10 Times Star Trek Predicted The Future
4. Poverty Divide
“It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that they’ve given up.”
Past Tense is the sometimes forgotten third season two-parter from Deep Space Nine, one of the strongest time travel episodes in the catalogue, that depicts an early 21st Century version of Los Angeles that segregated its poor into Sanctuary Districts - fenced off areas designed to 'keep them safe' while not imposing their presence on the rest of LA.
Ira Stephen Behr reflected that, as the episode was nearing completion of production in 1995, he read an article about then-LA Mayor Richard Riordan, which discussed his proposed creation of areas dedicated entirely to the city's poor and homeless. The crew were shocked that this invention of theirs was nearing reality.
The episodes carry a distinct racial undertone, as both Sisko and Bashir, the two officers locked into the Sanctuary Districts, are people of colour. Production on the episodes came barely two years after the LA Riots - which served as inspiration for the Bell Riots.
'Gabriel Bell', for whom the Bell Riots were named, died in Trek history during the riots. His death spurs on the movement, as Sisko later reflects - evoking unmistakable comparisons with the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and indeed George Floyd - and the modern Black Lives Matter movement.
As recently as May 2020, the LA Times again reported on plans to move homeless people out of sight. Bashir asks, once they have returned to their own time, how the people of the 21st Century had managed to let things get so bad. In response, Sisko says
“That’s a good question. I wish I had an answer.”