Arrested for Feeding the Homeless?

[blurpeace]

Activist Arrested for Feeding the Homeless
Gotta love America. :mellow:

If that's what this country has come to, I'm not sure I'd like to live here anymore.

[Asdrubal07]

A lot going wrong with the country right now. A lot of people starting to try to turn things around via activisim and other things though.

[fripping]

feeding the homeless, such disgusting deviance. they should have shot him! if he keeps at it some indignant vigilante is going to have his head.

*resumes feasting on human blood* *is american*

[Jynweythek]

It's his own fault for not getting a permit.

[CEOofRawness]

Holy fucking shit. :shock:

I'm fucking speechless...

[Etherealsage]

Well this is lovely.






Sarcasm if you can't tell.

[Neville]

He violated a city ordinance, did he expect a high-5?

[avolkiteshvara]

How can you feed the hungry down-trodden when you are breaking an obscure city ordinance?

It's the kid's own fault. He sould've worn some dockers, worn a cross, and gotten a crew cut if he wanted to help people.

[Jynweythek]

He violated a city ordinance, did he expect a high-5?

Exactly. If he had just went and got a permit then there wouldn't be a reason to get all up-in-arms because he wouldn't have been arrested.

[Vimy]

I wonder what the the exact rationale behind the new city ordinance is?

[CheeZ]

If each of you folks had taken the time to feed a homeless person in Orlando, he would have been well under the limit. It's your fault he went to jail. Way to go.

[Neville]

How can you feed the hungry down-trodden when you are breaking an obscure city ordinance?

By easily working around the city ordinance?


It's the kid's own fault. He sould've worn some dockers, worn a cross, and gotten a crew cut if he wanted to help people.

He does look like a douchebag. He should have picked a better way to seek attention. I'm sure there are plenty of areas he could have sprayed some fresh anarchy signs.

[Chaselation]

I wonder what the the exact rationale behind the new city ordinance is?

Don't feed the big pink fleshy pigeons I would guess. They leave unsightly messes.

[fripping]

I wonder what the the exact rationale behind the new city ordinance is?

resort town+old people haven= crowds of homeless are bad for business.

have them incinerated and sold as charcoal briquettes, i say. for commerce! the one and only true guiding light in this sin-cursed world!

[avolkiteshvara]

He does look like a douchebag. He should have picked a better way to seek attention. I'm sure there are plenty of areas he could have sprayed some fresh anarchy signs.

I was being facetious.

[Jynweythek]

From what I could tell from the news report, the ordinance wasn't specifically directed toward feeding homeless people, just people in general (see: 1:40). I imagine it has something to do with keeping the city orderly and dissuading people from creating large crowds.

[Vagabond]

I imagine it has something to do with keeping the city orderly and dissuading people creating large crowds.
OK... are large crowds a problem over there, for some obscure reason?

The ordinance is ridiculous, btw. Laws should have some valid rationale behind them, and "homeless people are bad for tourism" is not valid - what's the point living in society even, then?

The guy was right to go do this without obtaining a permit, imo. It attracted attention not to him, but to the fact that you have an utterly irrational and ridiculous ordinance in place. As it should.

[fripping]

From what I could tell from the news report, the ordinance wasn't specifically directed toward feeding homeless people, just people in general (see: 1:40). I imagine it has something to do with keeping the city orderly and dissuading people creating large crowds.

well, imagine if a crowd of fifty wealthy bankers, professionals and businesspeople all met for an impromptu picnic lunch at an orlando park. do you think anybody would get arrested?

[Jynweythek]

Yeesh, don't jump on me. I was just postulating possible reasons, I didn't say it was right. Also, I did some quick research via google and I think I was wrong about this bit:
the ordinance wasn't specifically directed toward feeding homeless people

[Randall]

I think this quote from the youtube comments sums the whole thing up perfectly: "fuck thst ordinaces."

[avolkiteshvara]

There was obviously some old retried farts with nothing better to do but petition the city council to enact something like this.

Old people can get anal about shit like this.

