This Op-Ed by Attorney and U.S Army Veteran Jake Lilly appeared in Westword.com on May 5th, 2019.
On Tuesday, voters in Denver will decide whether or not to continue arresting homeless people for simply occupying public space. As a prosecutor, I believe we can improve public safety by passing Initiative 300and stopping these arrests.
I have served as a prosecutor in Colorado, Texas and Georgia, and I am a combat veteran of the Iraq War. I firmly believe in holding people accountable for their actions. I, however, do not believe in sweeping homeless people who have committed no real crime into the criminal justice system simply to remove them from public spaces.
It is tempting to call the police about homeless people occupying parks or sidewalks, because if police take them away, the caller will not see the consequences and it keeps us from having to address the underlying problems inherent with poverty. But as a prosecutor, I know that this action has serious consequences for our criminal justice system.
Read the rest of this Op-Ed by Jake Lilly at its original source HERE.