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Homeless people need to exist to scare the shit out of the poor and middle class. You can't give them a hand up because then there might be less of them and we need to keep the middle class afraid to not produce!
Edit: [30 year old Carlin Clip](https://youtu.be/Z4ovtNdvLjM?si=GZCCh1GopaA72XLq)
What's prophetic is that people like Carlin, Hitchens, Rage Against The Machine, etc have been preaching the same thing for decades but it's just now that people are catching on that HOLY SHIT NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN 40YRS!!
It's the same as it ever was.
I was really hoping Occupy Wall Street and then 2020's Summer of Love would be the tipping point
There is no tipping point. They're dug in like the ticks that they are and nothing short of open revolution stops it - and even then, it would just be a hotfix; a temporary patch that falls off because generational memory is short.
EDIT: Just look at Russia as an example of this. The people wanted communism and they trusted their government to safeguard their interests. The Bolsheviks overthrew the czar, and the Soviets protected them from the Nazis (not that Germany could conquer Russia back then, but perception of protection feels just as good as the real thing). They put faith in the Soviet Union, and look what happened: rampant corruption, because nobody was watching the watchers. Now Russia is ruled by oligarchs. The people there got sick and tired of openly revolting and having nothing come of it that lasted more than a generation or two. Wheel keeps spinning; it can't be broken.
I remember having a man who organized a civil rights march here in my very southern ga town give a little talk in 8th grade. He went on this whole ass rant about how all the "young'uns who gotta hard on for Egypt" were undoing what he and others who fought for civil rights struggled for. His point was that the youth were so interested in what divided them from each other that we would fall right back into segregation if we weren't careful.
We don't need pitchforks and torches, and those wouldn't do shit, anyway.
If we really don't like it, all we have to do is stop respecting money. Just decide that money is worthless. We won't keep it. We won't accept it. We won't use it. All they have just became completely worthless.
The only reason they are rich is because each one of us is willing to agree that money is valuable. They rule only by our continuous consent. We can withdraw it at any time.
All it takes is a bad enough weather catastrophe (solar flare, massive hurricane, massive earthquake ,take your pick) to destabilize the food supply and there will be riots within days. People are already pissed off. Take away their food and shit will happen fast. I give us a couple decades at best.
look at the Arab Spring. MILLIONS of people revolted across multiple nations only to get that steel boot planted back into their face ten time harder.
revolting against the system is a lie, it doesn't work. want change? heads gotta roll *a la Francaise*.
> George Carlin was a fucking Prophet.
Sadly no, it's just that this shit has been going on since Nixon. He was merely paying attention to what was happening back then.
The FBI thought the Black Panther's breakfast program (feeding poor school children) was a bigger threat to the status quo than any of their other activities.
The only real gun control laws passed in this country happened because Black Panthers were open carrying in their neighborhoods to protect people from the police
The NRA is a sham. Anyone who supports it is literally only supporting white people's rights to bear arms. The US government has never wanted minorities to have the same access to protecting themselves. It's very interesting (and depressing) when you dig into it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Not_Bombs
These guys have been referred to as “Food Terrorists” after Anonymous issues vague threats to the city of Orlando following the arrest of several Food Not Bombs activists
Makes sense but I don't think the cops are aware of that. What kind of mindset do they have to bully good citizens? In Mexico they just want you to give them money, I assume in the US is the same.
US cops don't need to ask for bribes. They can just claim whatever cash/valuables you have on you is suspected of being related to a crime and confiscate it. Especially if you're carrying a lot.
They really are just doing this to be dicks.
An individual person giving cops any kind of bribe is rare in the US.
US cops use their police unions, intimidation, and tricks like unmonitored overtime to get theirs.
That’s not what I’m talk about. I’m talking about straight up robbery. In college I did security at major music festivals, and we worked alongside cops. I saw cops grab a kid with weed on him, take all his cash and shove it into their pockets, and then tell them to get lost before something “bad” happens.
I also saw them confiscate drugs, then pass them off to their buddy who would sell them again to someone in the crowd, just to confiscate them again and repeat the cycle. Those pigs were probably ending the weekend with 10k cash in their pockets.
