Suspending civil rights seems to be part of the Oceanside cop's solution. Chilling? Seems to be consistent with the Fox theme.

When I was growing up (eons ago), I viewed the ACLU as an impediment to "justice". I suspect I got a lot of that from my father. They would take up the cause of obvious scofflaws and get them free on "technicalities". I have since come to realize that those aren't technicalities, they are rights that were violated. On rare occasion that may be appropriate (i.e. violation of rights). Such as during a pandemic when everyone is ordered to remain at home (I'm not speaking specifically about COVID, but just as a general principle). Usually it is not (e.g. Manzanar). Careful consideration needs to be exercised when suspending rights, and it must be very temporary.

So I contribute to the ACLU semi-regularly.

As to homelessness, yeah...the sunnier states are more attractive. You're not going to freeze to death in Oceanside. And it's a multi-faceted problem that includes housing (some folks can't afford it, but have no issues with drugs and such), mental health, drug abuse, and probably some other stuff I'm not thinking of at the moment.

Without the full context, it is difficult to judge. Suspend civil rights for the mentally ill? Well, Reagan set them loose on our streets in the name of unlawful imprisonment. But that is a special situation in which the mentally ill need help, and in many cases cannot be relied upon to seek it themselves. There need to be procedures in place to prevent abuse of the system, but the system should have able to scoop those folks up so they can be treated and maybe live semi-normal lives. If that was what he was referring to, I agree. Drug abuse is more difficult because the person has to want to be free of drugs. Otherwise rehab won't take, and you're just wasting time and money trying to treat them. But if they do want it, it should be more available than it appears to be.