...except in Florida. I know I do not have all the facts, but something about this story just pisses me off. The cops even collected a vile of soup as evidence. It must have been a slow day for the war on drugs.
What the hell are they thinking?
...except in Florida. I know I do not have all the facts, but something about this story just pisses me off. The cops even collected a vile of soup as evidence. It must have been a slow day for the war on drugs.
What the hell are they thinking?
3 comments:
It seems obvious that the police are looking after the interests of the local business owners. If only the government could tax homeless people, then the homeless would come under the protection of the police.
I am 100% with you that feeding the hungry is NEVER wrong. If I were a homeless person in Florida getting fed by these people, I would be on-my-knees-crying grateful.
To play "devil's advocate" for just a sec (and I feel horrible doing even this), is the strategy of Food Not Bombs attacking the cause of the problem, or simply its symptoms? I should hope that, in addition to continuing their feeding efforts, FNB is joining together with those who work toward the end of homelessness itself. Of course, it is a question of some import as to whether homelessness can be completely ended.
It's likely the city thinks, "Feed them, and they're like animals - they congregate, and they get CLOSER. We don't want that." There exists no good justification whatsoever for such cruel "reasoning." All human life is precious, and I don't give a damn if it impacts my freakin' business or not.
I'm torn with this, but only for reasons of safety, and admittedly it's only because of personal experience. I worked in Santa Monica for a couple of years, and I remember there was a local petition going around to make it illegal for homeless folks to sleep in the doorways of businesses (SM, I believe, already has the "no feeding more than *#* people at a time" law). Santa Monica has a massive homeless population.
I was against it. I didn't see what harm these people could be doing, finding some form of shelter during the night. How did that effect daytime business, etc, etc...
Then I came in to open the store one morning with a homeless man sleeping in the doorway. There was a puddle of urine off to one side, and Chinese take-out pilfered from the garbage strewn all over the other side. He was sprawled smack in the middle. I could do nothing but lean over, quietly turn the key in the lock, and then get in and lock the door behind me as quickly as possible. Good thing, too, because he was up in a flash, screaming and banging on the glass. The look on his face was disturbing and I had no idea what he was screaming, although it was certainly English. He banged on the glass for so long and so hard I became afraid he was going to break it, so I picked up the phone (as if to call th cops), looking at him through the glass. As soon as I did, he stopped, gathered up what little he had, and left. I had to clean up the mess outside as soon as it was safe to, before customers started to show up.
Would something like that happen during business hours? I don't know. Do homeless people "ruin" the shopping experience...yes, I'm sure they do. I myself had to stop giving them money altogether (on the way to and from work) because there were so many of them every day, it really started to add up and I didn't make much to begin with. When they realized I had stopped (I saw many of the same people every day), they weren't happy. I had to deal with that because I worked there; why would someone want to deal with that just to buy a book, or some pants?
It seems like this law is there for a reason, but just denying the homeless food all together doesn't sound like the answer. It seems as though many things have been overlooked or downright ignored in order to enact this law---it's a shame we're not more detail oriented, especially when it comes to humanitarian issues.
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