Please Don't Feed the Homeless

Just when you thought you had heard it all in the saga of the war against the homeless...

www.reviewjournal.com...

If someone looks like he could use a meal, be warned: Giving him a sandwich in a Las Vegas park could land you in jail.

The Las Vegas City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that bans providing food or meals to the indigent for free or a nominal fee in parks.

So, it's not bad enough that many cities criminalize the homeless simply for existing in that state. Now people who help the homeless are criminals also.

Most cities have a problem with the homeless. Rather than tackling that tough problem, they sweep these people under the rug, run them out of town, do anything possible to hide their existence and preserve the illusion of universal prosperity for citizens and tourists alike.

This is just another nail in the coffin of American decency.

Makes me sick...

Well, my advice to anyone feeding the homeless is to feed them if they want and the defense would be that for repayment they offer their time socializing with you.

Furthermore, the courts cannot force them to pay you in money as that is purely a political decision to use anyway.

Besides the obvious reasons for this law to be really really stupid, there are some sneakier problems with it, as well. It is too ambiguous for my taste. What exactly constitutes a 'homeless' person? Who decides who is 'homeless?' And while 'free' is fairly obvious, 'nominal fee' is also quite ambiguous? What is too 'nominal' a fee? While this was done to prevent (most likely) people 'selling' food to the homeless for a song, or a penny or that kind of thing, it is a term subject to interpretation. What is too nominal? $1? $2?

Even if the law were properly written, it would still be a sick joke. Banning the feeding of the homeless? What possible reason could there be? The article says this is to stop mobile soup kitchens because families complained about the congregation of the homeless. Maybe... I don't know... it sounds like a really cruel thing to do. Even if some people did complain, why on earth would a city council pass such a stupid law?

I don't recall offhand about the US constitution, but in Canada, our constitution mentions that we are entitled to 'freedom of assembly', and this new law seems to violate that principle.

This reminds me of a new's report once I saw on TV, the reporter said (to loosely paraphrase) 'We shouldn't expect our children to share everything, since adults don't have to.'

Do they even have programs in place for the homeless in that district. Alot of programs demand ID and or some other thing many homeless people are unable to comply with or provide.

Sad thing is many do very well with just a smidgen of positive reinforcement. A program in Toronto recently for homeless alcoholics, gave each participant a daily quotient of alcohol, food and medical attention - many of them recovered from their addiction just from the novelty of being treated human.

Much easier to point the finger than offer a helping hand. Capitalism requires an unemployment rate in order to work economically. The rich get richer no matter how many muddled class people are plunged into poverty. I guess they want their draconian laws in order before the crash hits.

During the depression, Canada had labour camps out in the bush for homeless unemployed people. If they tried to run away, they were shot in the back. Then large numbers converged on Parliament and demanded some social safety net, some return on their taxes, other than imprisonment and death.

*chuckles*

I'd like to see "big brother" stop me from feeding whomever I want to when I want to. That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Id' hate to go on a picnic wiht my kids, while they are in playclothes, and one of them gets realy dirty, as boys are apt to, and some Barny Fife decides I'm feeding a homeless child, just so he can make his arrest quota.