A.,'' because that's where Municipal Code 41.18 is being used to drive the homeless from downtown to freeway culverts, the banks of the L.A. River and eventually to a park near you.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which is challenging the ordinance in court, estimates that there are 85,000 homeless people in L.A. County and only 13,000 beds in county shelters.

A sizable portion of the local homeless population consists of people with alcohol or chemical addictions or mental disabilities. These are men and women who either can't or won't go to shelters even if there were space.

City officials obviously never considered seriously any programs or policies to deal with them in any way. That shouldn't surprise anyone since L.A. government isn't about finding solutions to public problems, it's about providing favors to private interests.

Having seceded the downtown tax base from the rest of Los Angeles, City Hall has turned the area into a new gold mine for the rich, who see the chance to add to their wealth if they can get rid of the riffraff.

It's all business in City Hall, business as usual. And in the interest of business, it's now a crime to be without a home in the city of Los Angeles.

Heck, it's probably a crime for a couple of kids to play a game of marbles on the sidewalk. Under 41.18, just sitting on a curb at nightfall could be enough to get you jail time or monetary fees.

In fact, the city's ordinance is nothing more than an old-fashioned vagrancy law, making people with no visible means of support subject to arrest at any time. The courts struck down those kinds of laws a long time ago and ought to strike down L.A.'s, too, unless there is a genuine alternative offered to the bums, crazies and down-and-outers.

This from a city leadership that has the nerve to pride itself on its compassion, whose ``progressive'' City Council members are so anxious to demonstrate their social consciences that they're busily working on a resolution denouncing President Bush and the war on Iraq.

If only the council's ``progressives'' would show as much concern for the city's residents - homeless or not - as they've shown for Saddam Hussein.

Maybe the homeless should hire their own lobbyists and donate their $220 monthly public assistance checks to a political action committee. Maybe then they, too, could get some respect from L.A. City Hall, instead of just harassment without a helping hand.