[OrionzRevenge]

He violated a city ordinance, did he expect a high-5?


Exactly. If he had just went and got a permit then there wouldn't be a reason to get all up-in-arms because he wouldn't have been arrested.

I think what should be remembered here is that, like Rosa Parks and MLK Jr. before him, this was calculated Civil Disobedience. As noted by the reporter, the cops have stop enforcing the law pending the outcome of the ACLU's court case. ...He wanted to be arrested.


I wonder what the the exact rationale behind the new city ordinance is?

I'm sure it was spurred by negative side-effects to public feedings. However, Like Bush and the torture of terroist suspects, good intentions often lead to suck-ass solutions.

[Neville]

I think what should be remembered here is that, like Rosa Parks and MLK Jr. before him, this was calculated Civil Disobedience. As noted by the reporter, the cops have stop enforcing the law pending the outcome of the ACLU's court case. ...He wanted to be arrested.



I'm sure this guy will from this point on be added to every history book as a champion of civil rights.

He didn't aim to get arrested but then he got did and saw an easy way out of having to be held responsible for his actions and simultaneously get his 15 minutes.

[OrionzRevenge]

I'm sure this guy will from this point on be added to every history book as a champion of civil rights.

He didn't aim to get arrested but then he got did and saw an easy way out of having to be held responsible for his actions and simultaneously get his 15 minutes.

I wasn’t implying he was in league with Parks or King… Only using said to illustrate the MO.
The fact that the ACLU jump on this post haste suggests that it was indeed calculated.
…And there has gotta be a cooler way for a young dude to score 15 minutes of Warhol in Orlando other than feeding the homeless… IMO.

[Zephyrus055]

While that's just screwed up, I do feel a sense of justice that one less activist and nut with hyperactive empathy is off the streets. Fucking activists.

[DeKamme]

well, imagine if a crowd of fifty wealthy bankers, professionals and businesspeople all met for an impromptu picnic lunch at an orlando park. do you think anybody would get arrested?
Sometimes I imagine being a police officer, and doing these very things. Or hiring some people to enact it, wile making "news coverage".

[LazyReed]

It's his own fault for not getting a permit.

You're unbelievable, not in a sensational way either.

I live in Orlando and I often go and participate in our local Food Not Bombs chapter. I personally know Eric, even though I wasn't at the specific feeding where he was arrested.

Basically, what's happened since is that FNB won the case, but then the City of Orlando decided to appeal it and so now the case is going to a Federal Court in Atlanta.

Our Food Not Bombs consists mostly of teenagers and young adults, mainly anarchist youth. We're still feeding and haven't stopped, in fact, we now also feed on another day in the morning. I think this is symptomatic of the new America, and this didn't happen because of any actual technical violation, but because of the political influence FNB has and the consequent threat it poses to the market-state spectacle.


"Food is a right, not a privilege!" and scarcity is a lie, a survival-mechanism of self-justification for the corrupt economy.


http://orlandofoodnotbombs.org/ for recent info

This is Eric's band btw, if any INTPs are into punkish grindcore. Just figured I might as well rep... http://www.myspace.com/republicorpse

[Bongmaster General]

"Food is a right, not a privilege!"

Yes. The real story here is that our government endorses spending on any number of non-essential projects while people are still starving. When you get to the point where people are actively punished for trying to help others in absence of adequate state support, you start to get the feeling the powers that be are reacting against the loss of illusion-- the deluded notion that all that can be done is being done or that everyone's on an even playing field. Right on for involving yourself with this movement. If you can fuck with the man and get to provide for the basic needs of citizens who were fucked by the machine, then you're living the anti-American dream.

[LazyReed]

The real story here is that our government endorses spending on any number of non-essential projects while people are still starving. When you get to the point where people are actively punished for trying to help others in absence of adequate state support, you start to get the feeling the powers that be are reacting against the loss of illusion-- the deluded notion that all that can be done is being done or that everyone's on an even playing field.

