“Try me,” I said. “I want to know.” Spider didn’t miss a beat. “Suit yourself. There didn’t used to be this many on the streets. When Reagan was elected president, he basically let all the mental patients loose.” She saw the look of disbelief on my face. “No, he really did. He repealed a law that would’ve kept money going to federal community mental health centers. That wiped out all the services that kept them off the streets, made it so they’re either in jail, in a temporary emergency mental ward at SF General, or on the streets.”
