Readers of this blog know that I don’t have a very high opinion of the San Francisco Chronicle. They’re biased against police, oblivious to peoples’ concerns about crime, and their reporters show a shockingly immature understanding of the great social issues that impact us. I sometimes wonder why I continue to subscribe. I guess it’s just habit.

“It is a characteristic of military problems that they yield to nothing but harsh reality; things must be reduced to elemental simplicity and answers must be clear, almost obvious.”

—- Dwight Eisenhower, “Crusade in Europe”

Sometimes it seems like we want our cops to be Mother Theresa: kindly, saintly, filled with understanding and compassion for the needy. At other times it seems like we want cops to be robots: precise, unvarying, imperturbable, able to analyze each situation with precision accuracy, never faltering or making a mistake. Sometimes, we seem to want cops to be social workers or psychoanalysts.

For those of you who have been unable to visit the Wood Street homeless encampment, here are a few photos to give you a feel.

It was wonderful news last week when we heard that Caltrans was planning to shut down the infamous Wood Street homeless encampment. The massive encampment, which is basically a mile-long pile of shanties, shopping carts and garbage, has been a national embarrassment to Oakland. Scores of fires have erupted there, and the crime-ridden area is overrun with rats and vermin. So when Caltrans made their announcement, lots of people were glad that at least one public agency finally had the cojones to do something.