On the term "machine"-- it's excellent as a metaphor for the workings of social reality and as an allusion to the bleakness and dehumanizing aspect of techno-industrial society.

"Let your life be a counterfriction to the machine." -Thoreau

Here are some more relevant quotes to your post Bongmaster

“Our complex global economy is built upon millions of small, private acts of psychological surrender, the willingness of people to acquiesce in playing their assigned parts as cogs in the great social machine that encompasses all other machines. They must shape themselves to the prefabricated identities that make efficient coordination possible… that capacity for self-enslavement must be broken.” Theodore Roszak

"The mark of the modern world is the imagination of its profiteers and the counter-assertiveness of the oppressed. Exploitation and the refusal to accept exploitation as either inevitable or just constitute the continuing antinomy of the modern era, joined together in a dialectic which has far from reached its climax in the twentieth century."

- Immanuel Wallerstein

[MadamI'madaM]

The severe impedence of consolidated discontent/resistance is oldschool textbook fascism.

[pathetically-lovely]

Stupid. That's really all I can really come up with.
Don't those policemen have anything better to do than to arrest a guy trying to help people? Guess not.

[Neville]

Don't those policemen have anything better to do than to arrest a guy trying to help people? Guess not.

The law shouldn't be enforced simply because this guy was "trying to help people?" Where do you draw the line with this idea?

[avolkiteshvara]

The law shouldn't be enforced simply because this guy was "trying to help people?" Where do you draw the line with this idea?

Feeding poor hungry people seems like a good idea not to enforce a law. Especially when no one is hurt by it.

human decency>mindless protocol

[MadamI'madaM]

Where do you draw the line with this idea?

Probably somewhere around people eating bean stew in a park, you know, like most intelligent people capable of fluid reasoning.

[30footsmurf]

He violated a city ordinance, did he expect a high-5?

I don't know if you meant that seriously or not, but either way:
I'll give him a high five. Respect the law up and to the point that it deviates from your own basic principles of right and wrong. Our laws are a reflection of us, if we disagree and follow them anyway, we just give those laws more credibility than they deserve. All of our views are equally important under the constitution even if they aren't respected by the powerful or backed up by police.
Whats going on here I think, is the city attempting to alleviate the annoyance of dealing with the poor, and their impact on tourism and property values. While I would agree you have a right to protect your property, you don't have a right tell citizens of a country that they cannot occupy public land or feed as many people as they want. I know people like money, but if thats all we're going to consider when making laws, I'm going to follow even less of them. Its like when you find out a teacher was totally wrong about some concept and they lose all their credibility in your eyes. Why would you seek them out for guidance another time.

[Neville]

All of our views are equally important under the constitution even if they aren't respected by the powerful or backed up by police.

They're really not.


Whats going on here I think, is the city attempting to alleviate the annoyance of dealing with the poor, and their impact on tourism and property values.

Protecting what generates profit, kinda makes sense doesn't it?


While I would agree you have a right to protect your property, you don't have a right tell citizens of a country that they cannot occupy public land or feed as many people as they want.

Feeding people in public parks is perfectly legal.


I know people like money, but if thats all we're going to consider when making laws, I'm going to follow even less of them.

You can't win against money.


Feeding poor hungry people seems like a good idea not to enforce a law. Especially when no one is hurt by it.

human decency>mindless protocol

Feeding poor hungry people seems pretty mindless. They are going to be hungry again in a few hours, still poor, and still looking for a hand out.

Nothing was achieved.


Probably somewhere around people eating bean stew in a park, you know, like most intelligent people capable of fluid reasoning.


I was unaware intelligence had anything to do with one's propensity to give a shit about homeless people.


Fuck altruism.

[MadamI'madaM]

I was unaware intelligence had anything to do with one's propensity to give a shit about homeless people.


Fuck altruism.

It's about citizens being able to do things with their own property (food) on public land (but some of them didn't pay teh taxses11!!!1 O noes!).

We , on the other hand, are perfectly aware that you like to use every opportunity to take your internet fashionable misanthropy out for some fresh air.

It's getting silly.

