90 year old man (and two pastors) arrested for feeding the homeless

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/04/justice/florida-feeding-homeless-charges/index.html

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Way to go Ft. Lauderdale... way to go... you are an inspiration for this nation, a beacon of exactly how we should NOT act!

 

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Despite the obvious eye tearing 90 year man's wise words of feeding the poorest of the poorest with food and the outrageous image of police brutality...I will go ahead and question the exact grounds on why Ft. Lauderdale has made this practice illegal.

 

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http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fort-lauderdale-latest-city-restrict-feeding-homeless-n231381

Okay, banning panhandling at busy intersections I understand - it's not physically SAFE. But making it illegal to feed the homeless? Making it illegal to sleep on public property? They've, quite simply, made it ILLEGAL to be homeless...

So... not only are they without a home, job, or any semblance of self sufficiency... now they have to try to recover from that without having anything to eat...

HOW THE FRACK DOES ANYONE THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA?!

 

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so
If I were to share a bag of popcorn with my granddaughter, we could be arrested?

 

Only if your granddaughter is homeless

 

It's Florida

I mean, I know that's unsatisfying, but that old Simpsons joke about "America's wang" seems to be a reputation Floridians enjoy.

And it's right on par for justice in the Sunshine State. You know, the place where lesbians are such a threat to children that a judge would put the daughter in the care of a convicted murderer with a sex crime accusation against him. Or a jury will acquit a rapist because, let's face it, the only reason to wear a bikini and miniskirt in the Florida summer is to beg for sex.

Criminalizing compassion? Yeah. Sounds about right for Florida virtues and values.

 

In reality...I always have been the advocate...so I will go ahead and defend the city's decision.

You got homeless in Ft. Lauderdale, their numbers are statistically climbing, the people are now sleeping on the streets. In addition to that the food that is being provided to these homeless allows them to stay that way and nothing chances. They don't look for work, are not provided by the city work, and are littering the streets thus depreciating the value of the houses nearby as well as the aesthetical value of properties and stores and the health and well being of regular citizens.

My solution?

Food should be provided, but the city needs to invest in specific homeless buildings that will desperse the food there and not on the street.
Also money needs to be invested into investing into entry level job positions for the homeless and a recovery process management HR team that can oversee this.

While I do approve of banning food dispersal on the streets, the city should provide an alternative without a delay, since homelessness has become such a great obstacle in city's rejuvenation and property management especially.

 

So in your style to dance to the flute of the archaic angels. Whatever sells, gets the vote, right? Florida has and will remain one of the best states and the rules implemented by this state have held up and the numbers of Florida's residents speaks for the validity of these laws.

What is your solution to the homeless problem of city of Ft. Lauderdale?

 

That's such a dangerous and sad position to take when buildings, money, profit and tourism take precedence over human suffering.

Part of the problem is that there is no care for elderly that is reasonably afforded by more than 50% of the population. Some of those homeless are elderly, over the age of 65 (current retirement age) and they can't afford to retain their homes because of a myriad of reasons. Declining health, decreased mental function because of age, being duped into taking reverse mortgages out on their home and then having to default because the big banks in the US collectively fucked our general populace, and lack of mental/physical health care in Florida because of it's larger number of aging people. But shit... that building has to go there, so lets starve em out.

Before they passed that law there should have been a plan in place to serve and protect it's community which includes all of those homeless people. It's called humanity. Florida should try it sometime.

 

Tax some of it's state tourism dollars to clothe and feed the homeless and stop crying about not having the money when you know it's a lie?

Do you know why the homeless go south to live? Because living outside when it's 10 degrees fucking sucks, that's why. They certainly go to Hawaii if they could make the swim. Florida is beautiful, there are just as many homeless per capita in Florida as there are in California, and you throw out the most food.

I take it you've never been homeless.

 

I am not saying about lack of money, I am advocating for a direct action into investing into this problem by providing job opportunities to homeless and recovery program and food dispersal sites.

However, you do bring up a great problem of Florida and this problem is the number of elderly living there:

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/FileS...inority Leader/Resources/Senior_FactSheet.pdf

They could potentially invest more into elderly services in Ft. Lauderdale, there is revenue there obviously.

 

In Truth, It's Pretty Straightforward

Same solution for any city: Stop wasting public funds coddling rich people and start actually fulfilling government's social contract obligations.

In Ft. Lauderdale, though, they need the homeless out of the way because those people might be a turnoff to all the drunk college girls they're hoping to get on video during spring break.

