San Francisco is Full of Degenerate Homeless Drug Addicts

According to Bill O'Reilly

The Bus Witch

I need help. Those of you who are familiar with the Bus Witch understand my predicament, for today on the 51, I was hexed.

The story beings with a pretty straightforward encounter, when she and her assorted parcels/baggies/wheely-thingies boarded the bus and kicked me out of my seat: "I need to sit down."

I promptly vacated -- the last thing anyone wants to do is catch her attention, which quickly escalates from ire to fury to wrath -- but it was too late. She started making conversation, and I knew I was in her sights. When she told me I was a nice looking boy, I pretended not to hear. When she repeated herself, I developed a sudden fixation on my phone, managing to snipe this covert (albeit blurry) shot. Then she said, sort of speculatively, "It is alway a shame when nice looking kids die early."

Yipes!

That grabbed my attention, but I kept my head down.

When I still didn't answer, she paused, straightened up, and then said in a firm, clear tone: "You may be nice looking young boy, but with your tattoos, you will die early of blood poisoning." I could swear there was an erie moment of stillness on the 51, and I felt my guts turn cold. Then everything snapped back to normal, she turned to face the front of the bus, and I rode on in silence.

That, folks, is pretty much a hex.

Which means, during finals week and with a few airplane flights and a summer motorcycle trip in the works, that I am basically completely f-cking f-cked. Does anyone here know a cure? A way to forestall the spell? A skillful Good Witch, perhaps?


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Tangentially, Boaltie 1L Samika shares some thoughts on law school, at the Shark. I would share a few remarks of my own, but I am currently preoccupied by my imminent journey to the underworld.

Can helping homeless hurt them?

Here's an article in the Chron regarding attorneys helping fight homeless citations.

Essential premise: had attorneys not fought a particular homeless man's citations, he would not have died by OD'ing in the city's public library.

Do well-intentioned lawyers actually end up doing more harm than good?

It's a particularly relevant question for us to ask as (1) we have a ton of homeless in Berkeley; and (2) we've got a number of students and professors who volunteer in this way.

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EDIT: I'm not sure if people really got the purpose of this post - I guess I kind of threw it out there without a position. I was lazy and was seriously expecting some clear and prompt disagreement. I had even sent it to some friends I expected would be best at refuting him, as I didn't agree with his rather ridiculous column, and they would be best at putting him in his place.

The one thing I can say is that I didn't expect people to so readily agree with the author. Wow. People say I'm conservative, but I'm not CRAZY (I'm not all that conservative either). Mental health and homelessness are serious problems that require solutions beyond the author's suggestion that the legal system could handle it. And it's offensive to say that the people trying their best to correct the system are, in fact, to blame for making it worse.

For future reference: if I throw out an article/column without more than a "what do you think" - do NOT assume that I agree with the author. I'm trying to spark an intelligent debate in an open (yet anonymous for y'all) forum. Often the columns/articles that I disagree with most will be ones that I'll rely on my anonymous commenting friends to refute.

SF Legal Aid & The Panhandling Law

Interesting SF Gate article discussing on San Francisco's panhandling law. The City feels the law is being frustrated by the court calendar and by free legal aid attorneys who they perceive as 'over lawyering' the cases. Defense attorneys, on the other hand, feel the law targets people who are down on their luck and trying to get by, and that as a method to identify and deliver services to needy populations, the law is a flop.

It's obviously a mix of cases from across the board. But I wonder what our CLO-ers think?

Plan B(erkeley)

Berkeley's Comprehensive Plan for dealing with the homeless.

But Why Don't They Send Me the E-Mails

I ask because it's clear why Tom gets paid the big bucks. I just found out from some peeps what all this rankings hub hub is about. Well I didn't get any e-mail from Dean Ortiz or anyone else. I'm going to assume that if you're far enough below on said spreadsheet, they don't even send you the initial E-mail.

I have a feeling this has to do with the fact that I get e-mails directed at 1Ls. As I wrote before: "Am I the only 2L getting the mass e-mails to 1Ls. I mean the last one really pissed me off...it was from Petrine to the 1Ls telling them about the citation test, the one I took after downing beers with Fletcher." Well, how about getting some e-mails about 2L rankings huh? Who do I have to see to actually pass the First Grade?

UPDATE: I want to thank HP and the other staff here at Boalt for holding my hand and walking me out of kindergarten. Seriously, the CDO e-mails about 1L opportunities were getting annoying.

I have a few thoughts on the whole issue of wanting your rankings vs. competitiveness. A commenter wrote, "How does knowing your rank, which only takes into account how you did compared to other people in your classes, tell you about how you are doing from any other perspective than in comparison to your classmates? I have heard several Boalt professors complain that most of their students do very high level work (especially in the first year) but that the curve still requires them to hit many of these students who did good work with the P-stick."