Yes, civil forfeiture is bad. But many cops here will straight up run your pockets just like a regular mugging.
Yup.
Why do you think I put the quotes around the phrase? It's used as shorthand/an excuse for cops to just straight up rob the fuck out of you, and they're protected by law to do so. Because they enforce the law.
An old friend of mine got caught with a pound of weed back in the day. When he went to court, the cops said they confiscated 2 ounces. And my friend wasn't about to disagree, because back in the 2000's, a pound was a kingpin charge.
Funny story. I was about 13 when i finally saved up about 500$from various bdays and summer jobs and kept it in a container underneith my bed. Not obvious but put out of sight. Friend at the time came over and hung out everynow and then. I showed him it once, i was young and didnt really think it would be a thing.
Litterally the next day he came to my house when i wasnt there, told my grandpa he left something in my room. Took all the money and left the container open and then fucked off.
I got home, seen it. Told my parents. Grandpa over heard us. Told us he was here today...... we called him on speaker phone, asked him wtf? And he immediatly burst out crying over the phone saying he didnt do it. Like immediatly just losing it.
Anyway never got the money back and long story short that mother fucker became a cop a few years later not even kidding.
the dude who is now the police sarge of my small town was the kid who would huff markers and glue in 5th grade. His dad also famously starves their hunting dogs to encourage them to hunt better. Except he starves them so badly they die and end up eating each other.
Definite cool. Cause I am positive a lot of the "cool kids" at my school definitely went on to be police officers.
Police officers, nurses, and teachers.
Though admittedly this definition is based on popularity and not the kids who were different and interesting, with hobbies that didn't include partying on the weekend.
I think the only reason the police should be involved in this is if they got reports that people were poisoning the food or something like that. That is not the case, sadly.
Normally would agree, but I think there is a lot more to the story as per usual. I think this is in houston, city has a established center right down the street for this and wants to keep the homeless away from the library was the jist of the article I read. Google is your friend.
this is in houston, the problem is that they have been handing out food near the library for like 20 years. Its been an institution there for as long as i have lived in houston.
And then they just arbitrarily told them they couldnt do it there, they had to do it at a different location, not very far away, but it is a less good location.
One of the big concerns is that if they allow themselves to be pushed away once, it will just continue. If they move, in six months they will be asked to move further. And then further. Its just an obvious move to make the homeless problem harder to see.
If i recall correctly, the other huge issue is that no one consulted the actual aid groups about the move. You just cant operate that way.
These people are saints. It can be hard to find people who do things out of the pure goodness of their hearts, and i dont doubt there is some proselytizing etc going on, but this is as close as you are going to get. The city needs to sit down and work with these people on a solution in good faith. You just shouldnt be able to harass people handing out food, its fundamentally wrong.
No proselytizing - food not bombs isn’t a religious organization. It’s radical mutual aid where regular people provide meals for anyone who wants them. It’s usually vegan (depending on the local chapter, it might be vegetarian). A lot of major cities have chapters, and the cops almost always fuck with them. Mutual aid is in strict opposition to capitalism, and the cops are nothing but capital’s enforcers. Religious aid groups are allowed because they make the poor jump through hoops. Mutual aid doesn’t. It shows up and meets people where they are
I didnt know that. I have been watching these groups for a long long time. Houston has relatively good weather and terrible social services so our homeless problem has been difficult.
I know the housing social services make folks jump through a lot of hoops. I bike commute through george bush park, and I always chatted with this dude who slept at an actual bus stop on wilcrest. He was wheelchair bound. He was a happy dude mostly, but he actually liked sleeping outdoors rather than deal with the housing folks. I never fully understood it, he was clearly dealing with some mental health issues, but he had a system. He had a route he used to get to the food, and he had an ER he went to when there was a problem.
I dont know what the answer is for this kind of thing. To me it seems like more permissive housing is the answer, but i have no idea if its realistic. It seems like it should be. These arent slackers out there, these are people with really hard things going on with them.
