The Associated Press once again took a simple news report and managed to frame it as a “Trump is heartless” story. This time, the issue is the illegal homeless encampment in the Deschutes National Forest outside of Bend, Oregon. In fact, the people living there are not nice people, and they shouldn’t be making this national forest a dirty, unsafe environment for the taxpayers.

Here’s how the AP report on the clearance opens:

Dozens of homeless people who have been living in a national forest in central Oregon for years were being evicted Thursday by the U.S. Forest Service, as it closed the area for a wildfire prevention project that will involve removing smaller trees, clearing debris and setting controlled burns over thousands of acres. (Emphasis mine.)

The key to the AP’s framing is that phrase “being evicted,” which implies that, at least in the past, the homeless people in the encampment had a right to be there. However, there never was such a right. Instead, there was no political will to remove them once they set up shop.

Nor did their being there illegally create a right. Among ordinary citizens, there is an ancient doctrine known as “adverse possession.” It holds that when a property owner fails to assert control over trespassers’ continued and long-standing use of his land, the trespasser can claim title. However, it is impossible to assert an adverse possession claim against the federal government.

In any event, the government doesn’t seem to be permanently repossessing the encampment. Instead, it describes what it’s doing as a small-scale relocation for temporary maintenance, with the implication being that the homeless can move back again once the maintenance is concluded:

“The closure does not target any specific user group and will restrict all access, including day use and overnight camping, while crews operate heavy machinery, conduct prescribed burns, and clean up hazardous materials,” Webb said. “It’s not safe for the public to be in the area while heavy machinery is operating, trees are being felled, mowing operations are active, and prescribed burning is occurring.”

In fact, the encampment should be moved for good, and the residents institutionalized, if they are mentally ill, put into substance abuse programs, which most need, or set upon a path to work.

What’s important to know is that these are not nice people. While the AP article is illustrated at the top with an almost bucolic photo of a man and his dog walking toward little tents located among the trees, the big picture is different, which we see via an image that is included only at the bottom of the essay, long after most have stopped reading:

I actually know a bit about the homeless people in that community, because a long-time friend of mine, while not homeless himself, moves in those circles. The people in the encampment are invariably alcoholics and/or drug addicts, with a substantial portion being diagnosably mentally ill. In addition, prostitution and other criminal activity are the norm, with the people in the encampment preying on each other. (They are people like this.) The place is a collection of uncontrolled, debasing, dangerous pathologies.