Posted on 07/26/2006 9:57:21 AM PDT by Cagey
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Another American city has made it a crime to feed the homeless in certain areas.
Last week, Las Vegas outlawed feeding homeless people at city parks. Now, Orlando is following suit.
Orlando is trying to keep charitable groups from feeding the homeless in downtown parks.
Officials said transients gathering for weekly meals create safety and sanitary problems for businesses.
The City Council voted to prohibit serving meals to groups of 25 or more people in parks and other public property within two miles of City Hall without a special permit.
A group called Food Not Bombs, which has served weekly vegetarian meals for the homeless for more than a year, said it will continue illegally.
The American Civil Liberties Union vows to sue, saying it's a superficial fix that ignores the city's homeless problem.
Two of the city's five commissioners voted against the ordinance, including Commissioners Robert Stuart, who runs the homeless shelter Christian Service Center, and Sam Ings, a retired police officer.
Stuart told The Orlando Sentinel that Orlando is taking a step to "criminalize good-hearted people" who he says are trying to help. He went on to tell the paper that group feedings in the parks had not become unwieldy to the city, as some had claimed.
He said the ordinance says, "Orlando doesn't care," the Sentinel reported.
Ings said that although the commissioners are casting the ordinance as a public-safety issue, it is really an issue of the city wanting to "cover up" the homeless problem.
"We're putting a Band-Aid on a critical problem," he said.
The commissioner who pushed for the ordinance, Patty Sheehan, said it was not an "easy day" for her at all. She said the new ordinance against feeding homeless people has been "wrongly cast" as anti-homeless.
"I've been an advocate [for the homeless]," she said. "Even though you'll call me an enemy, I'll still be your friend."
The Sentinel reported that about a dozen downtown residents and business owners spoke in favor of the rule.
But more than three times that amount of people spoke against it. There were 45 speakers from various groups, including a formal declaration from the University of Central Florida's student senate, who opposed outlawing feeding homeless people.
Mayor Buddy Dyer supported the ordinance.
Food Not Bombs said on its Web site that chapters in Venice, Calif.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Orlando, and Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada have been told that their programs should stop or move out of sight.
"What about water??"
I'm sorry but even as an 8-year-old kid I could find water to drink. This is just pathetic. Too freakin' sorry to get their own water.
Homeless, my butt. It's a lifestyle choice for the vast majority of them. We didn't have this much homlessness during the Great Depression. The charity group is nothing but enablers. I know they mean well but they are just being taken advantage of.
and when their through making laws preventing the feeding of the homeless...its time to stop people from feeding those other rats..the flying kind....the pidgeons.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1669238/posts
"Homeless" man.
This is pure idiocy.
They outlawed a positive behaviour (feeding the homeless) to address a separate negative behaviour (the safety and sanitary issues).
Laws already exist to address the behaviours that directly result in safety and sanitation issues, they should be enforced. What should not happen is to criminalize a positive behaviour.
This is legislative fencing. You build fences that restrict neutral or positive behaviors in an effort to reduce the occurence of negative behaviours.
God said don't eat the fruit. When asked by the serpent, Eve said God told her not to eat the fruit, or even touch it. Eve fenced what God said.
"They arrested a little girl just for trying to give a drink to a helpless individual in Fl."
Terri wasn't homeless.
I remember when that story broke. That about sums it up. Most homeless, like others on this thread already pointed out are homeless by choice. They quit thier meds and left treatment and are running the streets in a full psychotic break, they dropped out of school and rehab and can now devote themselves full time to scoring more meth or crack, they are hopeless drunks and walking dead waiting for the alcoholism to kill them completely, they are hustlers who refuse to work an honest job and pay taxes but bring home more money than many panhandling.
The few people who do fall through the cracks find themselves a way out within a few months with the help of organizations like Christian Help.
ping
I buy gift certificates from McDonalds to hand out to the homeless. If they don't want them, then too bad.
Of course she wasn't.
But she was the apple of her father's eye, you know.
LOL!!
I think the apple is overrated.
So, Orlando does its thing. Hope and pray that Jesus is not coming to Disney this summer - I think He might raise a ruckus over this,
"Saw Me hungry" and whatnot
I recall, while living in San Francisco, that the city did a survey of the "homeless" living in the city parks and discovered that approx. 90 - 95% were actually wanted on fugitive arrest warrants in other states. They were not homeless. They were on the run from the law.
The D.A. at that time was an ex-con and refused to arrest and extradite any of them.
"They outlawed a positive behaviour (feeding the homeless)"
Whether or not feeding the homeless is a positive thing is very much open for debate. I'm probably not as up on scripture as you but I would find it difficult to believe that God would have us enabling the wicked. Those who con and take advantage of their fellow man's charitable nature are wicked.
Paraphrasing one of my favorite proverbs: Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.
Feeding these people just ensures their life will go on as it always has and never get any better. I certainly respect your good heart but I think your charity is misplaced with respect to this issue. Just my opinion.
L98Fiero,
Thank you! That has got to be the nicest way anyone has ever disagreed with me, and I appreciate your efforts at civil discourse. It's in short supply on the internet to be sure.
I share your thoughts about the dangers of enabling those with less than honorable motives. I don't doubt that this happens every day. And it is true that it is incumbent upon those giving aid to make sure that the aid they give serves God's purpose.
But I also believe that there are among the homeless the truly needy. We live in a very opulent society, and it's very easy to forget about those with true needs. It's quite easy to go to Africa (or in my case Guatemela) and find those that have REAL needs to serve. Those needs are the obvious, in your face kind of needs that are easy to identify, and comparatively easy to aid.
But it is just as important to put in the effort to find those that have needs in our own communities. If that means wading through those that would abuse the aid to find the few homeless that truly need help, that's our job.
I love your parable, and believe it should live in perfect harmony with the lesson from Matthew about the shepherd sorting his flock:
Matthew 25:41-46 (NIV)
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
2Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
St Paul's words cannot contradict the words of the Lord.
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