I respectfully dissent. Any measure of performance is meaningless if it is not based on how well you do against your peers. If we were all HH students, then there wouldn't be any need for grades at all. That we are graded on a curve, that we are ranked against each other do not translate to a competitive mindset. I don't mean to be insulting but it almost sounds like this commenter is the type of person who will complain to a professor after getting a 92 on an exam but getting a B because of a curve. Again, the B is far more telling than the 92 and hence why it's not competitive per se to want a meaningful evaluation of one's performance. Will I be banging down Dean Ortiz's door any time soon and asking for my rankings? No.

Texas Bet 'Em

My idol (except for the blemmish of attending a Big XII school) and Texas L. Rev. EiC, Buffalo Wings & Vodka, suggests fantasy league of gunners. Ironically a classmate and I had a similar idea yesterday where we'd have a fantasy league of judges and count their remands on appeal. But more importantly, I think we should basically have an underground casino here at Boalt to take bets on various aspects of our school.

1. Which bathroom will host the most homeless occupants?

2. How many meals will Wolfgang Puck cater for Law and Tech?

3. Will (Justice) John Roberts extend the Endangered Species Act to apply to Fed Society members at Boalt? (sidenote: Thanks for the pizza today gentlemen. And I do mean men).

4. On-time construction at the UC during the next millenium? (1.000000000000000000000000000001:1 odds)

5. Run to the bathroom within 8.3 minutes of Guacafest. Over under?

6. John Yoo MCs AmJur Day. 483,566,122:1 odds.

7. A 1L DOESN'T purchase Berring's Survival Guide to Legal Research book. (Alternatively, which sells more copies, Berring's book or the User's Guide to the Bluebook?)

8. "Stains" in MoFo room identified as ________ (bonus: of the genus __________ ).

9. Modcest?

10. Worst interview/finals attire: to win, place, or show.

Nick at Noche

I can't think of anything more beautiful than a Spanish-language TV showing LAPD: Life on the Beat and not bleeping out as a homeless guy screams "You dirty coc***cker."

Edit: In light of the post above, I decided not to follow Telemundo's example and actually edited what was said.

The Others

In what may be an excellent example of irony, I used to be more conscious about the homeless population when I was in LA than here at Berkeley. Here it's almost a part of life. They're there...the others. They ask for spare change...sometimes not so spare, up to and including $5. They watch you carry your food back from a take out. Sometimes they hang out at the law school for a bit too long.

We, or at least I, block their existence whenever possible to give me an ease of mind (everyone lives a happy, happy life, the rain only affects you when you're walking to and from school, etc.) Then there are times when you just can't avoid it. I came home around 2:30 (home being Manville, the appropriately named University housing for graduate students) to see three UCPD squad cars parked out front. Since we're no where near frat row, I figured there must be something actually serious going on. I got into the elevator and went up to my floor when I heard LOUD noises above...screaming noises with the words, "Come get me, come on get me" intermingled. I stand there listening. Loud banging noises at elevator. Alarm sound at elevator. "Get him in there." Elevator starts going down. I go into my room.

Since that time when UCPD arrested two guys for driving a stolen car I've been partial to watching criminal law proceedings right outside my window. So I quickly took down the screen and leered. One cop goes to his car and gets anti-bacterial gel and rubs his leather gloves, then his arms. Examines arms. I couldn't see anything from here. Gets clipboard to make report. I check my e-mail and what have you for a few minutes but the noises outside attract me again. Now an apparently homeless guy was put on a stretcher and into a waiting ambulance. I say apparently only because some of the chemistry grad students look just like him. Kidding. He looked better. Kidding again. That same officer from before talked to the medic about which hospital they will be going to. I noticed the Thomas Guide and the "Essentials of Fire Fighting" sitting on the dashboard. A bit disheartening, but at least it's better to know where to get the information when you don't know then not knowing and not having anywhere to go. (Imagine ambulance driver being irritated by the guy at shotgun [spouse] because he refuses to ask for directions to the hospital). So then the two other officers emerged. One, rather loudly, remarks to the others, "I was just about to go home then this fucking shit happens." Hmmm, I'm now starting to put things together. Then just before they all left, a Manville resident on her bike arrived and approached the officers and looked like she asked about what had happened. After a few minutes she walked back to her bike saying something like, "still this isn't right." Just from the gestures I think she wasn't happy that they had arrested the guy or what have you. I'm assuming she didn't hear the yelling near the elevator. Finally, all departed.

Look, it's raining and the weather is rather gloomy. I think I can safely say at the bare minimum, half the homeless population here has some mental disorder. Combine that with water pouring on you (minus the umbrella or the nice jacket) and you get people getting into buildings. This guy happened to be a threat, or at least once the cops showed up...(is it too far fetched to think someone panicked when they saw a homeless guy sitting in the lobby so they called the cops?). As much as I like to have that conservative attitude that there's something wrong with THEM, therefore they deserve their fate, I can't help but think of those others while I enjoy my hot chocolate and daytime TV/blogging.

Happy Valentine's Day.