Well, then, count me among the abnormal. I'd have no problem whatsoever asking that someone who'd just defecated or urinated or fornicated in a public park be moved to a place where people with self-control won't have to deal with him. Defecating, urinating, fornicating and, for that matter, bathing, cursing or wandering wild-eyed through the streets are not fundamental rights. They are nuisances - or immediate public dangers.
So the Police Department is justified in assigning additional officers to patrol Rittenhouse Square after residents complained about the increasingly aggressive homeless population that's taken up residence in the park. Despite what Officer X might think, it's not their playpen.
But, you say, these are human beings. Where is the compassion for people who have fallen on hard times and find themselves forced to live in the margins of our heartless society? Don't the police have better things to do than to terrorize the homeless?
Yes, and no. It's true that there aren't enough shelters to address the demand. It's true that some of those who live on the streets are not there by choice. And that murderers trump vagabonds as Public Enemy No. 1.
But does that mean we have to give a pass to people who are ruining a public amenity for everyone else? When then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani set out to clear Manhattan of the homeless under the broken-window theory, New Yorkers saw a marked increase in their quality of life and a decrease in petty crime.
But there's something else at work here, something that has nothing to do with solving a legitimate housing crisis or rationing limited police resources. If you listen to what our anonymous cop was quoted as saying, the picture is clear:
