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This goes to show that as divided as people are, we still have a lot in common. Even in California, people reach a breaking point with homelessness and crime. Politicians use different rhetoric, but the actions can look a lot alike. That’s exactly what this article shows.
In nationally televised interviews and viral social media posts, Gov. Gavin Newsom has aggressively criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to send federal troops into Los Angeles and other Democratic-led cities. Less publicized have been Newsom’s own initiatives to clear homeless encampments and deploy state police to deal with high crime rates — a continuation of work that began before Trump took office.
The dynamic illustrates a tightrope that Newsom is walking as he eviscerates Trump’s policies even as he highlights his own, fundamentally similar approach to crime and homelessness.
Both Newsom and Trump are calling for widespread homeless encampment sweeps and deploying law enforcement to local communities to crack down on crime, though neither man acknowledges the similarities. Trump argues that Newsom is doing nothing to address problems in California, while Newsom contends it’s Trump’s approach that won’t produce results and lacks compassion.
“We are trying to be responsive to the people we serve,” Newsom told reporters at a news conference last month. “As it relates to the president in particular, he’s doing things to people, not with people. It’s a point of profound, consequential contrast.”
The moves by Trump and Newsom reflect a yearslong shift in California politics and across the country toward pro-law enforcement, punitive criminal justice policies.
“There’s definitely been a swing toward harsher penalties and lots of resources, lots of dollars going toward law enforcement strategies,” said Tinisch Hollins, who leads the nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice, which advocates for crime victims.
Newsom’s deployments of CHP officers to communities in California, including San Francisco, have happened largely in collaboration with local leaders, though they’ve generated some criticism from local advocacy groups. Newsom has sent state police officers to San Francisco to crack down on drug dealing, Oakland to apprehend thieves and Bakersfield to curb the homicide rate. Newsom said last month he’s deploying more state police to various regions in response to requests from those communities.
Trump’s deployments of federal troops, meanwhile, to quell protests in Los Angeles and Portland have come over the harsh objections of local leaders. Normally, presidents deploy National Guard troops only at the request of governors.
“Incompetent Gavin Newscum should have been THANKING me for the job we did in Los Angeles, rather than making sad excuses for the poor job he has done,” Trump wrote on his social media website after he sent troops to Los Angeles in June. “If it weren’t for me getting the National Guard into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now!”
Trump said the protests diminished with the arrival of federal troops, but the opposite is true — the protests, which began over Trump’s mass deportation campaign, grew in response to the deployment.
For Newsom, the move toward more policing has been a transformation.
Before he became governor, Newsom forged much of his political reputation through advocacy on criminal justice-related ballot measures. He was a leading supporter of a 2014 ballot measure to reduce punishments for drug possession and theft of property worth less than $950. In 2016, he spearheaded the successful campaign to legalize recreational cannabis and supported a failed effort to end the death penalty. Though Californians affirmed their support for capital punishment in that election, Newsom thwarted the will of the voters when he became governor in 2019 and placed a moratorium on executions in the state.
Though he hasn’t retreated from any of those specific policy positions, Newsom in recent years has focused more on prosecution and policing, alongside other Democratic politicians.
Hollins is frustrated there’s not more focus on funding programs that help prevent people from committing crimes in the first place, like those to help people get jobs or pay for health care. She pointed to an announcement from Newsom’s office earlier this month, which highlighted $1.7 billion spent to hire more police and crack down on retail theft, but not programs the state has funded to get guns off the streets and help people live law-abiding lives after they are released from jail.
“All of those dollars are public safety dollars, too,” she said. “They don’t get highlighted, but they do reduce crime.”
Hollins acknowledged that California is facing budget challenges, but argued that the focus on punishment rather than prevention is harmful.
“My biggest critique right now is, we are maybe in a budget crisis in California, but if California’s public response to public safety is law enforcement, then it’s not different than what we’re seeing at the federal level,” she said. “We need to continue to address the root causes of the problem.”
Trump issued an executive order in July declaring his intent to clear American cities of encampments by forcing homeless people to move. His deployment of troops to Washington, D.C., has also included an aggressive effort to push homeless people out of the city.
Newsom talks about wanting to provide people with services, but argued in court that governments shouldn’t have to. In 2023, he sided with conservative groups in filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to allow state and local government to crack down on people camping in parks, sidewalks and near roads. After the Supreme Court ruled in their favor, Newsom issued an executive order urging local governments to identify and clean up dangerous encampments.
Friedenbach credited Newsom with putting more funding toward services, even though she argues that the state should provide ongoing funding for homeless aid rather than one-time expenditures. Newsom pointed to billions in state spending he’s approved to build more housing to get people off the streets and fund health care for mental illness and addiction, including through his CARE Court program to steer more people into treatment.
“Our approach is to humanize, not criminalize,” Newsom wrote in a statement. “Encampment work is paired with shelter, services, behavioral health support, and now programs like CARE Court to help people who can’t help themselves. Bottom line: encampments can’t be the status quo. We’re cleaning them up with compassion and urgency.”
