Wealthy entrepreneur demands homeless ‘riff raff’ be removed from his sight

HE’S BEEN called ‘the millennial Donald Trump’. This rich white guy has not won any fans over his entitled outburst.

Rich guy wants poor people removed

TALK about entitled.

An entrepreneur who demanded homeless ‘riff raff’ be removed from his sight in downtown San Francisco has been dubbed ‘the millennial Donald Trump’, as the internet reacts to his heartless diatribe.

“I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day,” said tech bro Justin Keller, who founded start-up Commando.io.

“The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city. They went out, got an education, work hard, and earned it.”

We didn’t realise that earning a decent income gave you the right to impose a round of social cleansing.

Keller made the comments in an open letter to the city mayor and police chief on his blog.

They prompted outrage on Twitter from more liberal-minded residents, some of whom drew comparisons with pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, the most hated man on the internet.

Justin Keller is the millennial Donald Trump. If you're so embarrassed to bring your family to SF, MOVE OUT.

— Miss Mehta (@mehtatheory) February 18, 2016

https://t.co/qoScxMgECo here you go everyone. The most superior and condescending take from someone who has been in SF a whole three years

— BEWARE: Ed Zitron (@edzitron) February 17, 2016

When rich SF tech bros talk about people who are homeless as if they’re litter https://t.co/Nde9VkZttd

— krylo ren (@ashedryden) February 18, 2016

“Every day, on my way to, and from work, I see people sprawled across the sidewalk, tent cities, human faeces, and the faces of addiction. The city is becoming a shanty town,” Keller wrote.

He cited a number of incidents in which he witnessed intoxicated and presumably homeless citizens begging, ranting about drugs and generally misbehaving.

One such lout had frightened Keller’s parents, who were visiting from the retirement Mecca of Santa Barbara, by leaning on their car.

Another stumbled drunkenly into the movie theatre where Keller was enjoying a Valentine’s Day flick with his girlfriend, removed his shirt and lay on the ground, sparking all-out terror among the patrons.

Keller’s solution?

“I know people are frustrated about gentrification happening in the city, but the reality is, we live in a free market society ... I am telling you, there is going to be a revolution.”

“If I was King for a day ...”

To head off such an uprising, he suggests the city “tackle this problem head on”, such as the way it made homeless people disappear during the Super Bowl.

“I don’t have a magic solution … It is a very difficult and complex situation, but somehow during Super Bowl, almost all of the homeless and riff raff seem to up and vanish. I’m willing to bet that was not a coincidence,” he wrote.

“Money and political pressure can make change. So it is time to start making progress, or we as citizens will make a change in leadership and elect new officials who can.”

Bizarrely, Keller rounded off his argument by quoting Socrates and warning that “democracy is not the last stop in politics”.

Keller later updated his blog to apologise for using the word “riff raff,” saying it was “insensitive and counter-productive.”

Another San Francisco resident also named Justin Keller penned a blog post of his own in response to the furore.

“I wanted to write a really brief response to the other Justin Keller who’s made my social media channels erupt with a lot of vitriol,” he wrote.

“Your perspective seems to be, ‘I don’t deserve to deal with this.’ A more compassionate and broadened perspective would be, ‘no one deserves to deal with this.’ Especially the poor souls that sleep in the dirt and cold every night — I promise you they don’t want to be there even more than you don’t want them to be there.”

An Open Response to @johnny5sf who, I assure you, is not me. Hit me up, other Justin. https://t.co/QXdessAiP9

— Justin Keller (@justinkeller) February 18, 2016

He pointed out that San Francisco’s homelessness problem could be traced back to a 1906 earthquake that wiped out 250,000 homes in the city, which prided itself on extending empathy and compassion to the needy.

And he invited his namesake to join him as a volunteer at a local homeless youth charity and “do something about it, rather than just complaining about it”.

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