Lawmaker takes sledgehammer to Hawaii homeless' carts

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/20/us/ha...rts/?sr=google_news&google_editors_picks=true

CNN) -- Hawaii state lawmaker Tom Brower was fed up with the state's homeless problem. His solution, however, left him branded a vigilante.

Brower took a sledgehammer to abandoned shopping carts.

"I get a lot of complaints about stolen and abandoned shopping carts in Waikiki, and I was thinking as a public servant, 'What can I do that would be practical and I can literally do overnight,'" Brower told CNN affiliate KITV.

"I'm not doing anything different than doing a community cleanup, or what the city's administration has tried to do with the issue of people illegally camping on the streets," he insisted. "I'm just doing it quicker."

He began in late October and estimated that he destroyed about 30 of the carts, which are often used by homeless people......more.....

Lovely. I too live in a resort area and I'm aware of the problem. (And to be honest, if I had no home, I too would want to live somewhere warm.)

But how does smashing a homeless person's cart solve it? It certainly doesn't give him or her a home, a job or a support system of friends and family. I don't see how this lawmaker's actions are anything but mean.

He doesn't have the right to destroy other people's property. Bad karma.

:sigh: I wonder about a lot of people in certain positions, and wonder how they got there. This is one of them. Inability to actually see, much less analyze, the real problem.

Got a call about shopping carts that the neighbor does not want to see? No problem. We will get rid of them. Simple minded, quick answer to shut people up.

Not one thought about the homeless. Not one thought about why they ended up homeless and how to make changes to help those that are homeless now, and prevent future homelessness. Hawaii's economy is probably a good place to start. Much like D.C. and it's surrounding areas, cost of living is phenomenal in comparison to rate of pay.

Nova said:

Lovely. I too live in a resort area and I'm aware of the problem. (And to be honest, if I had no home, I too would want to live somewhere warm.)

But how does smashing a homeless person's cart solve it? It certainly doesn't give him or her a home, a job or a support system of friends and family. I don't see how this lawmaker's actions are anything but mean.

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Sadly there are some folks who would applaud this type of mindless posturing at the expense of the lobby-less less fortunate.
I suspect thats who he's playing to.

I believe we should pray that this man finds a soul.

My opinion only

The Hawaii state representative who has taken a sledgehammer to roughly 30 shopping carts in his crusade against homelessness announced his retirement as a vigilante on Tuesday, declaring his mission accomplished.

Neither controversy nor national attention caused state Rep. Tom Brower (D) to hang up his sledgehammer. Instead, he told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, "The point that I was trying to make has been made."

Brower incited national outrage when the Star-Advertiser reported his unconventional approach to combatting Honolulu's homelessness problem. Brower boasted of cleaning up the city by taking a sledgehammer to homeless people's shopping carts. (He apparently wears gloves and an Armani Exchange baseball cap while doing such dirty work.) If shopping carts bore a store name, he would return the carts to the store.

His self-proclaimed "tough-guy" approach went further. He yelled and roused sleeping homeless people at city bus stops.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/tom-brower-sledgehammer_n_4306368.html

Folks did anyone actually WATCH the video??? He is not running up to homeless people and destroying their carts before their eyes, the carts are EMPTY and ABANDONED!

In fact the carts likely were never used by homeless people, they were used by lazy people that didn't have a car to go grocery shopping so they steal the cart after buying groceries and when they get home they dump the cart outside. Next time they go shopping they steal ANOTHER cart and so on.

Destroying them seems rather stupid as he could call the grocery stores and have them reclaimed, regardless the hysteria that he is "a heartless evil person victimizing the homeless" is ridiculous.

Sonya610 said:

Folks did anyone actually WATCH the video??? He is not running up to homeless people and destroying their carts before their eyes, the carts are EMPTY and ABANDONED!

In fact the carts likely were never used by homeless people, they were used by lazy people that didn't have a car to go grocery shopping so they steal the cart after buying groceries and when they get home they dump the cart outside. Next time they go shopping they steal ANOTHER cart and so on.

Destroying them seems rather stupid as he could call the grocery stores and have them reclaimed, regardless the hysteria that he is "a heartless evil person victimizing the homeless" is ridiculous.

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Well, not really. I did watch the video, saw the empty carts. Even so, what is his point, simply to best empty shopping carts? I believe he has a point to prove, although I could be wrong. I believe he doesn't like to see the evidence of our policies, how they effect people, thus the shopping carts. To me he is a man with no policy for the betterment of mankind, especially those who are so vulnerable and hopeless, but one who wants to clean the streets FOR the wealthy, even if he has to cost the supermarkets/owners of the destroyed carts. what they spent for them.

I see him as a boil on the butt of our government/civilization, if you can call it that. Horrary for me and the wealthy, destruction and death for the rest of you poor SOBs.
A grandstanding , in my opinion.

My opinion only