Trump, on the other hand, is cutting spending. Friedenbach pointed to Trump’s move to end a federal housing subsidy known as the emergency choice voucher program, which she said will force many people out of their homes in San Francisco starting in December. She also pointed to his administration’s cuts to food stamps and health care programs, which will further destabilize vulnerable residents and impact their ability to pay rent.
Typically, local advocates say homeless sweeps result in some people going into shelter but many refusing because the shelter offered doesn’t meet their needs or isn’t adequate.
“Trump and Newsom have talked about this in the context of people with addiction and mental illness, but the reality is the services aren’t there,” said Cristin Evans, a longtime small business owner and advocate for the homeless in San Francisco. “The idea that someone would give up their tent for a three-day shelter stay, that’s not reasonable.”
For those who don’t get into shelter, the sweeps can be devastating, Friedenbach said.
“They’re basically displaced with nowhere to go,” she said. The sweeps take away their property, including survival gear like tents and important paperwork. They also make it harder for people to stay in contact with outreach workers who are trying to get them into housing, and they degrade homeless people’s trust of the government, making it harder to convince them to accept government shelter in the future. People can also be pushed into more residential areas.
Newsom has recently been promoting a string of encampment sweeps near California highways. One, under a network of freeway exits in San Francisco known as “the hairball,” took place earlier this month. People who had been camping there were given 72 hours notice to clear out their belongings and work with local agencies to find new places to sleep. Jay Wierenga, deputy secretary of communications for the state’s Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, told the Chronicle that of 18 people identified as camping under the hairball, 12 spoke with service providers and five were already in shelters. Of the other seven, only one person accepted and was transported to a service location, he said. It was not clear what happened to the remaining six people.
Last week, a similar sweep near a freeway in Los Angeles had better results. All 40 of the people who had been camping there accepted shelter, according to the governor’s office.
Areas near freeways, like the hairball, harbor dangers, like traffic and pollution. But they also have some safety measures, like shelter from the weather and good lighting that can help protect people from assault.
Rather than forcing people to move, Friedenbach said the state and the city should spend more time working with each person in an encampment to get them the kind of shelter they need, and in the meantime set up bathrooms and sinks where people can keep themselves clean in the meantime. That kind of work takes weeks, not days, but can get people into more stable solutions that help them get off the streets and stay in housing.
“There’s this very revolving door situation where everyone’s just pushed around from place to place,” she said. “It’s very performative, just pushing people around from block to block.”
Newsom and Trump are closer on crime, homelessness than either might admit
In nationally televised interviews and viral social media posts, Gov. Gavin Newsom has aggressively criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to send federal troops into Los Angeles and other Democratic-led cities. Less publicized have been Newsom’s own initiatives to clear homeless encampments and deploy state police to deal with high crime rates — a continuation of work that began before Trump took office.
The dynamic illustrates a tightrope that Newsom is walking as he eviscerates Trump’s policies even as he highlights his own, fundamentally similar approach to crime and homelessness.
Both Newsom and Trump are calling for widespread homeless encampment sweeps and deploying law enforcement to local communities to crack down on crime, though neither man acknowledges the similarities. Trump argues that Newsom is doing nothing to address problems in California, while Newsom contends it’s Trump’s approach that won’t produce results and lacks compassion.
“We are trying to be responsive to the people we serve,” Newsom told reporters at a news conference last month. “As it relates to the president in particular, he’s doing things to people, not with people. It’s a point of profound, consequential contrast.”
The moves by Trump and Newsom reflect a yearslong shift in California politics and across the country toward pro-law enforcement, punitive criminal justice policies.
“There’s definitely been a swing toward harsher penalties and lots of resources, lots of dollars going toward law enforcement strategies,” said Tinisch Hollins, who leads the nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice, which advocates for crime victims.
Sending police into communities
Newsom, who declined to be interviewed for this story, says his recent actions are not in reaction to Trump, but are rather the latest iteration of longstanding policies the governor has embraced. But they are happening in the wake of Trump’s deployment of thousands of federal troops to Los Angeles over the summer, repeated warnings from Newsom and other Democratic politicians about the president’s authoritarian moves and Trump’s actions this weekend to deploy federal troops to Portland.Newsom’s deployments of CHP officers to communities in California, including San Francisco, have happened largely in collaboration with local leaders, though they’ve generated some criticism from local advocacy groups. Newsom has sent state police officers to San Francisco to crack down on drug dealing, Oakland to apprehend thieves and Bakersfield to curb the homicide rate. Newsom said last month he’s deploying more state police to various regions in response to requests from those communities.
Trump’s deployments of federal troops, meanwhile, to quell protests in Los Angeles and Portland have come over the harsh objections of local leaders. Normally, presidents deploy National Guard troops only at the request of governors.
“Incompetent Gavin Newscum should have been THANKING me for the job we did in Los Angeles, rather than making sad excuses for the poor job he has done,” Trump wrote on his social media website after he sent troops to Los Angeles in June. “If it weren’t for me getting the National Guard into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now!”
Trump said the protests diminished with the arrival of federal troops, but the opposite is true — the protests, which began over Trump’s mass deportation campaign, grew in response to the deployment.