[Neville]

It's about citizens being able to do things with their own property (food) on public land (but some of them didn't pay teh taxses11!!!1 O noes!).

We , on the other hand, are perfectly aware that you like to use every opportunity to take your internet fashionable misanthropy out for some fresh air.

It's getting silly.

As is your bleeding heart.

[30footsmurf]

They're really not.



Protecting what generates profit, kinda makes sense doesn't it?



Feeding people in public parks is perfectly legal.



You can't win against money.



Feeding poor hungry people seems pretty mindless. They are going to be hungry again in a few hours, still poor, and still looking for a hand out.

Nothing was achieved.




I was unaware intelligence had anything to do with one's propensity to give a shit about homeless people.


Fuck altruism.

I'll just address what you said in order as I haven't been inclined to learn to use the multi quote feature which you seem to have mastered. Tips appreciated if you can clear that up easily.

If all of our views are not held equal under the constitution then why would we join this society. I'm of the thought that if we are to come together as a society at all we trade a sense of refinement and decency in order to smooth our relations. If people are not allowed to enjoy the benefits of society with some sense of fairness then they may have no choice but to resort to the most crude instruments of safe guarding our interests.
Politics and governments are essentially instruments of managing interests. In that regard all of our views are equal. I'm sure I don't need to clue you in to the logical inconsistencies of current state of affairs. I'm assuming of course there is something about the status quo that you would change, and would appreciate people taking your views seriously.

Profit is more than capable of protecting itself if it is providing a necessary function. What this seems to be doing is moving those inconvenient people who do not seek profit, but just the crude implements of survival. Because some may aspire to wealth and control does not mean that the rest of us need to hold your goals equal to or higher than our own.

Also interesting to note is that these people live on less resources, they aren't sucking up all the gas, or living extravagantly on your dimes, and if they need some food once in a while, I'm more than happy to provide. And if your not thats cool, but don't get in my way, and I wont get in yours. Fair enough right?

On public parks being legal.
Good. It should be.

You can win against money it just takes organization. Its been done before and it will be done again. Money can only hold its edge so long as there are enough people invested in the system. Thats true at this point, but the more successful profiteers are the more consolidated money becomes and the more poor there will be. Eventually when those who feel shafted by the system experience enough shared hard ship they will band together and take out their rulers. Because their interests are stronger than profit interests.

As far as feeding the poor being a waste of time:
I agree, we shouldn't have to feed them, we should teach them to fish right? I'm sure they would love to fish, or have a great job like you've got, and seek the profit that would give them the food they need, but its hard to get hired when you stink like shit and have a bit of craziness in you. Unless we want to allow them to fish anywhere they want, I'm cool with that too, but I'll still hook them up with some butter and salt.
Also, something is achieved. You don't look at the human aspect of this, is your real name lor by any chance? When people perform acts of kindness, that spreads, I've seen it happen with my own to eyes in the real world.
I'm assuming along with your cold logical outlook on the world you may have gained an understanding of networks. Networks are a great analogy for human interactions. For them to work properly they need power, the appropriate hardware/software and settings. The case with bums is that they have the hardware(possibly damaged), they have the software(possibly corrupted), and are lacking the settings to function properly within the network. Now we could just throw them out, but these are people, and when you become broken I'm sure there will be someone there to fix you. We should do the same for them.

Intelligence has nothing to do with compassion toward the homeless. Its understanding that intelligence is capable of providing that allows a greater ability for compassion. Its about seeing yourself in others. Its about actually feeling your place in the world around you, not looking for what you can get from the world around you. There are those that have helped you in the past, these guys need help now.

Fuck Greed. Its far more stressful than altruism, and when you get something cool you don't have to look at a list of 7 people you consider friends to be happy for you and celebrate, they're everywhere.

[MadamI'madaM]

As is your bleeding heart.

What if a city decided that it spent too much money retrieving kites from trees and banned kite flying in public parks?

This is about property rights and the basic citizenship of the homeless, not social welfare.

