Joe Rogan jokingly suggested shooting homeless people in Los Angeles after claiming the city’s alert prosecutors no longer care about violent crime.
Rogan, 54, recounted an experience of seeing “four port-a-potties” under an underpass where a homeless camp had been set up and how one person’s car “half-blocked” the road with a dresser and belongings nearby.
His guest Tom Segura claimed that homeless camps are “protected property” in the state and “protected by law.”
According to a 2019 federal court ruling, some California jurisdictions may not prosecute homeless people who camp on public land. However, LA signed a new ordinance in August 2021 banning the emergence of camps around parks, libraries and other public spaces.
Rogan thought it “hilarious” that an ordinary person could be “arrested” for “trying to move an encampment” and suggested an even worse way to solve California’s homeless problem.
“But they wouldn’t arrest you if you shot someone. Maybe you should just start shooting at homeless people,” Rogan said on the show’s July 14 episode.
Segura agreed and told Rogan that he liked his “ideas.”
“I mean, nobody does violent crime in LA anymore,” Rogan continued. “It’s a fucking joke.”
Joe Rogan, 54, proposes to “shoot homeless people” because “no one is doing anything about violent crime in LA anymore,” he said on his podcast. ‘It’s a damn joke’
Total crime in Los Angeles has increased by 8.2 percent. Shootings, assaults and robberies have also increased in the City of Angels, at 3.1, 5.0 and 20.8 percent, respectively.
LA District Attorney George Gascon has been widely criticized for his approach to crime and has been charged with mildness towards criminals as the city’s prisons have become a revolving door.
He faces a recall for his unpopular policies, with the campaign to oust him bearing clear resemblance to the recall that San Francisco prosecutor Chesa Boudin successfully removed from office in June.
But LA’s homeless advocacy groups are shocked by Rogan’s direct statements.
We, the Unhouse podcast host and homeless advocate Theo Henderson, told: Variety that Rogan’s statements were “abhorrent.”
“It’s infuriating because not only is it out of the way, but the reality is that homeless people are being targeted by housed people,” he told the outlet. “To advocate for trying to shoot people without housing or giving dog whistles to people who don’t see people without homes as human beings — I can’t believe you would argue for it.”
A homeless man sits by a tent, surrounded by overturned trash cans and folding tables. Rogan suggested the villainous solution after telling a story about seeing an encampment under an LA underpass and his guest Tom Segura telling him people would be “arrested” if they messed with homeless camps
A man runs past a homeless camp on the beach. In August 2021, LA signed an ordinance banning homeless people from setting up camps near parks, libraries, and other public spaces
Henderson said Rogan should have advocated for more “access to the bathroom and shower depots” so they could fend for themselves, rather than complain about seeing them.
“It’s a terrible response to a diverse situation that we all have to really worry and work aggressively to accommodate people at this time,” he told Variety.
Andy Bales, who runs the Union Rescue Mission homeless shelter, agreed with Henderson, saying he was “surprised and saddened” by the podcaster’s comments.
“The comments about starting to kill the homeless are too close to reality for any comfort, as the murder rate of the homeless in Los Angeles increased 47 percent last year from the previous year,” he told Variety.
The homicide rate is currently 2.1 percent lower than in the same period last year.
“There’s already a bit of an unfortunate vigilance in Los Angeles towards people devastated by homelessness and they don’t need encouragement,” Bales continued.
It’s not the only controversy Rogan has found himself in. Last year he was criticized for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 about alternative treatments and vaccinations.
His comments sparked calls to remove his podcast from Spotify and led several musicians to take their music off the platform.
Total crime is up 8.2 percent in the City of Angels as of July 2