Ideally you want to go to a shelter first, because if a shelter is dangerous or unclean you can just leave (unlike jail). If you can’t find a shelter that has space for you, the next best thing is to sleep somewhere visible but somewhat sheltered and out of the way. Church doorways are ideal since if they find you they will usually offer you help rather than call the cops on you.
If none of those avenues are available to you, hit up your local library. If they don’t outright have a social worker on staff they’ll know how to put you in contact with one and help you with applying for benefits that can at least keep you fed, and will hopefully know how to most effectively get you in line for housing.
I’m too physically limited for range of mobility like this. I can’t seem to find anyone that can diagnose what is actually wrong with my spine. It is in a rare region and complex. Nothing major comes up in a radiologist’s MRI report, and neurosurgeons all come with a severe legislatively induced allergy to anything complicated to diagnose or work on. Of 13, only one spent the time to get into the weeds and it was only to make up a legally plausible narrative reason to claim I needed several fusions. They only took the time because they were about to lose their license for malpractice (something I had no clue about at the time). There is no such thing as a House like spinal doctor that will observationally diagnose a person regardless of their ability to treat or the risk involved. If they diagnose the issue they will face subpoenas and lots of time wasted to bureaucratic nonsense. The only options appear to be paying several thousand dollars for a shady lawyer that can bribe their way through the hoops of capitalist privateers or homelessness/suicide. This is Los Angeles where there are 100k homeless within 100 miles of where I lay. There are no available social workers, and every shelter is beyond full. Even the homeless that try to group to help each other are attacked like rabid feral animals by orders of the criminal Newsom. I need a more effective plan.
I’m sorry you’re going through all that, I’m living in LA and also disabled from spinal issues so I’ve experienced a lot of what you’re talking about as well. I’ve basically resigned myself to ‘smoke weed all the time’ being the extent of medical management of my pain, because doctors can’t/won’t do anything else for me without potentially making other problems worse. Back problems are awful and not having any concrete answers is just about as bad.
What part of LA are you in, roughly, if you’re OK sharing? If you’re able to ride public transit I’d be happy to search around to try to find more resources near you.
In addition to getting arrested being dangerous, sleeping on a jail cot is probably going to be absolutely godawful for your back, at least as bad as sleeping in a doorway. If you’re sleeping on the ground outside you at least have some control over your environment, compared to jail.
Thanks. I’m in south OC and not in any present danger or state of mind. I was just denied disability for the second time in 4 years and trying to talk myself into mental options available beyond lead or fentanyl as my ultimate outcome.
Holding posture for longer than an hour has cascading repercussions that last days to weeks. If I am upright, ie. sitting or standing, I am hurting. After around an hour of endurance, I will be unable to sleep well enough to recover. I barely ever sleep six hours a day at most and even that is rather low quality. I turn into a zombie if this lasts for more than a week or so. At that point I start showing signs of severe sleep deprivation and mental instability typical of any human in such a state. My entire life revolves around avoiding this state. I have plenty of money and security for now, but no way to effectively support myself long term. I’m well above average and mentally capable, but I go through periodic ups and downs that are unpredictable. Stupid minor things can injure me. The lows disconnect me from a professionally competent state of mind, and I’m generally irritable enough to not be very pleasant to be around in person. I want to be, and be myself, but the best way to put it is that my pain is constant and like living with a neighbour that always plays annoyingly loud music; EVERYTHING I do is forced to shout over that noise. It is like my internal voice is shouting over that noise and I must listen carefully to hear it. Sometimes it is just too noisy and hard to focus past it. When I am upright holding posture in any way, the noise is slowly getting louder. In physical terms, it feels like I give you a 1lb dumbbell and tell you to hold it at shoulder height with your arm fully extended–easy… at first…but try doing it for an hour. I’ve stubbornly pushed WAY past it to prove to myself it is not a mental thing. I was on the floor of a restaurant writhing in sharp shooting pain when a long time friend came to visit. I didn’t sleep for days and took almost 2 months to recover to the point of sleeping 6 hours for the first time.
I’m sorry dude, I’ve had a lot of family members go through the wringer trying to get disability as well. The one and only person I’ve ever known to get it first try was dying of cancer. The system is made to make people give up when they’re least able to fight it, it’s sickening.
