Bone In The Throat

When you see those less fortunate than yourself, perhaps living rough, you think, “They’ve had a rough enough go of things I’ll leave them be.” 

Out of kindness you might make sure that these folks have water, or food. Or you choose not to call the police to have them move on. These days in California, calling the police is a useless exercise if these folks are on public land, or even in your home or vacation home. Turns out squatters have more rights than owners.

I could probably wax politically about this state of affairs. I’ll sum up by saying, Squatters have more rights than property owners because the State doesn’t want private ownership of houses or land. If ownership of houses or property confers no advantage, then people will forego the horrendous expense of home ownership and rent or squat because it’s the fiscally logical thing to do.

Remember Klaus Schwab famously said, “You will own nothing and be happy”

It looks like laws may have been enacted, which bit by bit are moving us toward that supposed utopian end point.

I always ask utopian for who? 

What Schwab is saying essentially is, “The underclasses, will own nothing and be happy with the largess of the Elites who allow them to live as long as their numbers are few and their usefulness is moderate.” In Schwab’s version of utopia the elites are wealthy and own everything, possibly even large swaths of people living as something akin to serfs. 

This has been explored in countless dystopian books and movies. Elysium and Altered Carbon for example. Altered Carbon is a bit more layered about it.

I choose these two works because the dystopian societies explored are not the result of nuclear war. Instead, the society is the result of technological innovation coupled with unbridled greed, and laws which failed to keep up with technological innovation. You might be able to include Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 in my list as well.

There are countless other books, short stories, and movies exploring ‘what if’ scenarios from a cultural standpoint, so my list above is by no means exhaustive.

I digress a bit. I was considering all of this over the past 2 weeks for a number of reasons. One reason has been that the squatter issue is increasingly in my face.

First, it was just a little trash left behind by snow players. A few brightly colored bits of plastic from broken sleds.

Had the snow players been sledding in a designated ares instead of the rocky areas where they were, their sled would have lasted longer.

The Winter always brings this kind of trash, and includes water bottles, dirty diapers, food containers and food waste which can endanger the neighborhoods by attracting large predators.

The Snowplayers have zero concern for any of that. They tend to treat the homeowners here in the mountains as though we’re employees at Disneyland, as if we exist to serve their needs.

They’re here to have fun and we, the residents are supposed to shut up, keep the roads and our driveways clear so they can park, provide bathrooms for them, and allow their children to play in our yards.

Second, was a sleeping bag, blanket and pillow. These items kept moving around indicating that they were being used by someone. Recently, the wind carried these items into the wash bed. At that point they were collected and put in a pile for trash pickup.

Third, was a campsite that lasted a couple of days which was built on an abandoned trailer that has been along my walking path for years. Under the trailer the person or persons stored mats and a few items presumably with the intent to come back for them. Oddly, there was also a rather expensive looking telescope mount left behind as well.

Fourth, Jesse noticed a crack pipe off the access road to the wash, When I called him away from it two stoned out people jumped out of the bushes to protect their pipe.

Neither Jesse or I appreciated being surprised like this and to his credit he remained between me and what he perceived as a threat.

When we returned from our walk the pipe and the people were gone. The next day we found more detritus where we had encountered the druggies.

Fifth, it appears that someone decided to use the wash access road as a dumping spot for difficult to dispose of items. At this point I think it was a single person emptying the bed of their truck.

In this case they left a can of paint. It’s been reported to the flood control folks since they’re supposed to police the lands they’re responsible for. They have a camera on a pole to watch the wash during storms. Perhaps they need to improve the camera so that license plates or photos of perpetrators can be turned over to police.

Sixth, we get to the full encampment. Which popped up and was then abandoned.

This left behind a ton of trash all of which will have to be packed out of the area if the locals clean up the mess. Although again, this is adjacent to the flood control access road and the flood control folks could pull right up with a pickup truck (since they have the keys to the gates,) and easily load the trash.

Seeing the images of colleges & universities across the nation after the pro-terrorism encampments, and the aftermath when the encampments were removed. Then recalling the CHAZ bullshit in Seattle during the “Sumer of mostly peaceful protests,” while encountering the trash left behind by people, on my daily walks.

I noticed a lot of similarity between the two.

I’ve been annoyed more than once in the Winters when people pile out of their Tesla exuding an air of smug self righteousness, claiming their “RIGHT” (which they don’t have,) to play in the snow on private property.

I’ve heard stupid things like “You can’t own the land”, and “We’re just going to be here a few minutes…” as they set up a hibachi grill and light charcoal.

These people have no limits, no shame, and no courtesy. Some of them upon seeing how their batteries have discharged in the 20° F temps get upset to find the nearest charging station is 30 miles away. Then you’re told somehow you’ve failed them because you don’t have a compatible socket for their car and that you should because you have solar panels on the roof. Apparently they think you’re  supposed to give them power for free.

All of that is annoying enough. Then there’s all that they leave behind. The detritus of humanity, the 21st century petroglyphs on any available rock, the cartons, wrappers, boxes, and plastic containers.

Somehow these folks have rationalized their entitled-ness and justify it with virtue signaling, instead of real actions. Their entitled behavior continues even when they’ve been forced into the “lower rungs of society”. 

We’ve had the occasional squatter here in town. But never to this extent and certainly not the numbers along the 1.5 mile stretch of access road next to the wash. The squatters/campers of the past at least did a decent job of cleaning up after themselves. They might have been living rough but they didn’t live like animals who shit in their own nests. 

In years past you’d see a trash bag suddenly appear next to your trash cans on trash pickup day. It was the trash from a squatter/homeless person’s campsite. Back then, we’d look the other way because at least the person or persons had respect for the forest. 

These people today have no clue how to camp. They definitely don’t know they’re supposed to pack out the trash they generate, and they’re filthy. Not necessarily in their person but they camp, trash their campsite, and move to the next clean place, repeating the process.

As I walk and encounter these things I ask myself, “Is this where we’re heading?” 

We all know that the economy is bad, regardless of the LIES being told from podiums in Washington D.C. or elsewhere along the reelection trail.

Will the economy being this bad result in more squatters and camps such as I’ve seen in the past 2 or 3 weeks?

What I’ve seen is only on one side of the wash. Jesse likes to walk the other side of the wash and when there’s no water flowing we’ll make a loop crossing at a high point in the national forest then walking down and back up. Right now we’d have to walk a “U” because I don’t want him to play in the muddy water flowing in the wash.

On the other side of the wash after about 1/4 of a mile, there’s National Forest land. There’s also plenty of flat ground that would be good for camping. My concern is that folks might start cooking over open fires. The evening winds coming up the canyon could spread a campfires’ embers quickly into dry brush.

Since I recently saw a video of a young man testing the fire retardant qualities of his clothing while he was wearing said garments in his bedroom.

I have real concerns that some dumb ass will burn the forest down and perhaps the town with it.

In all honesty, I think that perhaps fire is a technology that is beyond some people these days.

All of this contemplation has led me to this inescapable conclusion. I cannot look the other way. I’ve got to report all that I see to proper authorities for the safety and security of the town and my neighbors.

I feel bad that there are people who are having a rough time. But folks trashing the forest, or squatting wherever they can, if tolerated will become the “Norm”. 

That seems to be a universal truth. If you ignore unacceptable behavior, not only does the first unacceptable behavior become normal, but additional worse behaviors will occur. 

God Help me! I’m going to have become a “Karen”