City of Houston, more concerned about trash cans than the homeless who are starving

[Oldgamer]

Homeless Man Gets Ticket for Digging Through Trash for Food

The city of Houston, Texas is officially more concerned about the safety and dignity of trash than the city's homeless. The Houston Chronicle reports:

James Kelly was hungry and looking for something to eat. He tried to find it in a trash bin near Houston City Hall.

For that, the man, who said he spent about nine years in the Navy but fell on hard times, was ticketed by a Houston police officer.

According to his copy of the citation, Kelly, 44, was charged on Thursday with "disturbing the contents of a garbage can in (the) downtown business district."

"I was just basically looking for something to eat," Kelly said Monday night. "I wasn't in a real good mood."

The Chronicle traced the law back to 1942, when it was delightfully titled "molesting garbage containers." A 1988 rewrite expanded legal protection from molestation to recyclables, and over the last 2 decades it's become increasingly restrictive as municipalities have become more and more committed to purging the homeless from city centers.

How come Kelly had to dig through the trash for food, aren't there groups that feed the needy? Maybe he just likes trash food so much he was willing to break the law to get some? Actually, if there were charitable organizations feeding the homeless that night, they would have been harder to find than a year ago; in 2012 the City Council instituted a feeding ban that forces organizations to get permission from the city before they can give food in public. The fine for lawbreakers is $500.

The two laws exemplify the increasing criminalization of homelessness, which AlterNet has written about here. Here's how it works: instead of spending money on social programs, cities spend way more money harrassing, fining, and jailing the homeless, in the hope that they'll magically disappear.

Cities continue to do this, despite the fact that investing in social programs ends up being cheaper AND more effective in the long run. Unfortunately, many of these programs are at a disadvantage because they conflict with the conservative narrative that everything is the fault the poor because they lack the strong moral character of America's wealthy.

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/tana-ganeva/homeless-man-gets-ticket-digging-through-trash-food

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Houston is controlled by a Democratic Mayor and city council. Nice try blaming conservatives though.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Houston is controlled by a Democratic Mayor and city council. Nice try blaming conservatives though.

^ This!

Conservative charities have tried but were denied by the Mayor.

 

[unokitty]

...conflict with the conservative narrative...http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/tana-ganeva/homeless-man-gets-ticket-digging-through-trash-food

The first two sentences in Mayor Parker's Wikipedia page are:

"Annise Danette Parker (born May 17, 1956) is an American politician and the mayor of Houston since January 2, 2010. She served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and city controller from 2004 to 2009.

Parker is Houston's second female mayor, and one of the first openly gay mayors of a major U.S. city."

So from your perspective, conservatives are using lesbian big city mayors to articulate their narrative?

Who knew?

Uno

 

[Matt1970]

Heh

 

[xj0hnx]

Amazing that facts, and reality don't support the OP's bias, weird.

 

[Oldgamer]

The article doesn't say anything about this being a democratic vs republican issue, and you totally missed the point of the article. Sheesh..

Why does everything have to be democratic vs republican issue.. good grief folks get a grip

 

[Matt1970]

The article doesn't say anything about this being a democratic vs republican issue, and you totally missed the point of the article. Sheesh..

Why does everything have to be democratic vs republican issue.. good grief folks get a grip

The article absolutely does. Did you not even read your own quote?

Unfortunately, many of these programs are at a disadvantage because they conflict with the conservative narrative that everything is the fault the poor because they lack the strong moral character of America's wealthy.

 

[nehalem256]

The article absolutely does. Did you not even read your own quote?

You obviously misunderstood the article. Private charity is wrong.

Which is why we need more government programs.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Here's an interesting article on this ordinance. Although the article doesn't mention specifics on party affiliation...a little digging shows that it was conservatives who were fighting against this.

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/memo...cle_5cdd385f-6348-5ac9-ad7a-0121de67dcb1.html

 

[fskimospy]

I always found ticketing homeless people to be a pretty weird exercise. What are you going to fine him? What if he doesn't pay?

Treating the homeless is expensive and elected officials have no constituency that cares that much about them so long as they aren't too bothersome. Sad, but true.

 

[ivwshane]

So who's partitioning the local government to change the laws?

It sounds like everyone is in agreement that the current law sucks.

 

[Matt1970]

I always found ticketing homeless people to be a pretty weird exercise. What are you going to fine him? What if he doesn't pay?

Treating the homeless is expensive and elected officials have no constituency that cares that much about them so long as they aren't too bothersome. Sad, but true.

So if he doesn't pay the fine he goes to jail. 3 hots and a cot. It's still jail though.