I’m not familiar with any of OC so I’m not going to be any more helpful than a Google search on that front. But oh man, do I hear you on what the lack of sleep from pain does to you. I feel lucky I’m able to get 6-7 hours most nights, minus time spent waking up and trying to get comfortable. Thank fuck Ikea makes comparatively inexpensive foam mattresses. If you aren’t on gabapentin already, it helps with nerve pain and makes a decent sleep aid.
Are you familiar with the idea of pacing? It’s a strategy recommended for patients with ME/CFS to prevent triggering relapses, and I’ve found those ideas to be a useful way to manage chronic pain as well, on the preventative end.
Good luck man, I’ve been dealing with this shit for over half my life at this point. It sucks and it’s hard and it’s not fair and we might actually be living in one of the worst countries to be dealing with chronic medical issues. If you feel like wanting to scream and beat someone bloody over it, well, to me that’s pretty understandable.
My symptoms are similar to yours, if not quite so bad. I can’t walk more than about 50 yards, or stand for more than 10-15 minutes. I have tried for disability after my physical issues made me quit my job (after a couple of decades being a teacher for the same school district). I moved back in with my parents. Sucks to be in my 50s and stuck like this, but at least I have a roof over my head. I’m in north OC. There is zero help until you run out of all options and all money. It’s really fucked up. Good luck.
I have nerve issues. My nerves just move around, usually due to an injury, but not always. Never had a doctor diagnose me properly. They wanted to fix my knee cap surgically or tell me that my pelvis moves. If I bend, or sleep, or lift the wrong way something moves. I can’t keep a bent position very long, and sometimes my knee just randomly hurts after walking. Sometimes I get shooting pains in my elbows.
I know this sounds ridiculous, but, finally I got word of a guy from mexico, he was really old and most likely dead by now, but he was known as a massage healer. He would zero in on the spot and just work his magic. After going back a few times, it would stay mostly stay in place. I did have to exercise a bit (walking was enough) so the muscles would keep the nerve in place, but I could do so pain free.
Either way, I got too lazy and of course the pain came back. I’ve been to a couple other people who claim to do what he did, but its never worked the same. Closest anyone ever got to keeping me pain free for any amount of time, was a sports masseuse.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of someone in your area like that, but it might be worth a shot. He would tell stories of how he helped all sorts of people with all sorts of aliments. This guy was well known in the Hispanic community, and people would come from other states just to see him, for all sorts of issues. If someone like this exists around you, they should be too hard to find if you ask the right people. Worst that can happen is you get a massage.
A shelter is normally dorm style sleeping arrangements with lunatics and meth heads sans food or anywhere to be during the day. Not all places will even offer food or medical even
Sounds like all jails barring a shitty yard to walk in for a bit each day. The food is also often spoiled or otherwise fucked up somehow. OP mentioned having a highly specific and hard to pin down spinal disability. Jails and prisons are much more likely to make that far worse.
Basically every problem people can think of will often apply to jail or prison and OP wont be able to leave when they want. Plus, when they get out, they’ll have new debts to pay, and a shiny new record to carry around for the rest of their lives.
Honestly though, I think OP is just baiting.
Not baiting. Just trying to convince myself that lead or fentanyl is not my only option within the decade and after my folks die. If those are my only options, it is hard to justify remaining a burden to them in the interm, and holding off the inevitable. This is the depressing reality. All those homeless people out there; the majority are in my shoes but just further down the timeline. This country has a policy of coerced suicide as a social safety net.
I was disabled by a terrible driver while riding a bicycle to work 2/26/14. I was the Buyer for a chain of bike shops, riding on a designated bike route, an amateur racer, on a $4500 demo bike, in a nice area, close to the beach. I’m you, on a bad day with some shit luck. This is your reality too. You are one bad day away from where I lay right now. You’re not smarter or better. You can not account for a driver that pulls directly into another SUV suddenly and sends the second car into you. No skill or intuition or caution can save you from such a circumstance. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a bicycle, in a car, walking, or even laying on a couch in your living room. This kind of event can still find you. When it does, in the USA, you will be pushed into homelessness, destitution, and an anonymous death on a cold rainy night in a gutter. This is the American standard of ethics and morality; yours and mine; our standard of ethics and morality.