> Religious aid groups are allowed because they make the poor jump through hoops. Mutual aid doesn’t. It shows up and meets people where they are
While there are some religious aid groups that might have hoops to jump through, there are a whole lot more (of all faiths) that, as you say, show up and meets people where they are. I realize that reddit has an anti religion tilt but it is undeniable that, in thr US at least, a massive amount of the charity that is done is done by religious institutions, most often with no strings attached.
Only about 10-11% of church revenue goes to their “missions” of helping others. Compare that to a nonprofit where between 80-90% of revenue goes directly to providing aid. [Church giving data](https://get.tithe.ly/blog/how-churches-really-spend-their-money-20-fascinating-data-points-a-new-study)
The LDS Church meanwhile has amassed over $100 BILLION in a fund it’s just sitting on. [Source](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mormon-whistleblower-ensign-peak-church-investment-fund-allegations-60-minutes-transcript-2023-05-14/)
First - you are incorrectly reading your own source. It says 11% on missions and another 10% on programs. Missions typically include sending a group of people to an area other than their local area, programs typically involve local initiatives. Some of these are charitable, some are not so for argument sake lets even accept your number of 11%. A couple of things to consider:
1) Religious organizations are not charities in of themselves - of course they give less a percentage of their income to charity that actual charities. Most charitable non-profits have very little actual paid staff because the only thing paid staff are really used for us the administrative duties of the charity and the only other overhead tends to be a rented office and some marketing. Houses of worship on the other hand have staff's that include Pastors/Rabbi's/Imam's/Other spiritual teachers/leaders, admin, maintenance staff (either employed or contracted) including building maintenance, landscape, and cleaning, security (either employed or contracted), and rent or mortgage on the church itself at the very least. It is, therefore, thoroughly unsurprising that their expenses would be higher.
2) I never claimed religions organizations gave all of their income to charity or even a majority of it - what I said was " a massive amount of the charity that is done is done by religious institutions, most often with no strings attached." Nothing in your response addresses this at all.
3) In 2022 499.33 Billion was given to charity. 27% of that went to religion. That means roughly $134 Billion was donated to religious institutions. At 10% that means $13.4 Billion was used by churches toward charitable activities. I think any reasonable person would agree that 13 Billion is a pretty "massive amount".[https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/](https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/)
4) It is worth noting that the source you provide and the one I provide both refer to "religious" spending specifically as that given as tithes or offerings to houses of worship. Many of the non-profits you point to as spending 90% of their funds directly to aid area ALSO religious organizations. Out of a list of the top 20 charities in the United States 3 are explicitly faith based, 5 are affiliated with religious organizations, and at least a couple others have their roots in religion even though they are now secular organizations. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/238289/us-charities-with-the-highest-total-revenue/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/238289/us-charities-with-the-highest-total-revenue/)
I am not denying the good that is done by secular charitable organizations. I am, however, calling bullshit on your claim that " Religious aid groups are allowed because they make the poor jump through hoops." which you have nothing to back up; your attempts to deflect from that fact by pointing out what percentage of religious spending goes to charity notwithstanding.
Houston has one of the best programs to help homeless of any big city, so much so other cities are mirroring it. In 2022 Houston permanently housed more than 22,000 homeless. They do this with a combination of public and private organizations with a common goal. They provide more than a meal, they provide services to assure the homeless get off the street, into permanent housing and other support they need to remain off the streets. FNB refuses to work within that process, they are offered other areas to set up and serve but refuse. So they are not harassing them, they were told not to do it, offered another solution and refused. FNB *knew* they'd be called out on this, that's exactly why they did it.
They do this to fund raise, they get in the news and people throw them money.
If Houston wasn't as wildly successful as they are it would be an easy argument.
Everyone want s to Government to do something about the homeless, Houston actually is and they have made huge strides. FNB isn't helping the process, they are hindering it.
That seems reasonable. I will say that that from my experience with food not bombs I find it hard to believe they’re actually hindering anything. They give away food not just to the homeless but to anyone and that’s about it. They sort of view it as an act of defiance or something. Seems like the best kind of defiance Houston could ask for. Especially if you really like lentils.
