Free Republic

* At memorial for man killed in police shooting on skid row, church leaders call for Pan-African unity * Pastor warns of 'ongoing challenge' of police brutality against black menCalling for Pan-African unity in the protest movement against police violence, eight church leaders led a fiery service Saturday for Charly Leundeu Keunang, a homeless man shot and killed on skid row by Los Angeles police in a videotaped struggle seen around the world.. "Whether it's Ezell Ford, or whether it's Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin, we have seen an ongoing challenge around police brutality as regards black men," said Sauls,...

Tasked with marketing Miami to tourists and investors, the tax-funded Downtown Development Authority has plenty of maps highlighting restaurants, tourist attractions and real estate development.On Thursday, they unveiled their latest: a detailed map showing where people popped a squat on downtown streets. The scatological atlas, smiling poop emojis and all, was created amid a swirling dispute between downtown boosters and the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust over how to get homeless men and women off the street, and how to deal with corresponding sanitation issues. The two public agencies have been feuding for about a year now, dating back to the creation...

On Reddit, he’s /u/huckstah, an administrator on /r/vagabond, a subreddit with nearly 10,000 members—many of them identify as “homeless”—who trade skills and stories. On “the road and the rails,” he’s Huck, and even after we speak twice by cellphone, he tells me he’d prefer I don’t print his real name. “People say, ‘Well, you chose to become homeless.’ But that’s wrong,” he says. Huck says he’s been a hobo for upward of 11 years and started hopping trains and hitching rides at 18. “I did not choose to become homeless. If you want to say I chose to become homeless...

WASHINGTON — St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco is getting bad press this week over a sprinkler system it installed to keep homeless people from sleeping on church grounds. People are outraged that a church would treat the poor so callously. But St. Mary’s isn’t alone. Many houses of worship all over the country face the question of how to keep safe, welcoming grounds while being compassionate to homeless neighbors sleeping on porches and in doorways. Here’s what we tried at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. A couple of months ago, we started a dialogue about...

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — KCBS has learned that Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the principal church of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has installed a watering system to keep the homeless from sleeping in the cathedral’s doorways. The cathedral, at Geary and Gough, is the home church of the Archbishop. There are four tall side doors, with sheltered alcoves, that attract homeless people at night. “They actually have signs in there that say, ‘No Trespassing,’” said a homeless man named Robert. But there are no signs warning the homeless about what happens in these doorways, at various times, all through the night....

t could soon get easier to live on the streets in the Golden State. As controversy swirled around the police shooting of a homeless and mentally ill man on Skid Row in Los Angeles, legislators in California considered a new set of regulations activists said would “decriminalize” homelessness by providing a so-called “right to rest” in public.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL– A video uploaded to YouTube on Sunday shows Fort Lauderdale police officer Victor Ramirez harassing and assaulting an elderly gentleman at the Broward Bus Terminal in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The man is not being aggressive or threatening in any way when he is shoved to the ground and slapped by the officer. The man was reportedly trying to use the bus terminal’s restroom. “The guy didn’t raise his hand to the officer at all,” a witness told Local 10 News. “The officer just knocked him down with his hands. The guy was defenseless.”

Houston arson investigators have made an arrest in the early morning fire Friday at an Islamic center on the city's southeast side, fire department officials said late Monday. Darryl Ferguson, 55, of Houston, has been charged with felony first degree arson for the fire, according to HFD investigators. The arrest was announced at a 6 p.m. news conference at HFD's arson headquarters. Investigators say the suspect "rolled up on his bicycle" to speak to them about the fire during an on-scene investigation Monday.

The lawsuit filed by the Venice Stakeholders Association claims authorities are failing to enforce “no camping” laws, which has created ” a public nuisance and dangerous conditions” in one of L.A.’s most popular tourist stops. Mark Ryavec, the president of the Venice Stakeholders Association, told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO that the lack of enforcement has spurred more physical attacks by drug-addicted and mentally ill homeless people. ... Ryavec believes officials have a double standard when it comes to public safety in Venice compared with other beach cities. “It is only at the Venice Beach Recreation Area and on adjoining streets that...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sarah Palin, 2016 – is there any possibility? The former VP candidate and ex-Alaska governor hinted on Thursday that she might, just maybe, give electoral politics another try. ABC’s Neal Karlinksy caught up with Ms. Palin while she was serving wild boar chili to the homeless in Las Vegas (we’re not making that up). Mr. Karlinsky asked her if she ever mulled over a White House bid. “Yeah, I mean, of course, when you have a servant’s heart, when you know that there is opportunity to do all you can to put yourself forward in the name of offering service,...

