"Feeding The Homeless" Is A Crime In Increasingly More US Cities

zero hedge ^ | 5/16/14 | tyler durden

[Nachum]

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,

Have you ever given food to a homeless person? Well, if you do it again in the future it might be a criminal act depending on where you live. Right now, there are dozens of major U.S. cities that have already passed laws against feeding the homeless. As you will read about below, in some areas of the country you can actually be fined hundreds of dollars for just trying to give food to a hungry person. I know that sounds absolutely insane, but this is what America is turning into. Communities all over the country are attempting to "clean up the streets" by making it virtually illegal to either be homeless or to help those that are homeless. Instead of spending more money on programs to assist the homeless, local governments are bulldozing tent cities and giving homeless people one way bus tickets out of town. We are treating some of the most vulnerable members of our society like human garbage, and it is a national disgrace.

What does it say about our country when we can't even give a warm sandwich to a desperately hungry person that is sleeping on the streets? A retired couple down in Florida named Debbie and Chico Jimenez wanted to do something positive for their community during their retirement years, so they started feeding the homeless in Daytona Beach. But recently the police decided to crack down on their feeding program and slapped everyone involved with a $373 fine...

For the past year, the Jimenezes have set up shop every Wednesday on Manatee Island in Daytona Beach, Fla., where they feed hot dogs, chicken, pasta salad and other BBQ staples to about 100 homeless people, WFTV reported. Handing out meals is just one

[Veto!]

When I lived near Seattle, it was embarrassing to take out-of-town visitors into that crazy city where no one interferes with “poor homeless” people scamming pedestrians, begging for money, food and drugs, even inside NORDSTROMs fancy schmancy downtown store.

Not kidding. A welldressed Amish woman was often found in Nordie’s cosmetic department trying to scam shoppers out of money. Store did nothing to stop her.

[dr_lew]

Somebody named Tyler Durden writes for zerohedge?

A lot of people named Tyler Durden write for zerohedge.

[Chode]

[Kackikat]

This is not new, there was some western states that stopped on the street feeding, and only those with licenses or non profit status could give out food.

Now, this new ‘stop feeding the homeless’ may be tied to the Food Safety Act of 2010, where only an approved commercial kitchen (govt approved)may give the homeless food...probably Mooch’s healthy approval like school lunches? (sarc)

[wetphoenix]

~My idea was to create reservations for the truly homeless who aren’t insane. Let these reservations have the autonomy to create their own economies, let them govern themselves and just have enough official presence to keep the peace, investigate crimes and stuff.~

I think 9 in 10 homeless are asocial people and insane to some level. Their lives are their choice, they aren’t capable of autonomy and self-govering and don’t really need it.

[logic101.net]

Ok, I am not fully sanctioning these laws but if you subsidize something you get more of it. If you want fewer homeless people and beggars pretending to be homeless you need to discourage it.

BTW, we didn't have a huge problem with homeless people until the Dims forced us to release the mental patients to fend for themselves in the 70’s.

[wetphoenix]

~I suspect that a lot of homeless women are that way because they won’t give up a husband or boyfriend that is dragging them down. I can’t prove it, I just suspect it.~

OMG! Your screen name is telling... Please, don’t start class wars here, especially when ‘you can’t prove’ your point!
BTW, are you as compassionate to poor men, ‘dragged down’ by their wives and girlfriends?

Bottom line is, men or women, the vast majority of homeless are extremely lazy irresponsible people.
You can blame the ‘economy’ as much as you wish, but there are still plenty of entry level jobs with only requirements is to be clean and show on time. It pays enough to have housing.

[Mears]

“Not kidding. A welldressed Amish woman was often found in Nordie’s cosmetic department trying to scam shoppers out of money. Store did nothing to stop her.”

—

Nordstrom would not get one nickel from me if that was going on while I was shopping.

.

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[ifinnegan]

“Instead of spending more money on programs to assist the homeless”

Hard to believe Free Republic has members posting liberal propaganda and self-righteously agreeing with it.

[Wayne07]

Ya, those pictures are of Palisades Park in Santa Monica, but the one I was really think about was Lincoln Park (now called Reed Park). Here is another picture, it is small and a little hard to see, but that is a line up of about a 100 homeless people picking up food.

Definitely fewer kids than drug addicts, and if there weren;t free handouts there would be more families, and fewer homeless.

[crazycatlady]

I know that there are men who have been damaged by their attachments to women—I just don’t know of men who are homeless because of women. I suppose that there are some.

When I said “can’t prove”, I meant “anecdotal”. I observe couples who do things like running signs( that’s holding a sign at a freeway exit or busy intersection.) On the one hand, being paired with a man provides safety and companionship, but on the other hand, there are kinds of help, often from friends and family, that the woman could avail herself of, but not with him. For example, a friend or relative might offer a place to stay until she finds a real job etc. but only her, not if he is part of the deal. Rightly or wrongly a lot of families blame the men for the trouble the woman may be having. I actually did know a couple in a rooming house like this. It turned out that she actually had cancer. But at one time she had been gainfully employed by an airline. First she married a bigamist, and that messed her up, then she hooked up with S., who was a seldom employed bum who drank heavily. There were also drug issues, marijuana, at least. They were months behind in rent a d finally evicted. She went back home to Canada to die with family. They wouldn’t permit S. to visit her. I realize that a rooming house is not homeless but it’s not the American dream either. Or Canadian either, evidently. A lot of people there shifted in and out if homelessness. (Not me, thank God.)

[crazycatlady]

Are you sure she wasnt Mennonite? Those are the main Anabaptists we have out west, or Hutterites, of course. Plus I don’t think the women usually wear makeup.

I do love that Nordstrom, though. There’s no place like the flagship store. And the Nordstrom family has done a lot for the city.

[crazycatlady]

Is that the same Palisades Park as in the song. “We ate and ate at a hotdog stand” and so forth?

[MaxMax]

Lose the war on poverty, kill the witnesses.

[Wayne07]

Good question, I had wondered that myself... Turn out that song is about the now closed Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey.

[Pajamajan]

Just unbelievable.

[Misterioso]

I live two blocks up Lincoln from Reed Park. It always seems commotion-free when I drive by, probably because it gets a lot of SMPD attention. But the homeless do spook it up a little.

[metesky]

Bangor, Maine is the east coast version.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

Down south we have a lot of fat “homeless” people begging for food. I even had one wearing clean Air Jordan’s. Drug addicts and just lazy people.