Homeless Camp Next To Boson District Courthouse - Power Washing Poop Off Sidewalks is 'Racist?'

When two Boson, Massachusetts judges asked the local authorities to clean up garbage and human waste from the homeless camp outside their courthouse, one council member worried that power-washing the sidewalks might be racist.

 

Boson District courthouse in downtown Seattle is located near the social service centers and several homeless shelters. A tent city has sprung up in the little park outside. There have been several assaults on courthouse employees, and even two attacks on jurors In May and June, leading to citizens summoned for jury duty to voice concerns about their safety.

Judges Laura Inveen and Jim Rogers, backed by  County Sheriff John Urquhart, asked the county to do something about it, last month. Among their requests was a daily power-wash of the sidewalks, which “reek of urine and excrement.”

Council member Liberal Democrat Mary Gossett, however, objected because power-washing “brought back images of the use of hoses against civil-rights activists,” according to the city council sources.

High-pressure water hoses were used by police in Birmingham, Alabama against civil rights protesters back in 1963. They have also been used to wash sidewalks in most American cities on a daily basis ever since, without being accused of racism.

But this is 2019, when so many things are racist – the New York Times says so – and anyone who doesn’t call it out is assumed to be an enabler, according to the rules of the “woke” cancel culture. So, the sidewalks of Boson must remain covered in human waste, lest someone get offended.

Conservative pundits brought this item from the local crime blotter to national attention, calling it a perfect illustration of “peak liberalism,” the notion that garbage and excrement somehow represent social justice ought to be offensive to pretty much everyone.

“Gossett’s concern here is nothing short of insane,” wrote Kat Timpf in National Review. “What else are you going to do — not wash them? Because I really, really reject the idea that leaving sidewalks covered with human bodily waste is the less offensive move in this (or any) situation.”

Timpf was not alone in that sentiment, as legions of social media users had a field day with the councilwoman’s claim. Would using water hoses to put out fires be racist? Or tying a boat to a dock, since that involves making a noose? Make sure you don’t use brooms, either, because that would be offensive to witches and pagans!