Fox News contributor calls homeless people in Los Angeles zombies
Emily Compagno: “These are zombies. These are absolute drug addicts with mental illnesses.”
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From the August 30 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): The homeless crisis is growing in America's second largest city: Los Angeles, California.
LISA BOOTHE (GUEST CO-HOST): Well, Fox News contributor Emily Compagno recently visited the appalling conditions on the streets of Skid Row in Los Angeles. Wow, look at that.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): How can that be allowed? She joins us right now with part two of her investigation. Why does it look like that out there?
BOOTHE: I mean, that is just crazy.
EMILY COMPAGNO (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): It is. Thank you so much for having me this morning. We're about to find out, as we saw in part one of our series, homelessness, mental illness, drug abuse, and rat infestation have brought the Skid Row area of Los Angeles to a crisis point.
...
DOOCY: "They come there to die."
COMPAGNO: I know. How sad is that? No one throws away people like Los Angeles. What was so striking to me about being down there is that it's not just squalor. It's not just poverty. It is so much worse than that. And it's not people sitting there lucid and asking for help with signs. These are zombies. These are absolute drug addicts with mental illnesses. And in talking to the law enforcement consultancy on Joseph, I was struck by how hamstringed they are. How much these policies have crippled and made the entire situation worse.
KILMEADE: Because these people are also dangerous to civilians who are just trying to go about their lives, to families. Because look where they're set up. And the law enforcement, it's no longer a misdemeanor to do a lot of these things. So law enforcement says I really can't do anything. So I'm not even going to go there anymore.