Denver To "Hide" Homeless For Democratic National Convention

Now, I'm no fan of most homeless people, but the Democrats always proclaim to be. How many times have you heard that we need to show compassion for the homeless, or we need to provide free social services to the homeless from Democrats? Lots ... right?

Well, Denver will host the Democratic National Convention this year, and instead of allowing the Democrats to highlight the homeless problem so we can help these poor souls ... they're going to hide them from public view until after the convention. Then it's back to the streets with you ... smelly bum.

My mayor, Oscar Goodman, has been nationally demonized for his treatment of the homeless here in Las Vegas, but he's never proposed anything so "Vlad Dracula" as this.

Rocky Mountain News:

Denver plans to clear downtown streets of the homeless during the Democratic National Convention here in 2008.

The city will open an emergency shelter normally used during winter deep freezes, and keep other shelters in the city open 24 hours during the August gathering. In addition, an army of outreach workers will fan out across downtown to persuade the homeless to come inside during the convention.

Wow, talk about wanting to sweep your problems under the rug. So is this just a case of Denver being embarrassed by their homeless population, or is it something more?

Roxane White, Denver's manager of human services had this to say:

The effort is motivated by security concerns and is not just an effort to spruce up Denver's image at a time when the city will be under a media spotlight.

Special attention will be paid to the "security zone" around the Pepsi Center, which includes the South Platte River, a favorite campground for the homeless.

Oooh, it's a security thing. I see, homeless people are criminals now. Why is it that whenever I say that I get some Dem crawling up my butt telling me how "insensitive" I am? Hypocrisy reigns supreme, I guess.

The most intriguing part of her statement isn't the security angle ... it's the whole 'throwing the homeless out of their homes because we have a bunch of wealthy Democrats coming to town, and they don't want to see your filthy, drunk ass hanging around their convention' part of her statement that intrigues me. She is admitting that the homeless are being removed from "a favorite campground" of theirs in order to hide them from the public. When my mayor closed down Circle Park because of the homeless problem there ... he was verbally assaulted nationally by homeless advocacy groups. He was even labeled the most unfriendly person to the homeless.

Denver is not alone, and several other cities for both parties have done similar things. It's just a little humorous to hear that the homeless-friendly Democrats aren't going to seize upon the opportunity to talk about the problems with capitalism, and its affects on innocent people who end up being homeless. What better platform to talk about social programs, and reform, than to illustrate the homeless population right outside the front door?