In an video message aimed at President Trump, Los Angeles activist Alexandra Datig pleaded for the president to intercede regarding the soaring homelessness in Los Angeles, asserting, “Please, President Trump, we are calling on you: Help our city. Our citizens are dying; they will continue to die.”
Earlier this week, in an interview President Trump did with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, Trump stated of cities that have homelessness problems, “They’re run by very liberal people and the states are run by very liberal people. … Do they really think this is okay? Because it’s not. It’s destroying their city and it’s destroying a whole way of life. … We may intercede.”
The video from Datig starts with this message emblazoned on the screen: “Message to the President of the United States. Donald J. Trump. Urgent Call for Federal Intervention. Due to the state of emergency caused by homelessness in Los Angeles California.”
Datig stated:
My name is Alexandra Datig and I am calling on the President of the United States to intervene in Los Angeles due to the state of emergency created by its homeless crisis. In the county of Los Angeles, we have more than 59,000 people homeless. We have more than 36,300 people homeless in the city of Los Angeles, and we have more than 16,000 people living in his or her cars. We have more than 3,000 homeless veterans. Veteran homelessness was supposed to be ended by the year 2015 according to our mayor.
This has not happened.
We have had a 75% increase in homelessness in the past six years under the leadership of our mayor, Eric Garcetti. Our leaders, here in this city, have lost heart and cannot deal with the crisis at hand. Our police officers are getting sick; our social workers are getting sick. Our sanitation workers are being treated terribly. Trash problems are everywhere. We are having serious environmental crimes happening, every day, several times a day, where 59,000 people in the county of Los Angeles are dumping raw sewage into our storm drains, entering our waterways.
These are serious, serious environmental crimes. We have homeless youth; we have had, in the past five years, to 2018, more than 3,600 people die on the streets of Los Angeles. These people, who are living on the street, some of them, are sentenced to death by homelessness. This situation is completely unacceptable and we need a federal intervention immediately. We need FEMA; we need the Red Cross; we need the CDC and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Datig concluded: “We need immediate assistance. This is urgent. Immediate assistance is needed. Now. Today. No delay. Please, President Trump, we are calling on you: Help our city. Our citizens are dying; they will continue to die.”
Earlier this month, Datig spearheaded a petition to recall Garcetti, saying, “We don’t want any more excuses from this mayor. We want him to step down. We want him gone and we want leadership that is going to take care of this city. This city has become a death camp for the homeless,” as NBC News reported. Datig created www.recallthelamayor.com, which offers information on homelessness.
WRAL reported, “Figures released earlier this month showed a 16% jump in Los Angeles’ homeless population over the last year, pegging it at 36,300 — the size of a small city. That’s no surprise to anyone who lives or works downtown, where tents crowd sidewalks within sight of City Hall and the stench of urine fills the air.”
Video below: