VAN NUYS, California — As I parked my car, I knew the smell was coming. The trash was a putrid mix of food, rotting carcasses, rats, needles, and fecal matter and loomed as a giant wall of rubbish that stretched for days. Scott’s producer, Jeremy, had told me to arrive at the location at 7 am. I stepped out of my Jetta and began walking towards the smell, and them. Jeremy and Scott had arrived before me and were standing against the back of Jeremy’s car. Scott, standing at about 6’5”, long hair down to his chest, rocking cowboy boots, lifted his head towards me. I instantly recognized him. I introduced myself and Jeremy explained I was the guy that helped him organize in the past couple months; making phone calls to Mayor Garcetti’s office, setting meetings with activists, helping select the location since I lived in LA, and meet with him regarding the cleanup. Scott immediately thanked me and we began chatting about how this all began.

For those who don’t know, Scott Presler is a political activist known for his cleanups. After Trump got into a Twitter bout with Elijah Cummings regarding Baltimore, Scott took the initiative and organized a massive cleanup of the Baltimore streets. It was wildly successful, spanning from social media awareness to actual local and national media coverage while actually making a difference for the community. It inspired people—and it inspired me.

Now, here I am working behind the scenes with the guy. He was nicer in person than how he seems on camera. Extremely affable and energetic, he was absolutely ready to work. People began to stream in around 7:30 am. Once our numbers began to swell, Scott energetically addressed the group of about 30 people who were here for the first cleanup shift at 8 am. Scott shouted to the group with glee and shook out any uncomfortable thoughts we might have had. He explained how we need to stay safe, to put on the provided hazmat suits, gloves, etc. how this was actually worse than Baltimore and not to worry since we had nurses on duty, to follow the proper protocols of keeping your hands away from your face, and to also make sure no one had any reservations. Looking around, people clearly felt more at ease with Scott speaking directly. With a giant “ARE YOU READY” and the crowd shouting “YES,” we began our apocalyptic march towards the giant wall of trash in the California heat.

So how did we get here? How did Los Angeles get to this point?

I have been living in Los Angeles full time since 2014. I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio and it’s crazy to think Cleveland is the butt of jokes for many Americans and Los Angeles is not. Simply put, Cleveland is not as bad as LA—and I quickly realized this when I first moved here. Having nothing but my lap-top, a lawn chair, and small table in my apartment on the first night, I decided to go see a movie and check out the city. I looked up a movie theater and hopped in my car. So, here’s me, a freshly graduated white male from the Midwest driving around West LA. I’m looking around and thinking, “Wow, I’m actually living in LA. This area seems pretty cool. The buildings look pretty nice, the streets seem pretty bustling—wait… uh… what.. what is that?” As I sat at a stop light, I witnessed a wicked snap back to reality. A homeless man was defecating on the sidewalk in full view of anyone and everyone. About 5 people walked right by and didn’t even flinch. They seemed numb to it. Rather, it was quite apparent they were conditioned by the liberal madness and the status quo. I was stunned, and the light turned green. At that moment, I knew I was in for it. Los Angeles was not what it seemed.

So how did Los Angeles become America’s toilet? Liberals have always maintained this was a housing crisis; that homeless people are the result of soaring housing prices. This is simply not the case. In reality, liberal policies have catered to the needs and wants of drug users—and they did this with a series of laws.

First, Los Angeles passed a city ordinance in 2006 called Jones vs. Los Angeles. Essentially, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city on behalf of six homeless individuals who had been cited for sleeping on the sidewalk. After a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the ACLU, the city reached a settlement. It agreed not to enforce its ban on sleeping on the sidewalks anywhere in the city. The result is mass amounts of tents on the sidewalk and people never moving into temporary housing. Skid Row has swelled into a coagulated mass. The estimated number of homeless in LA now sits around 60,000-70,000. I actually think it’s more.

The second liberal policy that destroyed Los Angeles is Prop 47. In 2014, the liberal District Attorney of San Francisco, George Gascón, drafted the Safe Neighborhoods Act (which is certainly ironic considering its true impact). Essentially, drug offenses were no longer felonies, but were instead treated as misdemeanors. Police have even told me they would rather do nothing as opposed to writing a ticket (more paperwork). In addition, if you stole something from a store that was greater than $950 in value, you would be arrested (previously, it was $150). This has resulted in a crime wave in California where homeless people and other criminals do not fear retribution. Of course, the Left has heralded this law since it was sold to the public as prison population reduction and saving taxes. Prop 47 is Gascón’s baby, and now he’s running for the same position in Los Angeles championing this issue. In reality, it has released criminals on the street and rendered the police useless. Simply put, the cuffs have been placed on the police and not the offenders.

Unfortunately, social justice warriors were not finished at Prop 47. The next policy was Prop 57, which passed in 2016 as a ballot initiative (like Prop 47). Prop 57 released “nonviolent offenders” and repeat offenders from prison. This included people who invaded homes and stole from cars. Sure, these are nonviolent offenses, but they are by no means the same level as other nonviolent crimes (such as shoplifting). At what point does a criminal actually fear the law?

So, as a result of these three policies written and passed by California Democrats, we have a spike in the homeless population, trash on the streets, crime, and human waste on every corner in Los Angeles. It is complete bedlam in the city and it’s a shame especially when searching Google images of Los Angeles during the 50s and 60s. You will find clean and beautiful streets.

Now, the homeless run the city. Sometimes I feel like I’m living in Biff’s version of reality in Back to the Future Part II. Crime data provided by the Los Angeles Police Department shows there were 8,906 crime reports between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1 in 2018 when a homeless person was listed as the suspect, compared to 5,976 for the same time period in 2017. The numbers in 2019 are also staggering (over 12,000). Just to give you an idea of the type of crimes committed, a local woman had a bucket of diarrhea thrown on her head, a man threw rocks at dozens of cars, another pushed an old man into a car, people are being randomly punched, kicked, etc. These crimes are a direct consequence of the homeless crisis and symptom of social justice policies. So, what has the vigilant Mayor Eric Garcetti said about the crime wave?

“I sympathize with the victims.”

So, this takes me back to the cleanup with Scott Presler. At this point it was evident the city had done nothing to solve this issue and begged the question: where do our tax dollars go?

I spoke with many people at the cleanup, including a business owner at the location. He was an Armenian immigrant who owned his tow truck company in the exact same location since 1995. He bluntly told me, “The homeless have lived behind my business for about 3 years now. They have created a huge pile of trash that’s accumulated for years. It smells, there’s rats. I’ve complained to the city to the point where I’ve lost count. They need to be put on the trash route and if they aren’t, it will keep getting worse.” He continued, “The city has done absolutely nothing about it. They set fires every night to keep warm and I don’t know what to do anymore. I’m so happy you guys came today to help clean up because I’ve lost hope.”

At that moment, I knew this was more than just picking up some trash. We were actually helping our community and not only the homeless who were living in squalor. When I was on my hands and knees, picking up years old trash, I was thinking about what he said. It angered me. Here’s Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles because his dad was mayor before him, having zero accountability for the absolute disgusting city he has created. When I called his two assistants (I have their number thanks to Ted Hayes, a homeless activist) before the cleanup, they ignored me. I kept calling, and they kept ignoring.

Unlike Garcetti, we made a difference that day. We worked until 5 pm and cleaned up 50 tons of trash, removed hundreds of shopping carts, power washed them and had them returned to their rightful business owners. We inspired hope in a community that wasn’t getting it from their government. In the end, we made a bigger dent in one day than the city had in three years—all without a single cent of taxpayer dollars being spent.

On the other hand, Garcetti has only one answer to the homeless epidemic: more spending and taxes. He pushed for Prop H, which increased sales taxes to pay for the construction of “affordable housing.” In addition, he also worked on Prop HHH, which sold $1.2 billion in bonds to the public and hoped to create even more public housing for the homeless (which will likely go largely unused). Here’s the cold truth: the homeless do not want help; they want to be on the street and do their drugs. “Affordable” housing doesn’t allow for them to do their drugs inside the locations due to property & casualty insurance–it’s simply too high of a risk. So far, Prop HHH has only built two shelters and spent $619 million with each apartment costing about $500,000—is that really necessary?

When reading more into the details, it makes sense why it is so expensive. Prop HHH has only created wealth for his cronies. They take 40% of the cost in the form of “advisory fees” while simultaneously donating to Democratic campaigns. In other words, true quid pro quo.

Unfortunately for Angelinos, nothing will change. There is absolutely zero accountability for Democrats in power since it’s a one-party state and people continue to vote these crooks into power without doing the active research and realizing they are being bled dry. Unfortunately for them, it is too late.

Bluntly stated, Los Angeles has become an embarrassment to the United States. It reminds of Cleveland’s reputation during the 1970s when our river caught on fire several times. However, it is now Los Angeles who has taken the torch. According to local authorities, there were over 2,486 fires in Los Angeles in 2018 and many of which are caused by the homeless.

When my wife’s family regularly visits from France (she’s French), I’m absolutely ashamed to drive them around town. They are always stunned to see the incredible amounts of poverty, trash, and destitution. Simply put, I am the man putting her at risk in view of her family since I’m the one who convinced her to stay here.

We have already seen the fall of Los Angeles. However, we must learn from its mistakes and let it be a lesson to others looking to implement the same inept and corrupt policies. In the eyes of John Winthrop, Los Angeles has become the city on a hill [of trash]. Let it be our beacon.