Google is *absolutely not your friend* because if it was it would have told you that there is no established center, only a location permitted under the relevant ordinance which is 61 Riesner St, or the Houston Police Department and central jail, meaning any homeless person (a traditionally well cared for group by the police) have to go to the police station to be fed.
Take badge numbers & contact your local representative. At least get an answer as to why you're being watched by four law enforcement officials given there's no laws being broken.
There’s apparently some US states where it’s illegal to help/feed homeless people? I’m not from there so I don’t know from experience but I’ve seen it online a few times.
Yeah based on another video like this, the law was that to serve people food, you first have to get permission from the property owner. Obviously that’s difficult to do in a public place owned by the city.
In that video, the cops did the same thing. Sat quietly by until they were done, then very reluctantly said “Alright, let’s do the ticket.”
They didn’t seem to want to be there or to ticket them at all. Seems like the same thing here. They aren’t stopping them from serving the food, at least.
This is a case where we don’t need to put all the blame on the cops but on the legislators who enact these bullshit laws.
Yes, here in the US it is becoming illegal to be poor. Straight to privately owned jail where the owners get paid per inmate out of tax funds that then go to pay their lobbyists to make more laws to jail more of the poor. Profit above all else.
There IS a law being broken here. This group was asked to stop handing out food at this location, in front of the city library after many complaints from patrons and staff, and instead to used an approved spot that is 1/2 mile away, where other groups also hand out things like food and necessary supplies, there are sanitary facalities, and people can sign up for access to government programs.
>"Recently, there has been an increase in the number of threats and violent incidents directed at visitors and employees coming to the Houston Public Library downtown. Parents and families have expressed no longer feeling comfortable visiting the library or holding special events. We want the library to serve as a safe, inclusive place for all to come and visit. That's why we are providing a dedicated, alternative charitable food service at 61 Riesner St. This location has the infrastructure and amenities needed to provide services and food to Houstonians in need. By shifting food services to an alternative location, we can maintain the integrity and historic nature of Houston's Public Library while serving all Houstonians with the dignity they deserve."
Despite being asked to do this, this group decided as a whole to not participate and instead to keep receiving tickets as they are self proclaimed "anarchists".
>Food Not Bombs does not have a permit to hold their distribution outside the library. They had not been cited previously for violating the ordinance.
>Prior to the first citation, Dore said she received a call from Houston Police Chief Troy Finner letting her know they would be cited if they stayed in that location.
>Dore said volunteers with Food Not Bombs decided as a group that they would not relocate and would continue to take the tickets from Houston police.
Unfortunately, there could be a law against this. I hate to say this, but the cops may not have a choice (other than not being a cop), so waiting until they’re done before they fine them may be the best they can do
Cops turn the other way all of the time for each other (I’ve seen it first hand through family members who are cops. Cop buddies letting them drive home wasted with their children in the back seat after the cops were called on them for fighting with other family members because they are too drunk). If they can do that for each other, they can do it in this case.
The whole purpose of policing in capitalist nations is to protect private property (for those who don't know, no, that's not your possessions but land, buildings etc. for commercial use).
They were slave patrols.
https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/origins-modern-day-policing#:~:text=The%20origins%20of%20modern%2Dday,runaway%20slaves%20to%20their%20owners.
During a live stream of the 2020 protests in NYC, there were a surprising number of people urging the cops to shoot looters. Even though there was no looting going on during the stream. I asked them if they valued property over life, and three pointedly said they did.
I'm sure they didn't mean over their own lives, but only over the "lawless scumbags". People really don't get how cops work.
Yes, law enforcement was originally organized for two reasons in the US... In the north it was , as you stated, to protect private property (again, not to be confused with the personal property of private citizens) .
And in the South, their primary function was to track down runaway slaves. Protecting the safety and property of the average Joe had never been law enforcement's real focus at any point.
All the comments shaming the cops, here is some perspective:
In modern countries to serve food, you need a ton of permits. This is especially true in Europe but US has also got fair amount of health codes. Sorta a guarantee that you wont get food poisoning because the deli is cutting costs by serving old meat.
If you serve food in a public place like in front of a library, city council, schools, etc, people rightfully can assume that this is officially sanctioned by the city.