“Bad things happen when good people do nothing.” -MLK
I did nothing in practice. So I am part of the problem. All I can do is tell you of the reality. I am you, after a single bad day at the hands of someone else. I don’t even remember the crash or anything due to my head injury. I woke up from a blank darkness suddenly with the last thing I remembered was riding and being in motion on a beautiful February morning.
The real answer that anyone can realistically give you is to fight for your life and dont give in to despair. You can have your time to despair of course, but dont let it swallow you. Thats pretty general and beyond that, it’ll be advice to seek out programs that help which is also general and not always helpful.
Your life is your own and flavored with so many variables that internet people can only help so much. I won’t give you advice, but I will tell you who I am and maybe that will help in some small way.
I am a double leg amputee. A hip disarticulation on the left (no leg at all) and an above knee amputation on the right. I was a 35 year old professional driver with a six month old daughter when the accident that took my legs happened to me. I had no fault in it and had no way of seeing it coming. It was something I was forced to deal with. I was in a coma for a month.
I woke up to endless pain, an ended relationship that was rocky anyway and a body so weak I had to start from scratch on even basic things like opening a can of soda. I was told I would have to use a power chair because of how damaged I was. I worked to be stronger than that and I succeeded, despite my endless phantom limb pain sometimes driving me insane. I use a manual chair by choice and I can do many other things I was told I wouldn’t be able to do again. Being legless and poor didn’t even stop me from meeting my wife, who is doing crafts with my daughter next to me.
It’s been a decade since the accident and my life is more solidly grounded now then it ever was when I was able bodied. I faced enormous pain and physical challenges and still do, but I’m glad of it. It was the forging fire that revealed who I am now.
There is a you that is looking back from a decade in the future. Who do they see in you now? The beginning of some maudlin end without even a fight, or the spark that eventually became your fire? If I can get through the shit, so can you.
Thanks. I appreciate the story and support. I certainly have no idea what it would be like in your situation. I was an amateur bicycle racer. I was folded backwards and had most of my features in my neck, but all of my pain has always been thoracic (between the shoulder blades). My limitations are not just pain but more like a muscular failure that posture causes. I wish I could sit in a chair. I mean no disrespect when I say this, but I would trade my legs for the ability to hold my head up and hold posture.
In cycling and racing, it is more of a mental sport than a physical. A crit is a formal type of bicycle race set up around an industrial park loop or a city block type of environment. It involves around 50-100 people and lasts anywhere form 20 minutes to 1 hour for each class of racers. By the last few laps, you’re blood oxygen is super low and all of your blood flow is going to your legs. The pain is extreme and everything in your body is saying hell no. The last lap is all about strategy, being sharp, and self aware. At the same time, it feels like I have the mental capacity of a toddler. The game of it becomes this internal battle between instinct, intellect, and how that aligns with chance and the way 10-15 other people on the front are coping with similar constraints. The physicality differences are negligible under most circumstances at this stage. It largely comes down to who has the highest pain threshold in the moment.
For me cycling has always been this fascinating struggle of overcoming pain perception. This is my background relative to what I call pain. I hurt a tremendous amount all of the time. If that is all I had to deal with, I would be fully functional. My old physical therapist for 2 years started trying to invent tools to help him with deep tissue massage because I wore him out unlike anyone he had ever worked on. I told him, “blood sweat or tears, otherwise you’re not pushing me hard enough.” I stopped pushing like that after I broke my scapula from pushing too hard. That is when I started developing a better routine empirically that got me off the rollercoaster of major ups and downs and allowed me to get more consistent sleep. Still I’m slowly degrading. I fight, but I fight with routine structure.
No pain meds change what hurts in my back or the length of time I can endure, they only impact my cognitive function and how much I care. I guarantee that something muscular inside of me is broken or loose or damaged in some way. A more advanced future state of medicine would likely fix me without issues.
I’ve also gone down twice on the bike since the broken neck and back. Both times I had broken ribs. Both times I just rode back home, because that kind of pain is a joke to me. When my ribs swell like that, I actually feel better. Both times, for two weeks I felt the best I have felt in 10 years. An epidural injection on both sides of my Spesious me felt great as well, but only lasted 3 days. So all I need to do is break some ribs and I am functional again. You’d think that would mean something to someone in medicine, but no dice.