 

[Oldgamer]

The article absolutely does. Did you not even read your own quote?

No it doesn't it is talking about a conservative narrative, which can be either democrat or republican.. you do realize there are many conservative democrats?

Crimeny

 

[Murloc]

So if he doesn't pay the fine he goes to jail. 3 hots and a cot. It's still jail though.

more money spend on useless stuff that doesn't solve the issue.

I don't mind people digging in the trash, seriously, they're not hurting anybody and they lower the costs because they take out stuff that can be recycled or reused.

Martens ripping trash bags and distributing the content all over the street are much worse.

 

[fskimospy]

So if he doesn't pay the fine he goes to jail. 3 hots and a cot. It's still jail though.

I'm most cases, probably not. Regardless, he's homeless so most likely the guy doesn't have any money for a fine. As for throwing him in jail for the crime of being homeless, what point is there to that? It's not like lots of people choose homelessness because its so fun, so what behavior are you attempting to regulate?

(although I wouldn't mind throwing bratty teenagers who are electively homeless a few tickets. Screw those guys)

 

[Oldgamer]

I saw an article about Silicon Valley and many people who once were middle class citizens now unemployed and living in tents just outside the area. The police and the mayor were going to run them off and tear down their tents and take any and all items that any squatters owned to discourage them from staying. This just seemed heartless to me. If you were unemployed for a long period of time, and lost your home and had no place to go, because the shelters have reached their limit, and other factors keeping you homeless why on earth would the state/city take what little possessions these folks have? This is just the same old crap that cities/states do to the homeless instead of addressing the issue, open more shelters and provide more services they are just demoralizing these folks even further.

The homeless don't just magically disappear. I need to find that article. It was on the news and they were interviewing some of the people living in tents, and some had little kids with them.

 

[ivwshane]

I saw an article about Silicon Valley and many people who once were middle class citizens now unemployed and living in tents just outside the area. The police and the mayor were going to run them off and tear down their tents and take any and all items that any squatters owned to discourage them from staying. This just seemed heartless to me. If you were unemployed for a long period of time, and lost your home and had no place to go, because the shelters have reached their limit, and other factors keeping you homeless why on earth would the state/city take what little possessions these folks have? This is just the same old crap that cities/states do to the homeless instead of addressing the issue, open more shelters and provide more services they are just demoralizing these folks even further.

The homeless don't just magically disappear. I need to find that article. It was on the news and they were interviewing some of the people living in tents, and some had little kids with them.

It reminds me of the south park episode that was about getting rid of the homeless in their town. They just moved the homeless to the next town.

 

[BoberFett]

No it doesn't it is talking about a conservative narrative, which can be either democrat or republican.. you do realize there are many conservative democrats?

Crimeny

You can't even get that right. The "conservative narrative" (whatever the fuck that means, must be some kind of "liberal" code word) has nothing against private charity, as this law does. Conservatives are all about private charity. Or haven't you heard that conservatives are far more generous privately than "liberals" who believe all charity comes at government gunpoint.

 

[nehalem256]

No it doesn't it is talking about a conservative narrative, which can be either democrat or republican.. you do realize there are many conservative democrats?

And how many of these conservative democrats do you think are Lesbians?

 

[Londo_Jowo]

None the less churches and conservative charities have not been given permission to serve food to the poor.

Thanks to Mayor Annise Parker.

 

[halik]

 

[infoiltrator]

I am unfamiliar with Houston, but in all cases involving homeless, details are in order.
One, most places soup kitchens are available. Though possibly only some places.
They are where I live.. not always great food or quantity, true. ( was homeless for several years, medical)
Two, garbage can diving often involves collecting deposit cans for money.
Three, divers can be outstanding citizens, mixed personalities, dopers, or drunks.
Usually to get arrested divers have to be creating messes or disturbance,

In my town soup kitchens seem to be staffed and supported by every political persuasion, though liberals and Christians seem most common.

 

[Fern]

I always found ticketing homeless people to be a pretty weird exercise. What are you going to fine him? What if he doesn't pay?
-snip-

Yep.

And the cop should have not have given him a ticket unless he was throwing the trash all over or something.

Fern

 

[Fern]

I'm most cases, probably not. Regardless, he's homeless so most likely the guy doesn't have any money for a fine. As for throwing him in jail for the crime of being homeless, what point is there to that? It's not like lots of people choose homelessness because its so fun, so what behavior are you attempting to regulate?
-snip-

Yep. And putting people in jail is pretty damned expensive. The construction cost per sq ft is very, very expensive. Then there's the 'staffing'. It would be much less expensive to put the homeless up in a regular hotel room.

Fern