Ken WhiteFeb 3, 2023

A mentally ill homeless guy walked onto a high school campus in my suburb, wearing all black, carrying a big duffel bag. Now, it’s reasonable to be concerned about that and want to identify who it is, assure he’s not carrying weapons onto the campus, and so forth.

But the community (as, perhaps, poorly represented on Facebook) is coming completely unhinged.

/1

Show threadKen WhiteFeb 3, 2023
/2 The cops found him at a local Starbucks, identified him, determined he had no weapons, and gave him a trespassing ticket. The community is OUTRAGED. They’re stalking him around the community and taking pictures of him at Starbucks and McDonald’s and demanding that he be kicked out. They want him jailed or institutionalized.
Show threadKen WhiteFeb 3, 2023

/3 They’ve found his Twitter and Facebook accounts and are printing out the stuff there - kind of crazy, not notably crazy on Twitter — taking it to the police demanding he be arrested. They’re keeping meticulous logs of his activities.

I am considerably more afraid of my neighbors than I am of this mentally ill homeless guy.

Show threadRichard KepplerFeb 3, 2023
@Popehat the singular advantage of the Midwest is our crap weather keeps the riffraff out.
Show threadInarticulateQuilterFeb 3, 2023
@RichardKeppler @Popehat it is a myth that homelessness has anything to do with good weather — data shows it is driven overwhelmingly by high housing costs
Show threadAPT Ate My HomeworkFeb 3, 2023
@inarticulatequilter @RichardKeppler @Popehat also bad weather kills homeless people faster.
Show threadRichard KepplerFeb 3, 2023
@http_error_418 @inarticulatequilter @Popehat I’m going to need to start clearly labeling jokes. IE “THIS IS A JOKE”
Show threadJonah Stein
@RichardKeppler @http_error_418 @inarticulatequilter @Popehat Yeah, mastodon culture doesn't readily "get" snarky/satiric responses. It is confusing when I say something outrageous and people want to engage me as though I am serious.
Feb 3, 2023 at 7:19pmWeb
Show threadAPT Ate My HomeworkFeb 4, 2023
@jonahstein @RichardKeppler @inarticulatequilter @Popehat sometimes I'm on the ball, and sometimes I'm... not, clearly 😂