It probably sounds crazy, but having something that is clearly able to put me in the disabled category would in many ways make my life easier, but that part is just a minor issue. The really hard part for me is that I can’t really be around other people. I often regret my words in person. I can’t suppress the pain to the point of fully masking it. I can’t do anything in the outside world with dignity or be myself. The act of getting dressed and transportation is already placing me under extreme stress. Laying in bed, I toss and turn. I’m always uncomfortable and deeply sleep deprived. I dread any upright activity, but wake up in a cold sweat every day from being in the same positions for too long. Anything that helps with this level of pain causes me to stay in the same positions longer and that leads to pulls, strains, and a much larger cycle of minor ups but much lower downs. I can’t get assistance like I need. I’ve tried to date and meet people, but I am not myself, and the physical cost to try is enormous. I have nothing to offer anyone. The thought of burdening someone else, on top of the physical and mental cost were simply untenable for me. I have to manage me mental state and sleep first above all else.
That is why I love a place like Lemmy. I can write, reread, and think out my words in a way that feels like who I want to be, like I am myself in a way.
For you it seems to have been the fire. For me, I was already a freaking torch. The hard thing for me was acknowledging and coming to terms with my limitations and making the best of what I can do and what I have. I’m already in a prison of sorts. It can always be worse, until you’re not around to talk about it. I’m glad you found yourself. Indeed, I was a car nut that built engines, owned a body shop, painted, and did airbrush graphics. I was 340 lbs in '09 and under 190 lbs in 2013, because what good is my B&M mini blower in my camaro when I can’t overhaul and supercharge my own meatsack engine. I had the heads off of that camaro at the time, and had to sell it all when I couldn’t recover to the point of finishing the port and build. I’ve reinvented my Maker spirit elsewhere, but I died 2/26/14 and had to come to terms with a newly invented me. I understand that part. It is hard to relate just how odd it is to be so capable, but yet so very limited at the same time. I can’t effectively network socially, and I am very aware of the outcome that this means. This is not a plea for help. I don’t really need or want any. It is a statement of the indignity really. I shouldn’t be put into this situation and help so impossibly out of reach in terms of state support. I don’t have the margins to invest myself in the malignancy of the system and manage my needs and routine. It seems the concept of disability always accompanies the idea that one can sit upright, albeit in a manual or power chair. Thoracic damage is very rare. It only represents around 5% of cases for most neurosurgeons. It doesn’t follow any of the regular assumptions about back problems in how it manifests.
I’m well aware, the person looking back at me, if they are still alive, will roll their eyes at how dumb I am now, how much better I had it, and how I had nothing to complain about. Thanks for your thoughts and story. I’m glad you found your fire. I may not be a torch, but hey, at least I am still a lighter and can hold a flame.
totally doesnt answer the original question
That’s a question without an answer, because there is no safe way to get the LAPD to arrest you.
Of course there is, be White and Rich.
Kk
deleted by creator
I’m white, so I won’t be murdered on sight
I don’t think this came out the way you envisioned it
Damn it’s sad that this post even exists. I hope things get better for you chief.
This is the most dystopian thing I’ve read in years.I’m so sorry this has to be considered :(
Shoplift food until you get caught and go to jail.
If you get caught without going to jail just keep shoplifting, at least you’ll always have food.
Just make sure to do it from Walmart or Lowblaw or some other government teet sucking price gouging corporation.
Low effort high sentence crime like credit card or check fraud. Represent yourself in court and be a complete ass to maximize the jury’s dislike of you, no sob stories reveal zero empathy for what you did. Try to find that sweet spot between minimum security prison, but long sentencing. Make a friend in jail and start a “fight” with them the day before your probation hearing or something to extend the behavior without angering the guards/warden too much?
It’s a pretty high risk low reward strategy, but the risk is mostly because it’s hard to get into a “good prison”. Also make sure you do it in a state with free prison, some states are pay-to-stay prison, though I guess that could open the opportunity for loan fraud and another sentence if you do get out?
pay-to-stay prison
That sounds utterly evil
I just learned this the other month. It is so fucked up.
Similar thing for me, i learned about a month or so ago that prisoners are forced to work. I always thought it was a choice, no no no. If you dont work you can be punished in jail for not being the proper slave that you are.
So much of our justice system would fix itself overnight if we overhauled the 13th amendment which makes inmates legally slaves.
