My mother is a lifelong Californian, born and raised in Stockton. She now lives near Danville. She is a law-abiding, taxpaying citizen who has lived her entire life to better the lives of others. Last month, a homeless man spit in my mother’s face as she walked down the sidewalk a few blocks from our state Capitol. My mother is 72.

She had gone to Sacramento to get her haircut and was walking back to her car, when a man, who was covered in human excrement, crossed the street and started yelling at her. My mother, who broke her kneecap a few months ago, could not run away. Yelling a string of nonsensical obscenities, the man walked up to her and spit directly into her face.

Shannon Freeborn 

I ask how we as a state and as a society allow this to happen? Clearly this man is mentally ill. According to state law, “When a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to others or themselves … upon probable cause, they will be taken into custody for a period of up to 72 hours for assessment, evaluation, and crisis intervention.”

I ask how a human being, covered in human filth, yelling strings of profanity and spitting in the face of an injured, elderly woman is not a danger to both themselves and others?

This plea is not about my mother. Sadly, what happened to my mother, and much, much worse, happens multiple times a day in California. My mother’s experience is an amalgam of thousands of peoples’ experiences — a byproduct of what we have allowed to happen to our state and to its residents.

What happened to my mother is a result of lawmakers acknowledging how bad the homeless situation is, but not enforcing laws and making hard decisions to get mentally ill homeless off the streets in order to protect citizens.

Although I am furious, I have as much compassion for the man who spit in my mother’s face as I do for my mother, who was traumatized by the experience. Both are victims. Both suffered and are suffering. But acknowledging this is not enough.

We cannot allow someone to be on the streets who is a harm to themselves or others. It is that simple. It is irresponsible and a violation of all of our human rights. If an animal was roaming the streets, sick or injuring others, we would act. As Californians, we treat our animals more humanely than we do our citizens, both the ones who are a threat to themselves and others, and the ones who are threatened by them.

We are in crisis as a state, and it has to change. I know homelessness is a complicated issue, but this is not complicated. What we are doing as a state is not working. Not for the mentally ill homeless and not for the people, like my mother, who are victimized by them.

Shannon Freeborn is an Alamo resident with a master’s degree in education who works with children with learning disabilities.