New Times / Letter To The Editor

What happened to 'live and let live' in SLO?

Brenda Forsythe

As a California native, I have always enjoyed the progressive attitudes of our state. Decisions the SLO police have been enforcing in recent years seem to counter this idea of tolerance and bring to mind the idea of a police state instead. To harass or arrest homeless people for sleeping in their cars when they have nowhere else to go seems not only intolerant, but also heartless.

I read a New Times letter to the editor (“Scale your responses, SLOPD,” Jan. 17) from a guy who claimed the police were treating him like a criminal for smoking outside a CVS. I can understand banning smoking indoors in public areas, but to ban it in outdoor public open spaces is intolerant of individual liberties. To make it illegal to celebrate Mardi Gras, punishable by arrest, is yet another example of excessive control trumping liberty. Whatever happened to “live and let live,” as long as nobody gets hurt? Do we have to be “protected” to the detriment of our rights?