Democratic officials in California have circled back from their coddling of drug addicts and homeless people to the understanding that they can use criminal law as leverage to eliminate the kind of antisocial behavior that destroys the quality of life in their cities.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan was the latest to discover this groundbreaking philosophy. Mahan wants it to be a crime for homeless people to refuse shelter when it is offered to them three times in an 18-month span. The logic is pretty straightforward: San Jose has shelter spots available and homeless people on the streets who can be in those shelter spots, and the city pays an average of $6,500 on hospital visits and emergency responses per homeless person each year, on top of all the other homeless spending the city has (including those vacant shelter spots).