Inhuman! Giving food to homeless illegal in some USA cities
While I knew that many US cities were tough on the homeless (as, I guess, they want to keep their cities looking nice and there may also be some security concerns regarding some of the homeless) but can giving them food be illegal with a fine or even a jail term if the fine is not paid? I could not believe the change.org petition, Charging a Good Samaritan for feeding the homeless punishable by a fine or jail time in Denver?, https://www.change.org/p/john-hickenlooper-release-the-ban-on-citizens-giving-food-to-the-homeless-in-denver.
But here's a Nov. 2014 Mother Jones report, Is Giving Food to the Homeless Illegal in Your City Too?, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/90-year-old-florida-veteran-arrested-feeding-homeless-bans, which shows that it is true in many cities in the USA!!! What a shocker!
I think such a law being passed in democratic India, at least in the three decades and more that I have lived in India as an adult, and in the coming decades, was, is and will be virtually IMPOSSIBLE. But, of course, the police in India may eject homeless people occupying public places.
Some excerpts from the Nov. 2014 Mother Jones article:
[I have presumed that Mother Jones will not have any objections to me sharing some of its webpage content (link given earlier) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Last week, 90-year-old World War II veteran Arnold Abbott made national headlines when he got busted by cops in Fort Lauderdale, Florida twice in one week—for giving out food to homeless people. While serving a public meal on November 2, Abbott told the Sun-Sentinel, "a policeman pulled my arm and said, 'Drop that plate right now,' like it was a gun." Abbott runs a nonprofit group that regularly distributes food in city parks. Because of an ordinance the city passed this October that restricts feeding the homeless in public, his charity work is now potentially illegal.
...
An October report by the National Coalition for the Homeless found that since January of 2013, 22 cities have successfully passed restrictions on food-sharing, and the legislation is pending in nine other cities.
...
In Orlando in 2011, more than 20 activists got arrested while ladling food for about 35 people in a park, in violation of the city's restrictions on feeding the homeless. In 2013, police threatened to arrest members of a Raleigh, North Carolina church group who regularly hand out coffee and sausage biscuits to the needy on weekend mornings. Just this May, six people in Daytona Beach, Florida were fined more than $2,000 for feeding homeless people at a park. (The fines were ultimately dropped.)
--- end excerpts ---
Ravi: This is so very sad. I can understand laws removing homeless people who occupy public places in cities & towns (and that's similar in India though not implemented so stringently). But if the police do not remove them, and somebody helps them with food to eat, what's the problem? Threatening the giver of food to the homeless with a fine and/or arrest!!! My God! This is UTTERLY RIDICULOUS and BRUTALLY INHUMAN.
What is the use of having a clean and beautiful city if one destroys the humanity of the people living in it? You will have outer cleanliness and beauty but the inner life sure will not be beautiful. Compassion for others, especially the hungry, is, IMHO, a key ingredient of any inner beauty.
But here's a Nov. 2014 Mother Jones report, Is Giving Food to the Homeless Illegal in Your City Too?, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/90-year-old-florida-veteran-arrested-feeding-homeless-bans, which shows that it is true in many cities in the USA!!! What a shocker!
I think such a law being passed in democratic India, at least in the three decades and more that I have lived in India as an adult, and in the coming decades, was, is and will be virtually IMPOSSIBLE. But, of course, the police in India may eject homeless people occupying public places.
Some excerpts from the Nov. 2014 Mother Jones article:
[I have presumed that Mother Jones will not have any objections to me sharing some of its webpage content (link given earlier) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Last week, 90-year-old World War II veteran Arnold Abbott made national headlines when he got busted by cops in Fort Lauderdale, Florida twice in one week—for giving out food to homeless people. While serving a public meal on November 2, Abbott told the Sun-Sentinel, "a policeman pulled my arm and said, 'Drop that plate right now,' like it was a gun." Abbott runs a nonprofit group that regularly distributes food in city parks. Because of an ordinance the city passed this October that restricts feeding the homeless in public, his charity work is now potentially illegal.
...
An October report by the National Coalition for the Homeless found that since January of 2013, 22 cities have successfully passed restrictions on food-sharing, and the legislation is pending in nine other cities.
...
In Orlando in 2011, more than 20 activists got arrested while ladling food for about 35 people in a park, in violation of the city's restrictions on feeding the homeless. In 2013, police threatened to arrest members of a Raleigh, North Carolina church group who regularly hand out coffee and sausage biscuits to the needy on weekend mornings. Just this May, six people in Daytona Beach, Florida were fined more than $2,000 for feeding homeless people at a park. (The fines were ultimately dropped.)
--- end excerpts ---
Ravi: This is so very sad. I can understand laws removing homeless people who occupy public places in cities & towns (and that's similar in India though not implemented so stringently). But if the police do not remove them, and somebody helps them with food to eat, what's the problem? Threatening the giver of food to the homeless with a fine and/or arrest!!! My God! This is UTTERLY RIDICULOUS and BRUTALLY INHUMAN.
What is the use of having a clean and beautiful city if one destroys the humanity of the people living in it? You will have outer cleanliness and beauty but the inner life sure will not be beautiful. Compassion for others, especially the hungry, is, IMHO, a key ingredient of any inner beauty.
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