EDITORIAL EVERYONE'S PROBLEM.IT'S long been common for communities from across the country to practice ``Greyhound therapy,'' buying their vagrants and mentally ill folks a one-way bus ticket to warm-weather locales such as Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . Just last year, Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, officials considered the idea for a few minutes - until outrage forced them to table it. But it seems that homeless dumping Homeless dumping is the practice of hospital employees or emergency workers releasing homeless patients on the streets instead of placing them into the custody of a relative or shelter or retaining them in a hospital where they may require expensive medical care. might still be going on with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department This article is about the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department, not to be confused with the smaller Los Angeles County Police The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) is a local law enforcement agency that serves Los Angeles County, California. investigating charges that deputies took a homeless mentally ill man for a ride to L.A.'s downtown Skid Row skid row a run-down area frequented by alcoholics. [Am. Culture: Misc.] See : Alcoholism Skid Row district of down-and-outs and bums. [Am. Usage: Brewer Dictionary, 1008] See : Failure and left him there rather than trying to arrange for help. Whether the deputies were just being accommodating to the man's request or getting rid of a problem should not obscure the real issue: Society has failed for years to take responsibility for homelessness, preferring to ignore it. But homelessness is everyone's problem. And that's made all too clear when officers of the law see no other option but to let an ``agitated'' mentally ill man loose on the mean streets of the city. |
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