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# Stop the madness now
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/stop-the-madness-now-editor/
- Published: 2004-01-06T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:27:08.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

In this new year we need to stop complaining about the homeless and even about the hapless and ineffectual Santa Monica City Council, and help get legislation enacted that makes panhandling and loitering (sleeping in parks, in doorways and other public property) against the law. Violators of panhandling and loitering should be taken to facilities where their problems of unemployment, drug and/or alcohol addiction or mental illness can be properly treated. Palming small change and dollar bills and free meals in the park only help facilitate a lifestyle that should be remedied, not encouraged. And while we cease our complaining about the homeless, we should silence the complaining by the homeless. A start would be for the SMDP to stop wasting paper and ink on one homeless careerist, Charles Springer.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 6, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/010604.pdf?ref=smdp.com)