I suppose metaphorically a sign of decliningg civil order is publically defecating on Internet forums.
Did you even watch the video? I suspect not.
I would say that leaving mentally ill people to live like this, sleeping in doorways, defecating in the street and throwing their shit around etc. is inhumane. Some parts of Los Angeles (and other cities in California) really are open air psychiatric wards. Some days, driving to my office is like a zombie apocalypse. Drugged up zombies wandering in the middle of busy streets, you have to be careful you don't knock them down.
To be fair to Newsom, he has kicked off a few programs and initiatives recently that are supposed to help these people. We shall see but I am not hopeful the situation is going to improve to any great extent. Newsom is more interested in grandstanding in front of the cameras about 50 migrants/refugees taken on a joy ride to Martha's Vineyard than the plight of the mentally ill here in California.
It is probably acadmic and partisan to you.
To me it is the reality I live in, and everybody in my building. Some will not go outside anymore. Over the last 5 years I have had several confrontations, which defused without getting physical. I suspect if you actually were confronted with a crazy person you would piss in your pants.
Jimmy is right, you dom't 'help' these people. They have adapted to the way they live and know nothing else. It is something the Seattle progressives do not want to publicly admit, many will need care for life. For a number of the homelss the idea that they will receive treatment and transition to a normal life is not practcal. On top of that Wa courts have generally ruled homeless can not be coerced into housing or treatment.
Hotels ar being purchased and tiny home viliages are being built for housing. A tiny home is a small studio built on a pltform with water, electricty, and sewage.
Tiny house villages are a very good idea. However without an on site supervisor they have been seen to degrade into street like conditions. Trash all around and accumulation of junk.
To te OP title of breakdown in civil order the question is what is driving the increase in conditions where peoole end up on the street. A percntage are working peopel who lost housing because they could not afford it here in Seattle, but that does not explan the rest of it.
Drugs are a major driver. Organized crime is part of it, criminals are overcapitalizing on lenience given the homeless. This is not my conclusion, this is local reporting.
What I see is a general breakdown. Young healhy people chose not to work when employers can not find peole willing to work. The increase in grfitti is notable. It is everywhere. Spots on our building are painted over and new graffiti quickly appears.
Increased serious business vandalism. Attacks on police.
Someone in my building while out running pulled two kids off an old Asian woman they were assaulting. Culture has taken a serious trurn for the worse.