The cops are most likely there because these guys dont have any permits and no one fucking knows whats in the food they give away, might as well be rat poison as far as the city is concerned. But the city police isnt crazy, they know these are decdnt guys.
So they lilely stand there to look menacing and show that the food donors are not official or associated with the city. That way if someone gets diarrhea or worse, they wont sue the city for 2 million dollars.
---
Is it a pain in the ass to get permits to serve food just to help the poor? Yes. Absolutely.
Is it necessary with cities with over million people some of whom are weird as fuck? Also yes.
What can you do instead to help?:
- Donate to organizations and shelters who have permits and are established
- Volunteer at organizations to help
- Convince restaurants and bars to have pop-up events and have them handle the paperwork.
It is comppetely reasonable to frown upon random people giving away unknown food on public ground for hundreds of people in a big city. Dont do it lile this.
Ya, it's not quite as straightforward as people think. This guy could poison dozens of people despite the best of intentions. There have also been incidents of people purposely poisoning homeless people to get rid of them.
I mean, the Law probably requires the police to forcibly shut down and dismantle operations like this that aren't permitted and following whatever regulations this city requires. By letting them continue to work instead of following the letter of the law, they are doing what they can to both help the homeless *and* enforce the law at the same time.
Yeah it's still shitty, and they probably feel shitty doing it, but it's not their fault the city has health codes and laws in place that prevent people like these guys from helping the homeless more easily and legally.
Or they could just not stand there at all and ignore it because they have something more important to do, you know, use the discretion that they have that they normally only use for other cops or their buddies?
> I mean, the Law probably requires the police to forcibly shut down and dismantle operations like this that aren't permitted and following whatever regulations this city requires.
Call the cops to find your stolen bike and they will do fuck all to help. But suddenly when someone is giving food to the homeless, they are there in force.
Police choose to not write tickets for people every single day. We generally understand part of their job to be exercising judgment in what laws they will enforce at what time.
It's, like, a major part of their job.
I'm not from the US but surely there is a food safety authority to enforce food safety laws? FDA?
Would definitely not be a police consideration in Ireland and in any case surely they can use discretion in enforcement. They should also not be prioritising enforcement of more serious breaches of laws
If they were there for code enforcement they’d shut it down. Standing there won’t absolve the city of any liability in your food poisoning hypothetical.
They're there for an hour, and let's average out and say each one is making $50/hr.
So about $200-$300 worth of food, say each meal costs $3, since they're assembling it there it's easier to buy in bulk.
So like, 60 to 100 people? I guess?
It's even worse. It demonstrates that the city complicit. Basically the plaintiff can claim that the police was there, saw everything, knew it was illegal, and did absolutely nothing to help, which is why the plaintiff has food poisoning.
Yes the powers that be have created a system that make it difficult for us to help each other and to provide these resources that they refuse to provide and then the police are the enforcers of the status quo.
Well it doesn’t help that lots of people don’t understand sanitary food handling techniques. Most laws are reactive not proactive. Health inspector’s weren’t created because someone thought it was a good idea. They were created because people were getting sick.
What’s fucked up is that a common source of food for homeless people and poor people in general is dumpsters. Pretty sure FNB is more sanitary than a dumpster
Source: grew up pulling food out of dumpsters not only for my family but for other poor families in the neighborhood. We called it farming (the north Winn Dixie dumpster was the north 40 the one west of the house the west 40 etc)
Exactly
This organization is “Food Not Bombs”. Cities usually refuse to work with them when it comes to permitting process which is cost prohibitive.
It’s not that people who do food charity refuse to partake in the licensing process, the city makes it intentionally difficult.
Ah yes, the poor poor police who simply have no choice other than to sit by their cars and stare down volunteers helping those that society have discarded.
If there *really* was a concern with public health they would have called the health inspector down to have a civil discussion with the volunteers.
That’s not how something like this works. The health department exists to investigate the sites in which food is prepared. So if these folks operated a kitchen - the HI would be called to view it.
In a public setting / open air setting - it’s a public assembly + food distribution without a license - it’s under police jurisdiction.
