A Southern California mayor is under fire for wanting to eliminate his city’s homeless population by giving them “all the fentanyl they want” — a shocking remark he reinforced by calling for a federal “purge.”
Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris shared his controversial views during a Feb. 25 city council meeting when a resident took issue with the city’s attempt to address the homeless crisis by “enclosing” the unhoused at an abandoned golf course near a residential neighborhood.
“What I want to do is give them free fentanyl,” Parris said as he interrupted the woman’s comments, according to footage of the meeting.
“I mean, that’s what I want to do. I want to give them all the fentanyl they want.”
The jolted resident told the Republican his statement “was not kind.”
But Parris, who’s been mayor since 2008, has no “regrets” about wanting to give homeless people the highly addictive, and often-lethal, opioid, telling FOX LA in an interview Friday that he was referring to unhoused criminals who “refuse” to be helped.
“I made it very clear I was talking about the criminal element that were let out of the prisons that have now become 40 to 45% of what’s referred to as the homeless population,” Parris told the outlet.
“They are responsible for most of our robberies, most of our rapes, and at least half of our murders,” he added, without offering proof or data to support his claims. “There’s nothing that we can do for these people.”
Parris added that he didn’t think anyone would take his comments “literally,” explaining that fentanyl is “so easy” to get on the streets that it wouldn’t have made a difference if the city gave it away for free.
He boasted Lancaster for providing more “innovative” solutions to the homeless population than any other city in America before calling for a federal “purge.”
“Quite frankly, I wish that the president would give us a purge. Because we do need to purge these people,” Parris said.
“Now, is it harsh? Of course, it is harsh. But it’s my obligation as the mayor of the city of Lancaster to protect the hardworking families that live there, and I am no longer able to do it…It’s an untenable situation and I’m open to any solution…I want these people out of our city.”
Parris, who made headlines in 2018 for wanting to ban neckties from the workplace, has since become the target of a recall campaign, with political opponents outraged by his remarks.
Johnathon Ervin, a Democrat who lost to Parris in the city’s mayoral election last year, said that his former opponent is unfit to hold public office.
“Anyone willing to give homeless people all the fentanyl they want, or to suggest that President Trump should allow a purge of the homeless population, has no business in public office,” Ervin said, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The online recall petition has only received 6% of the 20,000 desired signatures, as of Sunday night.
The embattled mayor’s term expires in April 2028.
Parris did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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