The LA Sherriff’s Department has been repeatedly accused of dropping mentally ill and other homeless on to the streets of downtown LA.  This behavior has now been reported by a LAPD officer, Capt. Andrew Smith, in the LA Times:

The [LA County Sheriff] cruiser, he said, turned south on San Pedro, then west on 7th Street to San Julian Street. There, Smith watched in disbelief as two deputies “pulled over, took a guy in handcuffs out of the car. They took off the cuffs and handed him a bag,” Smith said.

The captain and his partner immediately got out of their car and questioned the man and the deputies. Smith said the deputies told him that the man had been released from the Men’s Central Jail and was standing outside on the street when a supervisor ordered them to take the man to a downtown mission.

“But there was no mission nearby,” Smith said. “Only a line of guys sitting on milk crates.”

***

Smith said the man had a long history of arrests in the Lakewood area as well as Long Beach, where he lived. He said Harris told him he had not asked to be dropped off and had no connection to downtown Los Angeles. Smith also said the man told him he suffered from bipolar disorder.

To the captain, the incident reaffirmed what he believes has been going on downtown for years. Other police agencies, Smith said, and even some hospitals, “are dumping homeless, drunks, narcotic addicts and the criminal population into the downtown area…. We’re fed up with it,” he said.

So, instead of treating these people, who have a history of mental illness and criminality, with respect and caution, they are dumping them with a sandwich and a milk crate.  Not only is this dangerous (dumping potential criminals onto the street), this treats these people like human garbage to be left at the dump.  The cuts in state and local budgets to homeless and mental health programs are coming home to roost.