A few years ago, Governors Abbott and DeSantis made headlines by transporting illegal immigrants to so-called “sanctuary cities.” Then-Mayor Eric Adams of New York complained about the waves of newcomers, saying the federal government hadn’t done enough to help with the cost. Residents of Martha’s Vineyard offered the migrants spare clothing and snacks before quickly sending them off the island.
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A similar scene recently played out in the front yard of Nithya Raman, a socialist Los Angeles City Councilmember and mayoral candidate. Raman has long championed permissive policies toward homeless encampments. She has opposed aggressive cleanups and downplayed their effects on neighborhoods, schools, and families. Yet when activists brought that reality to her own doorstep, her reaction echoed that of Adams and the Martha’s Vineyard residents—revealing a sudden discomfort with the outcomes she promotes for everyone else.
Raman represents an affluent Silver Lake district and lives in a roughly $2 million home. She has consistently defended tent encampments near public spaces. At a town hall, she was booed by constituents after suggesting that drug-ridden camps beside elementary schools “don’t matter” and rolling her eyes at their concerns. Her platform prioritizes progressive initiatives like bike lanes and transportation over strict enforcement on homelessness, addiction, and public safety. She casts herself as an ally of the “unhoused” and often frames resistance to encampments as a lack of compassion.
Over Memorial Day weekend, the advocacy group Safe Cities USA erected a full homeless encampment outside her home—complete with tents, an open-air barbecue, and people milling about. Videos of the scene quickly went viral. Raman later told comedian Adam Conover on a podcast that she was glad her young children had not witnessed it. She expressed dismay that the campaign had “gone far beyond” discussions of bike lanes, adding, “I feel badly that I’m even subjecting them to that at all.
Thomas Sowell once observed, “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” Here, as in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard, that price finally came due. For years, Raman has supported policies that force Los Angeles families—many lacking her financial resources or political influence—to live with tents blocking sidewalks, open drug use, and safety hazards near schools and parks.
When those same conditions arrived at her $2 million property, however, they crossed a personal line. The activists made their purpose explicit: they wanted to give Raman a direct taste of what her constituents endure daily. One organizer described the action as political satire meant to show her “what other people are going through.
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Raman’s public record calls for a city that tolerates widespread encampments in the name of compassion. The activists simply complied—literally. They did not invent a new hardship; they relocated one she has long excused and minimized. Once the consequences reached her own children and property, her tolerance vanished. This is classic “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) hypocrisy, wrapped in progressive rhetoric.
Safe Cities USA has continued the campaign with flyers mocking Raman’s other proposals, such as restrictions on backyard barbecues. The effort reflects broader frustration with quality-of-life failures across Los Angeles. The episode underscores a basic truth of governance: policies carry real human costs. Leaders who champion them should be willing to live with those costs themselves, rather than shielding their own lives while imposing them on constituents.
The same principle could apply to judges who release violent offenders with minimal consequences. How many would maintain that approach if the person they freed showed up at their front door ready to move into their home for a while “until he could get back on his feet”?
Voters in Los Angeles—and across America—are growing weary of abstract ideologies that fail in practice. Raman’s discomfort at her own front door holds up an uncomfortable mirror. If encampments are truly benign or even desirable as policy, then no one—not even a socialist mayoral candidate in Silver Lake—should object when they appear uninvited.
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Let decision-makers live under the policies they advocate.
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