Social welfare is only a problem when figuring out who's paying. That's long been settled here.

Even if it's about tax money/who "deserves" to use the park, the issue of feeding and actual liquid being spent is basically over.

[30footsmurf]

I didn't notice the J. It makes so much more sense now.

[MadamI'madaM]

You know what makes me chuckle?

How most of the people who try to act all callous about the homeless are usually uncomfortable in their presence.

You could just call it blind fear, but I actually think that those people are often in denial about how much homelessness/helplessness actually bums them out deep down.

EDIT: The worst thing about this is that some loser actually dropped a dime. I'd bet lots of the cops felt lame about it.

[30footsmurf]

You know what makes me chuckle?

How most of the people who try to act all callous about the homeless are usually uncomfortable in their presence.

You could just call it blind fear, but I actually think that those people are often in denial about how much homelessness/helplessness actually bums them out deep down.

Yeah. I prescribe a hug a a little reassurance that the world isn't out to take his money. hahah

I think it comes from a lack of confidence honestly. To be that adverse to helping someone requires a sense of denial of the situation and that you are fundamentally different from them. I think that belief in being different from them provides him the logical reasoning to disregard the fear that he experiences considering himself in their position. It can't happen in other words, because "I'm not like them".
If one can't see themselves in another it is harder to relate and therefore share their plight.
*addition*
I've talked to a lot of bums myself, and I always have a good time. Unless I'm with someone who's afraid of them, or its one of the crazy ones that are already too drunk to speak. I met one that had an old shitty guitar and he busted out some Hendrix tunes better than I could play them. It was cool.

[TheMANimal]

You should never feed the homeless. If you see a homeless, stop what you are doing and slowly back away. Do not attempt to stand your ground. The homeless are extremely dangerous and they have no fear of man. They have been known to attack without being provoked. Be very careful, if you are bitten by a homeless, you too will become homeless.

It's not worth the risk.

[30footsmurf]

thats awesome:theclap:

[Bongmaster General]

We should just conduct a lottery where the thousand or so winners get to benefit from the mass slaughter of the rest of humanity for meat, clothing, fuel, and other goods. Basically, laissez-faire capitalism-- only quicker.

[LazyReed]

You can't win against money.



Feeding poor hungry people seems pretty mindless. They are going to be hungry again in a few hours, still poor, and still looking for a hand out.



I was unaware intelligence had anything to do with one's propensity to give a shit about homeless people.


Fuck altruism.

You are a tool.

[therealwork]

Fuck altruism.


At the very least i give you respect for your ability to actually admit what you believe deep down and say it out loud. Your not confused by culture or rhetoric you simply know who you are and why you believe this to be true. The problem with society today is people who believe what you do but are incapable of understanding why it is they feel so strongly against such things as Food Not Bombs,.....altruism. Really why they feel so strongly against the whole idea of "mutual aid" among people and communities and its intrinsic nature within our universe. You give a voice to the mass which has been silenced, tuned by advertising/public relations firms. Feel comfort in your channeling of the mass.

[fripping]

no, no, he's right. the world would be a much better place if we could just get everyone to treat each other like shit. ah, a paradise of jerks. make it happen, people!

think global, act local. let's get out there and kill us some humans.

[ryan_m_parr]

think global, act local. let's get out there and kill us some humans.

It should always start with the illiterate.

[fripping]

It should always start with the illiterate.

if you're doing what i think you are, then http://phailpail.com/images/rolleyes.jpg

[ryan_m_parr]

if you're doing what i think you are, then http://phailpail.com/images/rolleyes.jpg

Uhh. I don't know now

[fripping]

nevermind. sorry.

[therealwork]

nevermind.


Shit dont matter lets dance

[Bongmaster General]

Shit dont matter lets dance

If you won't listen to my words, then listen to my dancing feet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9-itE5qns

[fripping]

Shit dont matter lets dance

this thread is getting really weird.

*dances* *tries not to throw up like kenny powers*

[therealwork]

If you won't listen to my words, then listen to my dancing feet.



Why?