I’ve posted plenty on the heavy drug use in my neighborhood. The police and parks department recently cleaned the northwest corner of Washington Square Park, but, as they predict, the junkies move to other nearby places.

I believe the effort is worth it. I talk to neighbors about forming local groups to occupy spaces the junkies would go to before they get there and make it hard for them to set up. In the language of Jane Jacobs, to put more eyes on the street. So far, it seems like my neighbors prefer to retreat.

When I walked out of my front door the other day, half a block from my home, a junkie was urinating on an empty storefront. Next to him were three others lying on the ground with paraphernalia scattered around. They had slept there, I suppose. I confronted them but they were barely coherent. They had set up in front of a store still in business, so when the store operators arrived, they’d get them to leave. They were gone by the time I returned home.

It’s tempting to say they are victims of a disease and absolve them of responsibility. It’s tempting to say they are adults and solely responsible for their illegal and antisocial actions. I expect most people say it’s a mix of those views and more.

Anyway, below are a picture and video of a junkie devoid of humanity or dignity, or nearly so, as best I could tell, in broad daylight in a park where families bring kids.

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Here’s the video of about thirty seconds illustrating a guy on hard drugs. He was once an innocent child. With any luck, he was raised by parents who loved him. I wonder if he has any family. I wonder what they would think of him, though who knows how many relationships he burned.

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EDIT: If I took pictures of every junkie in every doorway, I wouldn’t be able to travel far from home, but this store was occupied just a few days ago. The ground in front of the person was covered with paraphernalia, cigarettes and other garbage. The person him or herself was incommunicado.

Come to think of it, since the place was open the other day, I’ll post this picture in my recent post I love where I live but it’s being destroyed, part 2: Online delivery. The store is a few doors from where I saw the guy urinating on an unused storefront. Tragic in countless ways.

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EDIT: July 14: I passed by the empty store today and saw a new group set up there. I took a couple pictures, then saw they were so lost that I could take a video of them. I don’t have to tell you, but my goal is not to personalize anything, but to show the effects of addiction on our culture.

Here are still images. As far as I could tell, they were not conscious of me.

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