Candace Mercer Olympia, WA
1 min readOct 1, 2019

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You call it conspiracy, I call it organizing. We do not hate the homeless but we are not OK when they trash our neighborhood. People are sick of the homeless being angel winged. Not all are criminals, but the vast majority in our area are. We see the visible chop shops. We have our things stolen. The “hate” you describe is people trying to enforce reasonable social norms against theft and open drug use. We do not hate people, we hate their behavior and we do not like being shamed for pushing back. Any complaint is seen as hate and that is a very simplistic view. How are we supposed to organize? Are we supposed to just be OK with behavior that in other circumstances would be called out and shunned? A housed male makes a comment at work and is the target of #metoo, a homeless person waves a gun at a teen girl and threatens to kill her, and that is class discomfort and we should feel bad for the perp because he is oppressed. No. Those arguments are not working anymore. People are not going to be guilted into accepting bad behavior.

Here is my article on the topic: https://medium.com/@CandaceMercer/the-real-crisis-in-olympia-is-not-homelessness-ad68199ab708?source=friends_link&sk=bf65ec9ab222d2b93e002b72a230e302

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Candace Mercer Olympia, WA

Candace is a progressive artist/writer/activist based in Olympia, WA reporting on homelessness & political violence. She ran for Olympia City Council in 2021.