![]() Presler has since used footage of his clean-up in L.A. ![]() Though not specifically billed as a political event, both Trump's attacks and conservatives' subsequent interest in Baltimore were in service of the claim that the right cared more about Black people than Black people did. Presler, who coordinated a national "March Against Sharia" as part of his work with the anti-Muslim group ACT for America in 2017, had done his first clean-up in Baltimore as a way to help shame late congressman Elijah Cummings after Trump attacked Cummings online. to clean up a blighted encampment this past September. That approach has made for some troubling coverage choices on NBC's part, including the validation of right winger Scott Presler, all because he came to L.A. It's a pattern NBC has perfected for its series - giving more voice to those affected by their encounters with the unhoused than vice versa, despite the fact that attacks on the homeless are on the rise and that they're dying in record numbers on the street. He was effectively a backdrop, not a participant. The report went on to dip its toes into Caleb's story (highlighted above), intercutting images of him incoherent and seemingly oblivious to his surroundings with snippets of others (including his heartbroken mother) opining on his condition and what should be done with him. Times looked very vulnerable people in the eye, acknowledged that most of them had probably experienced significant - including sexual - trauma as children, and then turned to camera and asked, "How many more of these poor schmoes must we be on the hook for?" He wanted to hear none of that, arguing that respecting the rights of a "homeless dude" harmed the "greater good" and telling me he looked forward to me writing a story uplifting that viewpoint.Īnd this past week, we had a few doozies. Through the course of research for other stories I had been working on around that time, I said, I had also been told that sometimes delays in clean-ups were a product of various agencies struggling to find someone services so they weren't just pushing that person from corner to corner. ![]() I pushed back, suggesting the gentleman consider deeper structural issues and the extent to which folks were being squeezed out of areas like downtown, thanks to rapid gentrification there. The city had posted notice it was going to do a clean-up there, the sender said, but the deadline had passed and he was beginning to lose patience. Three years ago, I got an email asking me to cover the extent to which a homeless person was infringing on the rights of bus riders by taking up residence at a bus shelter.
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