Re “Journalists and police puzzle over connections in the heartbreaking murders of two elderly, unhoused Oceanside men” (Oct. 8): To those of us who pay attention to political rhetoric and its uncritical repetition, the connection is clear.

In stories about the housing crisis, Gavin Newsom and even Todd Gloria repeatedly stage photos where they are big, strong men throwing out the belongings of homeless people. The not-so-subtle implication is that they are throwing unhoused people far away and out of sight. One “sweeps” dirt and garbage, after all, not people. This callous, dehumanizing and punishing rhetoric sets the conditions for these murders. Newsom, Gloria and their followers cast parts of our community as less-than-human and embolden those who extend the political violence of sweeps.

The real crisis is public policy cowardice that invests in public safety through punishment rather than creating not-for-profit, subsidized housing and care programs. Those who bear the cost are not those whose rhetoric breeds the hatred.

— Lilly Irani, San Diego