One of the interesting conundra is that Florida is a place where politicians like to talk about moral values. And Ft. Lauderdale moral values prefer tourism based on binge-drinking to, you know, actual moral values.

 

LOL you can't be even more wrong than that. I have been many years homeless living in a tent and I came out of it through my own perseverance and struggle and wish to improve myself and have succeeded. However that said, I NEVER gone to any church begging for food or collecting food scraps on the street. I starved, I ate noodles hidden in black plastic bags to prevent rain from destroying food, I slept with many sleeping bags in winter at -20, and I ran away from dogs at night in middle of a forest...

These homeless are LAZY and those others who are not lazy are not given enough chance by the city. The city needs to invest money into providing easy job opportunities to these homeless people and the sooner they act, the better.

 

While that is a tall and finely said politician line that will get you elected into mayor seat, in reality just saying that the government should fulfill their social contract obligations does not solve any problems whatsoever. An obvious question to you would be what exactly do you mean by social obligations of the city of Ft. Lauderdale and who will finance this and finally how other cities have solved the homeless problems in their towns.

 

It's Florida, the whole state is fucked.

 

Actually my point was not to make more money off of them, but that 10-15% of your homeless are elderly people and 23-27% of them are children under the age of 18...

Grats to you for having the mental capacity to survive being homeless if your story is even half true. Nearly half your homeless population lost that gift along the way or haven't reached the age where they can use it. What happened to you to make you unsympathetic though? It was okay when you were homeless and no one else can find themselves in the same situation and gain any compassion? Sorry if I find a lack of credibility in your story, I must have lost it under my list of ways to treat humans that are unfortunately weaker than me with dignity and respect.

 

What a sad mindset... yes, there are some that are just lazy (there are a few where I work that I take no pity on - went in and asked the manager at a local McDonalds that was hiring if he'd give the guy panhandling by the entrance a job. The manager had to sit down with me and tell me how he had no only offered the man a job, but even offered to take him to get clothes on his own volition... the guy said no thanks, he makes more begging than he does working and paying taxes)

But there are just as many that either cannot work (disabled in some form) - one guy I'd met was a veteren from Desert Storm - lost both legs below the knee in an explosion, as well as three of the fingers on his left hand. He came home and was basically told "Thanks for laying your body down for this country, not GTFO we don't owe you shit" - his benefits weren't enough to cover even a one room studio apartment due to medical costs.

Things like that leave me absolutely aghast

 

And my proposition is, FIGHT.

Don't wait until the government comes in and starts helping you.
Don't beg others for pity and help.

Go out there and change yourself.

As for elderly I said it before and will say it again, Florida has a real population of elderly problem and needs to invest significantly more into food dispensary programs under control of the city and also entry level jobs.

My mindset is to always FIGHT and NEVER give up. If I had not followed this mindset I would have ended up what Sderenzi is now. You know at some point we talked the same, the same old story of family problems, lone-leness, no girlfriends, and crappy jobs. Well that's where our paths diverged, 5 years ago precisely.

The veterans are another issue, I am proposing that veterans are given a certificate program reimbursement where they can enroll into a program that is financed by the government and allows them to get industry wide technical knowledge sought by numerous companies, for example lift operator license or communications knowledge gained during their military service and that is applicable in say AT&T.

 

What about those that cannot do so, Youreyes? Such as the physically or mentally disabled?

We had one guy that used to hang around the local Arby's - he didn't have much to his name besides a bit of clothes, a sleeping bag, a bicycle, and an old chromebook that he found and brought into Best Buy (this was back when I worked Geek Squad - we ended up repairing it for him for free) - he is probably in his 40's or so, suffers from some mental disorder I don't know the name of (almost seems like a combination of Acute Atonic seizures mixed with schitzophrenia and/or Tourettes) - they let him have a booth at Arby's pretty much all day, where he will make balloon animals that he will sell for a few cents (and often just give away to children). He's a real sweetheart, but I cannot possibly imagine him holding any kind of "normal" job. I asked the manager about him - supposedly the guy is a Gulf War veteran...

Anywho, long story short, the guy makes just enough winter to get a bus pass down to Florida for the winter (Pennsylvania winters can be kind of brutal). The poor man is, quite literally, forsaken by the government (especially if he really is a vet) but he is still... I don't want to say happy, but he's made himself content with life.

 

You know what you are asking me?

I tell you what, you are asking me a Terri Shiavo question, and that decision was made.