Work can actually be a very good approach for resocialiding inmates. However, this only works if its done right. In Germany you can actually learn a new job while being in prison so that you actually have a chance to find a job ANF make money when you come out of prison. You can also get some money from the work you did on the day you leave so this is a great opportunity for inmate to get back into society and not being forced to do crimes for a living.
Arbeit macht frei!
Schwierig.
I like your idea. Some kind of non-violent high reward fraud. If you don’t get caught, it’s free money. If you do, it’s all part of your plan.
Go to Walmart. Eat whatever you want. Sleep there
If they call the cops on you because of theft or trespassing, there ya go.
Bonus points if you find a way to do this without getting caught and live there a while.
Or start a Tiktok account and a go fund me, and tell your story on TT. Sometimes you can reach the right person near you to do something
for less drama, you could “steal” property from someone you know and they could helpfully press charges so you can get arrested.
just a heads up, most prisons in the US are pay to stay, so you’ll accrue debt while inside, and depending on what state you’re in you might have to put up a copay for your medical care.
I’d advise doing a little research and committing your inoffensive bank robbery or the like in the right area.
I saw a video where a guy “robbed” a bank of $1, with a “gun” that was actually a snickers bar. Then sat in the lobby and waited for the cops.
That seems like a good way to rob a bank, which is a federal crime, while not hurting anyone. And the tellers would even be able to figure out whats going on.
That sounds like a good way to get shot…
By a bank teller?
By a cop.
Cop comes in, sees you sitting in a bank lobby chair, knees crossed, and you think the first thing he’d do is just start blasting???
Look, I think cops are despicable too. Theres even a comment in my recent comments about the Uvalde cops where I rip them a new asshole.
But this is kind of a stretch.
If you’re not white, yes, better say your prayers before the cops arrive, even if you’re just chilling there.
I saw a paper once that your risk of getting shot is inversely proportional to the severity of the situation up to a point.
Adjusted for frequency you are more likely to get shot during a traffic stop than a armed suspect call because they arrive expecting an armed suspect and act accordingly, every traffic stop could turn into a shootout even if it isnt likely to so they tend to overreact.
Trayvon Martin would like a word with you
Guy who shot Trayvon Martin wasn’t a cop.
Have you been to America? This is reality.
Childish Gambino is a national treasure. He could be such a bigger star if he wanted to be.
Honestly? In America, if you’re white, you’re probably fine. Black though, evidence and all of American history tells us otherwise. America is racist, and cops seem to be even more so.
The myth that you can go to jail and it’s free board and food is exactly that, a myth.
You’ll pay for it one way or another.
It’s peddled by conservatives who think that jail is some kind of walk in the park. Sure there are nicer prisons but it’s still prison. No one really prefers it to being out on the street.
The alternative is worse for me. I can not survive on my own. Debt is irrelevant in death as an alternative.
I’m a little confused. It sounds like your pain and disability issues would be exponentially worse in a prison environment. What little relief you get now would be gone. What little activity you are capable of now would be gone. You would be a vulnerable person locked up with loads of people who are experts at exploiting vulnerability. You aren’t even guaranteed that the elements won’t kill you in there—there are recent cases of prisoners dying from summer heat indoors due to no A/C.
Given your options, I would seriously consider a city that tolerates homelessness over intentionally choosing prison. It will be a hell of a lot easier to dig yourself out of homelessness, if you ever do, than it will be to outrun the reputation that comes from a major conviction.
I think you need to be way more realistic about what your options actually are.
You’re thinking in terms if financial and sustainable self sufficiency. In the context of the post, you’re implying I should just kill myself, whether you intend it or not. I can not survive on the street. I am unemployable. It takes everything I have just to manage staying alive and I still need someone to help me with shopping.
I get it. I wish I had never regained consciousness that day. There are many days I would like to make that a reality. In this country, that reality is not my choice to make. Without family to support me, I am lost to the murder factory of a disgusting and deplorably evil country. This is what I am spotlighting with this post. A country is its people.
I’m not in any way trying to imply that you should kill yourself. I’m implying that there are dangers with both homelessness and prison, but at least with homelessness, there is the possibility that circumstances will change for the better. Prison guarantees your circumstances for the duration of your sentence, guarantees that the conditions will be punishing, and guarantees a stigma that will make you even more unemployable than you say that you already are.
My only point is that I believe the dangers of prison match or exceed the dangers of homelessness, and you should seriously consider that there are ways to be homeless that are safer and less awful than others.
If you can’t survive on the street, I don’t see why you think you’d make it in prison.
There was an old guy a couple decades ago that walked into a bank and handed the teller a note that said “This is a robbery. Give me one dollar!”. Then he went and sat down and waited for the cops. If memory serves, he did it because he needed some dental work and couldn’t afford it.
There is no safe way to do this - you should find a shelter - even if it’s shitty and religious.
I’m not sure how LAPD handles it, but I know that in a lot of cities, the police may just let you go if they think you’re using jail as free shelter.
A buddy of mine spent a couple years homeless here in Austin, and would do low-level crimes like vandalizing things just to get picked up by the cops. He said that the police stopped arresting him after a while, and figured it was because he wasn’t escalating his crimes at all; he didn’t want to hurt anyone, he just wanted to sleep indoors for the night.
I’m sure LAPD is similarly too overworked and their jails too overcrowded to keep you there for more than a night or two, honestly.
I understand, and I will hurt myself long before I would consider hurting anyone else. Fortunately, or un- depending on perspective, I am extremely capable of creative thinking in the abstract intuitive sense, and nearly what one might call competent at the applied sciences. I can think of many ways to be dangerous. White collar would be most effective in that sense. I could be an advanced script kiddie if I tried. It is not hard to devise a plan that would induce a strong response to make an example out of.
This post is primarily therapeutic; to feel like I can call some degree of attention to the frustrating reality. And to feel a little less hopeless and abandoned in the evenings following another denial of disability after waiting 2 years, and for the second time. My folks are showing their age, and existentialism is creeping in occasionally.
Digital vigilante? Target health insurance / medical billing companies plz.
Sneakier, just add legitimate disability documentation into the relevant system and bump yourself to the front of the interview/validation process.
It’s a crime sure but not a particularly harmful one and if you never get caught you still get what you actually want without having to feel to terrible about breaking a law since it’s government ineptitude that got you into the situation in the first place and civil disobedience is legal and an exceptionally drawn out process for cities and states to fight.
Have you tried getting an entry level remote IT job? There are also sites that essentially hire for small programming projects, etc. Might not be steady but might be enough if managed well.
Piss on the front door of the jail? idk
You probably want to go to a minimum security federal prison. The easiest way to get there that I think of is check fraud.
You’ll need to write a bunch or bad checks in as many states as you can, or send them through the mail. You’ll need to do this a lot, and for a pretty significant amount of money otherwise they’ll just give you probation of some sort.
Having a disability might be a problem though; if it costs too much medically to keep you in prison they’ll just out you back on the street as a compassionate release.
Do they have conjugal visits?
I feel icky responding to this because it highlights how shitty society is at taking care of our less fortunate, but if I was inclined to get myself into jail I would probably start with shoplifting the things I need to survive like food, camping supplies, etc. Very low risk of violence and if I don’t get caught, hey I’m better off.
Eventually I’d get caught. Then I can just keep not showing up for court and shoplifting food. Eventually I’ll get thrown in jail and when released I start all over. After enough times I’d graduate from county jail to prison.
I’m not recommending this course of action, but it’s probably what I’d do if that was my goal. Nobody gets hurt.
Jail can be incredibly expensive!
Exactly! Make sure it’s a felony otherwise you might be billed for every day you’re in jail. Plus, a good enough felony will get you to prison for a good long time. Basically, anything with “grand” in the front of it.
You can end up paying room and board, mandatory counseling, classes, drug tests, etc. Plus phone calls are outrageously expensive. It’s a total racket.
How does that work if you don’t have money or just don’t pay? I mean what are they going do? Put you in jail?
Take a piece of all future income until it’s paid off of you pass away. At least here you can personally bankrupt once in a life time and live on “lowest livable” amount of money for five years and then get the debts “forgiven” except those accrued during the five year period.
It’s a hassle to apply and get granted though, usually not the privacy invasion invasion a recently released care to subject to
Some joker robbed a US post office in my town a year or so ago. Federal felony.
Is that the guy who demanded $1 from the teller and then just sat down to wait for the cops?
No he got away. Not sure if they ever caught him
