to me it does. I think as a society we're at the level when we can allow and thus must allow to cut some slack to disabled people, and temporarily or permanent lack of ability to reason is a disability just like not having a leg for example. When some limping guy with a stick say stumble and hit you while falling, would you deploy your anger like it would be in the case of intentional hit? The same way with people who may not be able to function in the society and manage their societal responsibilities at the level we think of as minimally acceptable. Whatever reason for their current condition, to me these are just ill people who need help instead of full legal violence deployed against them. Though, from pure logical point of view, we can just say to this woman that last 20 years she should have learned her some Python, and thus her situation is her own doing. In my personal view, our ability to rein in such logic and deploy compassion instead of it is what determines whether our civilization goes forward or backward.
Honestly... if some random limping guy (not my family) fell and hit me with his stick every other day and often fell and hit my neighbors too... I would certainly want that guy out of my house. If I tried to help him get out of my house and he kept falling and hitting everyone that tried to help him... well at some point I would stop caring and just want him gone. Based only on what is in the article, since that is all we have, I feel they did start out with compassion. But you can only get hit with a stick so many times before you start losing that compassion. When they bought the house, they knew they were getting an illegal rental unit... not a one bed mental hospital. It wasn't their job to make sure she got help. It seems like they did more than they should have to.
What more could be done? The courts bent over backwards to accommodate her, going so far as to award her $14,000 after patiently exhausting every other option. 14k and a moving crew seems pretty generous as far as evictions for hostile, unsanitary, non-paying tenants go. Her story is depressing because she is clearly a troubled woman, but you can't just ignore reality and expect everything to work out, it's unsustainable to allow every person with poor reasoning skills live rent free.
The courts didn't award her $14k. She agreed to it in arbitration and signed a contract specifying that she'd get it in return for moving out. She then declined to move out, and I assume didn't get any of that $14k (because... why would she?).
The story mentions later on: "Her settlement money comes in small increments, so it is difficult for her to save up." So she got the 14k even after she refused to honor the contract she signed.
to me it does. I think as a society we're at the level when we can allow and thus must allow to cut some slack to disabled people, and temporarily or permanent lack of ability to reason is a disability just like not having a leg for example. When some limping guy with a stick say stumble and hit you while falling, would you deploy your anger like it would be in the case of intentional hit? The same way with people who may not be able to function in the society and manage their societal responsibilities at the level we think of as minimally acceptable. Whatever reason for their current condition, to me these are just ill people who need help instead of full legal violence deployed against them. Though, from pure logical point of view, we can just say to this woman that last 20 years she should have learned her some Python, and thus her situation is her own doing. In my personal view, our ability to rein in such logic and deploy compassion instead of it is what determines whether our civilization goes forward or backward.