A week ago, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat, called homelessness in his city and the rest of King County a "full-blown crisis." Based on the numbers presented in coverage of the area's situation, we can certainly add the Emerald City to the list of areas where homelessness has been on the rise. Odds are that many readers here didn't know that, because the national press hardly ever pays attention to homelessness when a Democrat occupies the White House. Now imagine the firestorm which would erupt if a Republican or conservative proposed the "solution," however allegedly temporary, Murray is advancing...

A historic number of America's youth – 2.5 million children – are homeless according to a report recently released by the National Center on Family Homelessness. These children, the report shows, are victims of a number of variables that contribute to homelessness including single motherhood, racial disparities and low household incomes. The report, based on data compiled from the U.S. Department of Education and the Census Bureau, reveals that many of the nation's homeless children are on the verge of losing their housing, don't have a fixed residence, are living in places not designated for human beings, or are living...

December 2nd, 2014, 6:44 AM A 51-year-old homeless man stole an unattended ambulance from a Pontiac hospital and told police he was headed to a topless bar, the Oakland Press reports. The keys were in the ignition. The man, who has mental health issues, is expected to be arraigned Tuesday on car theft charges, the paper reported. Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7dd_1417820886#IigS0m5ioYoiGcE7.99

Police and city crews on Thursday began dismantling the nation's largest homeless encampment, notoriously named "The Jungle," in a controversial move that aims to move hundreds of transients from the center of San Jose and find them affordable housing. Police and city crews on Thursday began dismantling the nation's largest homeless encampment, notoriously named "The Jungle," in a controversial move that aims to move hundreds of transients from the center of San Jose and find them affordable housing. Streams of homeless people wheeled their lives out of the encampment on Story Road, their shopping carts full of their belongings. Some...

Veiled by the yellow willows and brush along a forgotten creek bed in San Jose, hundreds of people jerry-built a treehouse and constructed underground bunkers and ramshackle lean-tos to form one of the nation's largest homeless encampments. The 68-acre shantytown is just minutes away from downtown and the high-tech giants that made Silicon Valley one of the world's most opulent locations. For years, the city turned a blind eye to "the Jungle." But the camp along the muddy bank of Coyote Creek has become more crowded in recent years and is awash in rotting trash, rats and human waste —...

The NYPD has identified a homeless man, Kevin Darden, 35, as the suspect in a deadly subway incident that took the life of Wai Kuen Kwok, 61, of the Bronx. Darden has a long history of violence "with more than 30 arrests"—for crimes including "robbery, assault, and narcotics."

The number of homeless children in the U.S. has surged in recent years to an all-time high, amounting to one child in every 30, according to a comprehensive state-by-state report that blames the nation’s high poverty rate, the lack of affordable housing and the impacts of pervasive domestic violence. Titled “America’s Youngest Outcasts,” the report being issued Monday by the National Center on Family Homelessness calculates that nearly 2.5 million American children were homeless at some point in 2013. The number is based on the Department of Education’s latest count of 1.3 million homeless children in public schools, supplemented by...

In Harlem River Park in Manhattan, homeless men can be seen sleeping on benches around the basketball courts and sprawled out on a soccer field by day, then hunkering under an overpass at night. In Brooklyn, dog owners in Fort Greene Park have had ugly confrontations with homeless people after their dogs woke them up in the early morning when they are allowed off-leash. And in the Bronx, there are so many homeless people in one small park, Devanney Triangle, that the community board and parks department are discussing the removal of all benches. After a decade in which the...

Do-good fine. Police in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., again cited a 90-year-old man for feeding the homeless in a public park, in violation of a city ordinance. Arnold Abbott, who runs a ministry called Love Thy Neighbor Inc., was first cited on Sunday along with two pastors working with him. They face up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler said the ordinance is not designed to punish the homeless or those who serve them but to balance the needs of all the city’s residents. Abbott, who has been working with the homeless for...

A senior citizen and a couple of clergymen in Florida face up to two months in jail for feeding the homeless. A group of volunteers with the non-profit charity Love Thy Neighbor in Broward County face up to a $500 fine and 60 days in jail because they were feeding the homeless last Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, the New Times reports. World War II veteran Arnold Abbott, founder of the interfaith organization, and members of a local church were confronted by Fort Lauderdale police officers because they had reportedly been in violation of the new laws against food sharing —...