(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed the far-left state’s judges for its current homelessness debacle, despite those judges being largely Democrat appointees.
Specifically, Newsom complained that the state’s left-wing judges are refusing to allow law enforcement officers to clear away homeless encampments from the state’s streets, Breitbart reported. The admonishment came in the wake of Newsom’s own disastrous policy failures addressing the homeless crisis, which he in large part helped to create.
Assured that his solutions would solve the state’s homeless problem, Newsom doubled-down when he was facing a 2021 recall election and literally invited the nation’s homeless population to camp out in California.
“It’s about getting people off the streets, out of incidents of crisis, and meeting people where they are and to the extent that people want to come here for new beginnings and all income levels, that’s part of the California dream,” Newsom said at the time.
“We have a responsibility to accommodate and enliven and inspire, and California’s dream is still alive and well,” he boasted.
The proclamation drew a swift rebuke from Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
“We are trying to keep our heads above water, and he goes and says that?” Villanueva continued. “When he invites the rest of the nation’s homeless to California, that is the death wish.”
The state’s homeless problem has only gotten worse since Newsom’s invitation, despite his administration pouring $22.3 billion in new housing and homelessness spending since taking office, including one plan to build thousands of tiny homes across the state.
“These encampments in California are unacceptable,” Newsom said during a January photo-op that saw the governor purportedly rolling up his sleeves to clean up the mess he created. “The dirty streets in the state are unacceptable. We have to do more. We have to do better.”
Newsom’s latest criticism that tried shifting blame onto leftist judges came via a recent Tweet, wherein he sided with tech billionaire Elon Musk, who recently called for a boycott of Latham and Watkins, a law firm that is suing the City of San Francisco on behalf of homeless people.
On homelessness, @ElonMusk has touched on a key issue.
California has made record investments — $15.3 bil.
But federal courts block local efforts to clear street encampments — even when housing and services are offered.
Courts must also be held accountable. Enough is enough.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) August 29, 2023
According to the governor, courts are blocking the state from shepherding the homeless to state-sanctioned camps.
“Courts must also be held accountable,” he wrote, not holding himself accountable. “Enough is enough.”
Newsom neglected to mention that the judges making such decisions are primarily of the same political opinion as him. Some of them even got their jobs because of woke DEI policies.
In San Francisco, for example, the city was blocked from clearing homeless camps last December by U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu. She was appointed in 2010 by judges in the Northern District of California during President Barack Obama’s push to hire more women and minorities.
The appeal to Ryu’s ruling is being heard by a Ninth Circuit court, consisting of one Trump appointee and two Biden appointees.
In Los Angeles, where homelessness problems are nearly as bad, an appointee of Bill Clinton, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, ruled in 2012 that the city and the county must provide public housing for the homeless.
Though his ruling was later overturned by the Ninth Circuit, his opinion has opened up new legal pathways to more thorough than ever welfare programs.
Carter, who tried and failed to run for Congress as a Democrat, has also written opinions that were used extensively by the January 6 Committee, and are also being used for state and local prosecutions of former President Donald Trump.
