A CALIFORNIA politician has called for a “purge” of homeless people in his city by giving away fentanyl.
The Lancaster mayor faced criticism for his comments but stood by them, expressing no remorse for proposing a controversial solution to deal with homeless individuals who have a criminal history.
R. Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster located north of Los Angeles, made the contentious remarks during a city council meeting held in late February.
Parris’ remarks came after a resident told the city council: “It sounds like you want to kind of enclose all these homeless people in one territory.”
The resident’s comments came up during a discussion about whether the city should use a golf course for homeless people to camp in.
“No, what I want to do is give them free fentanyl,” the mayor told the resident. “I want to give them all the fentanyl they want.”
The resident was confused at first and then said in a hushed tone, “That was not kind.”
Parris defended himself in a recent interview with local Fox affiliate KTTV, saying that he didn’t think anyone took his comments “literally.”
“In fact, it’s so easy to get fentanyl on our streets today that it wouldn’t even make a difference if we did give it away,” the mayor said.
He said that he “made it very clear” that he was referring to homeless people who are committing crimes.
During the meeting, Parris discussed the challenges presented by individuals with criminal backgrounds who are now among the city’s homeless population, constituting a significant percentage of it.
He continued: “They are responsible for most of our robberies, most of our rapes and at least half of our murders.”
Parris did not explain where he was pulling these statistics from.
He also pulled from some personal experiences, saying that homeless criminals “kicked in” the back door of his house on two occasions.
The mayor said that his shocking comments were about people who “refuse” the services that Lancaster provides to its homeless population.
“There’s nothing that we can do for these people,” according to Parris.
Parris took his disturbing comments a step further, calling for President Donald Trump to allow a “purge” of homeless criminals.
“I wish the president would give us a purge because we do need to purge these people,” he said.
Parris admitted that his proposed method is “harsh.”
But he added, “It’s my obligation as the mayor of the city of Lancaster to protect the hard-working families that live there and I am no longer able to do it.”
Parris pointed to an understaffed sheriff’s department and a sheriff who he claims is not able to enforce the law against homeless people out of “fear of federal lawsuits.”
“I think that my constituents in Lancaster know exactly what I mean and know exactly that I am unwilling to accommodate criminals and that’s why they have reelected me six times,” the mayor added.
Parris was first elected mayor of Lancaster in 2008.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Parris for comment.
