HOMELESSNESS NOT SO CORRECT

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, has compared the homeless to the baby Jesus, saying in December 1999 that Christmas celebrates "the birth of a homeless child."

"Criminalizing the homeless, with mass arrests for those whose only offense is that they have no home, is wrong," Mrs. Clinton said during her Senate campaign.

BUT:

As many as half of the homeless have criminal records, and some have committed serious violent crimes, including rape and murder.

"There's no question that a certain percentage of homeless people on the street are dangerous or violent," said Heather Mac Donald, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who has written extensively on the issue. "These are not gentle lambs."

Miss Mac Donald said liberal activists achieved a "public relations coup" by popularizing the term "homeless" and creating an image of the people once commonly called "bums" as harmless and innocent victims of society.

But police in many communities recognize the threat posed by the homeless, and some charities devoted to helping the homeless concede that many of their clients are former convicts.

A survey two years ago by the Boston Rescue Mission found that 49 percent of their clients said they had criminal records, and 32 percent said they had spent time in prison, while 12 percent said they were discharged directly from a prison to a shelter.

More here.