Discarded needles, drug paraphernalia and homeless people sleeping on sidewalks offered a stark snapshot of Los Angeles’ homelessness and drug crisis as Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton took his campaign to MacArthur Park.
Hilton toured the notorious park and surrounding alleys on Tuesday, targeting taxpayer-funded nonprofits that distribute clean drug supplies under so-called harm reduction programs.
“This is your tax money at work… Free crack pipes and needles being handed out to drug addicts. CEOs of these so-called “nonprofits” making millions a year. The smell, the squalor, the inhumanity. All of it is funded by you.”
The Republican candidate argued that the programs prolong addiction rather than help people escape it.
“They call it ‘harm reduction,’ but all it does is keep people addicted. I’ll end this madness.”
The conditions surrounding the park were on full display during Hilton’s visit.
Video and photographs from Tuesday showed him walking past a woman sleeping in an alley and speaking to reporters as another person slept on the sidewalk just outside the park.
Hilton has previously described seeing “crack pipes, injection drug use, and people folded over on fentanyl in the middle of a sunny day.”
One clip drew attention online when viewers spotted a homeless man wandering through the frame with his pants around his knees while Hilton discussed the neighborhood’s conditions.
The political backdrop is striking, Los Angeles City Council has 15 seats and no identified Republican members, while the city has not elected a Republican mayor since Richard Riordan won in 1993.
California’s last Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, left office in January 2011.
Trash piles and human feces were also among the conditions Hilton highlighted, which he characterized as a “moral failure” and a “taxpayer-funded drug market.”
California voters will choose between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Hilton in the Nov. 3 election.
