So without a property and/or a vehicle you're basically treated as less than by the state.
Homelessness is being criminalized more and more in the US and that'll give a licence for it to spread globally.
The solution is cheap back-alley welded cycle rickshaws. If enough homeless people could get a simple cycle platform with a lockbox and room for a mat or tent it could change things.
They are no longer homeless, they are in their vehicle on the public highway or whatever, officer.
The small increase in security, with the lockbox, could result in more dignity imo.
Large traffic blocking protest actions become an option for the homeless, similar to the car protest actions seen during lockdown.
The state may come to regard this action as so visible and inconvenient that they may be forced to do more than pay lip service to the issues.
Sure there would be a reaction, but consider the concept. 200 rickshaws suddenly in an urban area. Just the attention drawn would be something.
You're talking about smashing someone's vehicle and possessions. Ofc it happens but there would be recourse.
sounds kinda like the zambulance
*you can also include one of those bicycle-powered washing machines with each rickshaw
**cops and other sociopaths might bend the wheels of the rickshaws so you gotta make sure folks can get replacement wheels easily
Yeah, there would be all kinds of cop and legislation sabotage, but it would put the issue front and centre if a few hundred of these rickshaws appeared in an urban area.
edit: wasn't aware of the Zambulance. What a great project. Thats exactly what I'm talking about. Every household should have on of those tbh, it would carry a week's shopping.
Yeah I don't think that police violence is going to be solved by invoking a legal technicality.
It's not a silver bullet but can you see any worth in a project that could make previously invisible people impossible to ignore? People who have nothing but a bag, would at least get the dignity of a mobile sleeping platfrom and a lockbox.
I've never been arrested but I have been harassed and told to leave by cops when I was living in my car.
ACAB, they'll always find a way to fuck with you.
agree, but in this scenario, if somebody is told to leave by cops, they can cycle away with their possessions. Someone without any vehicle is much more likely to get picked up or be subject to more attention.
This would be aimed at people without cars, who usually feel the sharpest end of the state. Just having a sleeping platform on wheels with a lockbox would give someone a level of dignity they wouldn't otherwise have.