For Newsom, the move toward more policing has been a transformation.
Before he became governor, Newsom forged much of his political reputation through advocacy on criminal justice-related ballot measures. He was a leading supporter of a 2014 ballot measure to reduce punishments for drug possession and theft of property worth less than $950. In 2016, he spearheaded the successful campaign to legalize recreational cannabis and supported a failed effort to end the death penalty. Though Californians affirmed their support for capital punishment in that election, Newsom thwarted the will of the voters when he became governor in 2019 and placed a moratorium on executions in the state.
Though he hasn’t retreated from any of those specific policy positions, Newsom in recent years has focused more on prosecution and policing, alongside other Democratic politicians.
Hollins is frustrated there’s not more focus on funding programs that help prevent people from committing crimes in the first place, like those to help people get jobs or pay for health care. She pointed to an announcement from Newsom’s office earlier this month, which highlighted $1.7 billion spent to hire more police and crack down on retail theft, but not programs the state has funded to get guns off the streets and help people live law-abiding lives after they are released from jail.
“All of those dollars are public safety dollars, too,” she said. “They don’t get highlighted, but they do reduce crime.”
Hollins acknowledged that California is facing budget challenges, but argued that the focus on punishment rather than prevention is harmful.
“My biggest critique right now is, we are maybe in a budget crisis in California, but if California’s public response to public safety is law enforcement, then it’s not different than what we’re seeing at the federal level,” she said. “We need to continue to address the root causes of the problem.”
Homeless encampment sweeps
Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco, said she sees “a lot of similarities” between Trump and Newsom’s approaches to homelessness, too.Trump issued an executive order in July declaring his intent to clear American cities of encampments by forcing homeless people to move. His deployment of troops to Washington, D.C., has also included an aggressive effort to push homeless people out of the city.
Newsom talks about wanting to provide people with services, but argued in court that governments shouldn’t have to. In 2023, he sided with conservative groups in filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to allow state and local government to crack down on people camping in parks, sidewalks and near roads. After the Supreme Court ruled in their favor, Newsom issued an executive order urging local governments to identify and clean up dangerous encampments.
Friedenbach credited Newsom with putting more funding toward services, even though she argues that the state should provide ongoing funding for homeless aid rather than one-time expenditures. Newsom pointed to billions in state spending he’s approved to build more housing to get people off the streets and fund health care for mental illness and addiction, including through his CARE Court program to steer more people into treatment.
“Our approach is to humanize, not criminalize,” Newsom wrote in a statement. “Encampment work is paired with shelter, services, behavioral health support, and now programs like CARE Court to help people who can’t help themselves. Bottom line: encampments can’t be the status quo. We’re cleaning them up with compassion and urgency.”
Trump, on the other hand, is cutting spending. Friedenbach pointed to Trump’s move to end a federal housing subsidy known as the emergency choice voucher program, which she said will force many people out of their homes in San Francisco starting in December. She also pointed to his administration’s cuts to food stamps and health care programs, which will further destabilize vulnerable residents and impact their ability to pay rent.
Typically, local advocates say homeless sweeps result in some people going into shelter but many refusing because the shelter offered doesn’t meet their needs or isn’t adequate.
“Trump and Newsom have talked about this in the context of people with addiction and mental illness, but the reality is the services aren’t there,” said Cristin Evans, a longtime small business owner and advocate for the homeless in San Francisco. “The idea that someone would give up their tent for a three-day shelter stay, that’s not reasonable.”
For those who don’t get into shelter, the sweeps can be devastating, Friedenbach said.
“They’re basically displaced with nowhere to go,” she said. The sweeps take away their property, including survival gear like tents and important paperwork. They also make it harder for people to stay in contact with outreach workers who are trying to get them into housing, and they degrade homeless people’s trust of the government, making it harder to convince them to accept government shelter in the future. People can also be pushed into more residential areas.
Newsom has recently been promoting a string of encampment sweeps near California highways. One, under a network of freeway exits in San Francisco known as “the hairball,” took place earlier this month. People who had been camping there were given 72 hours notice to clear out their belongings and work with local agencies to find new places to sleep. Jay Wierenga, deputy secretary of communications for the state’s Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, told the Chronicle that of 18 people identified as camping under the hairball, 12 spoke with service providers and five were already in shelters. Of the other seven, only one person accepted and was transported to a service location, he said. It was not clear what happened to the remaining six people.
Last week, a similar sweep near a freeway in Los Angeles had better results. All 40 of the people who had been camping there accepted shelter, according to the governor’s office.
Areas near freeways, like the hairball, harbor dangers, like traffic and pollution. But they also have some safety measures, like shelter from the weather and good lighting that can help protect people from assault.
Rather than forcing people to move, Friedenbach said the state and the city should spend more time working with each person in an encampment to get them the kind of shelter they need, and in the meantime set up bathrooms and sinks where people can keep themselves clean in the meantime. That kind of work takes weeks, not days, but can get people into more stable solutions that help them get off the streets and stay in housing.
“There’s this very revolving door situation where everyone’s just pushed around from place to place,” she said. “It’s very performative, just pushing people around from block to block.”