The BBC Foulkes Up

In an article titled "Housing Report slams US and Sudan," Imogen Foulkes of the BBC reports on the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) condemnation of the United States and several other nations because of high homelessness rates.

As an American citizen I was extremely surprised by the news story, as when I think of world homelessness, I tend to think first of developing nations with high birth rates, not the world's sole remaining superpower. Upon further reading, in the second paragraph of the story, I happen to notice an unfamiliar term-"forced evictions." What, exactly, does that mean?

You would be hard-pressed to find a direct answer from the BBC article, but it seems that the condition of "forced eviction homelessness" Foulkes highlighted is readily apparent on the COHRE site, and is defined as:

the removal of people from their homes or lands against their will, directly or indirectly attributable to the State. It is a widespread practice affecting persons in developed and developing countries.

Wow…where I live? I read more.

There is invariably an element of "force" or coercion involved and the use of physical and psychological violence is also common. To implement a forced eviction, it is now common practice for governments to employ armed police officers, SWAT teams, criminal gangs or hired thugs and bulldozers to ensure a complete and successful eviction. COHRE receives regular reports of the use of severe violence during forced eviction including killings, beatings, rape and torture.

Now, as a blogger, I just felt stupid. Completely incompotent.

I've spent countless hours breathlessly searching the web for news of relevance to write about, to the point that sweat is dripping from my pajamas and pooling around my fuzzy bunny slippers, and I miss a case of this magnitude, virtually in my own back yard?

I had yet to hear of cases where NYPD SWAT teams murdered and raped, or raped and then murdered, tenants that did not pony up their monthly rent.

I knew obtaining rent-controlled apartments in Manhattan was very competitive, but I didn't think it had gone so far as to necessitate torture. I thought that was a right reserved for housing co-op boards.

I fought down an urge to call Mayor Bloomberg's 311 line, and left the COHRE site to return to the BBC article, so that I could bring the full weight of evidence of this atrocity into the public eye.

As I rejoined her BBC article, Foulkes went on to say that the US was cited for not only high levels of homelessness, but for criminalizing acts such as sleeping on a park bench. Oh, the horrors! But before I could renounce my citizenship and run for the Canadian border, I caught the next paragraph, where it stated the US:

was also cited because of its activities outside US borders. The centre claims indiscriminate bombing in Iraq has destroyed thousands of homes.

Wait just a minute...

I put down my copy of The SAS Survival Handbook and sat staring at my computer monitor, stunned.

The article nearly took me in, and instead of a true human rights report, I find a blatantly anti-American screed.

Let me get this straight: this "journalist" and a bunch of Euro-dunces takes issue with the fact we are disenfranchising Islamofascists in Iraq from their rights to fortified positions?

Something stinks in London, and it isn't the Thames.

Not only does this "journalist" (and I use that term loosely) fault the United States for these so-called crimes, but she refuses to mention, in any way, that the terrorist forces in Iraq are commandeering these houses-often committing the very rapes, murders, and torture COHRE seems to want to credit to the U.S.-and thereby forcing coalition forces, in military terms, to "reduce" these structures to save the lives of peaceable Iraqis who are being terrorized, murdered and raped by terrorists who have taken over their own homes.

Apparently Imogen Foulkes and COHRE doesn't care if the house is being lived in by the rightful owners or being used as a weapons cache, rape room, or torture center, as long as it is still erect and even so much as a terrorist can call it "home."

No, Foulkes and the COHRE instead use this as an excuse to attack the United States on the most dubious of charges, while commending Sao Paulo, Brazil for their policies on treating the homeless. Unless Brazil has recently moved or there is another Sao Paulo, this is the same city where no less than another BBC article showed the police there have been accused of murdering the homeless in their sleep.

Nice.

Once upon a time I though that the BBC was a credible news organization. It is quite a shame to realize that they, too, are Rather biased.

Update: Upon further reading, COHRE takes issue with the United States for confiscating the homes of drug dealers, and those homes used as drug dens, or what we tend to call "crack houses." I guess in their eyes, violating the law is not a crime.