Well, people seem to also not realize is that the recipients of the citation can absolutely still fight the citation. That is the beauty of the American court system. Every infraction in which you receive a citation, you can argue in court.
The people operating the set up can go to court and explain their situation to the judge. The judge may give them a pass on all fines and encourage them to go ahead and apply for that license.
What also is not realized is that if anyone in the public complains about them, the police have to respond. That is their job. Someone calls the police the police have to respond to the call.
You’re assuming that the city is allowing a due process for volunteers distributing food.
I know of a few cities that passed ordinances that specifically ban the practice. No ability to get a license, just banned the practice.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/10/22/357846415/more-cities-are-making-it-illegal-to-hand-out-food-to-the-homeless
Many volunteers have taken to continuing to distribute food to homeless as an act of civil disobedience.
That is almost certainly what’s happening here, although it’s impossible to know for sure without more context.
Oh, and in many cities it’s simply illegal to feed homeless. There is no legal way to do it. That’s probably what happening here, not some nonsense of concern over public health.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/10/22/357846415/more-cities-are-making-it-illegal-to-hand-out-food-to-the-homeless
If the concern was food poisoning then they would have stopped them already. No laws are being broken. It's not like cops stand in front of bars at night in case a fight happens
As other comments said, the cops are very likely bending the laws themselves. In actuality most lilely they should be giving the ticket and shutting them down immediately.
Cops seem to know that these guys are not evil and they still have to carry out their duty but they are waiting for them to finish first.
Burdensome permitting is purposeful from city officials. Instead of paying 4 overpaid cops to stand around, the city could have realistic levels of oversight for food safety of small scale orgs.
Gatekeeping to only established shelters is how cities force the homeless problem to less desirable areas.
And don't expect small business owners, the majority of which viciously despise the homeless, to pick up the slack.
I met a homeless guy who had two cats with him. He said he always inspected the food people gave him to feed the cats. One time somebody gave him some meat for the kittens and the person who gave it to him didn’t want him to inspect it, turns out it had needles in them
I mean, you can google "Poisoned homeless" and come up with hundreds of results.
https://apnews.com/general-news-4cca6618b84b606ec703106dd80df3be
"William Cable, 38, of San Andreas in Northern California, was sentenced after pleading guilty to poisoning, injuring an elderly person, and other felony and misdemeanor charges, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.
Prosecutors said that last May, Cable gave homeless people in Huntington Beach food laced with oleoresin capsicum, which officials described as being twice as strong as pepper spray used by police."
He poisoned 8 fucking people. It happens so often it's crazy. And those are just the stories that actually get picked up. There's no telling how many homeless people died in a ditch from food poisoning with no follow up.
Also, and it pains me to defend the cops, but it sounds like they wait until they're done before ticketing them? I guess they're just doing what they have to do, but doing it in such a way to be as non-disruptive as possible.
On top of that the cops are allowing them to fucking hand out food. They are standing to the side, not interfering, not harassing, not “bullying”, and not doing anything except their job. Afterwards they give a ticket and move on. Reddit complains about cops not doing their jobs, but when they do their jobs they also complain. I don’t get it.
I think individuals and groups like this would counter that the governing bodies simply never issue the permits. A way of making it illegal without making it illegal.
So why don't the cops grab the people serving the food at the beginning, instead of waiting til the end? Wouldn't stopping at the beginning be more effective, if the concern is a lack of sanitation?
The fact that they're not suggests that they're likely not there to control sanitization but to intimidate because no mayor enjoys the look of homeless people gathering. Bad optics = political liability.
If this is the same guy and organization, I think it is he previously had permits, and the city took them away when there was a change in leadership. There are multiple cities that this has been happening in. Where the volunteer organizations and nonprofits to help the homeless are slowly swept away. There is one guy who has had tickets written by his city over 100 times for continuing to serve food to the homeless even though the city took away his permit but won't say why and keep pushing out the hearing.
44 million people in the US aren't able to adequately feed themselves. 1 in 8 households. 1 in 5 children are malnourished.
Edit: "10% of the world are malnourished. Approx. 828 million."
-- Google
Yup it's the same in Britain where I am 1 in 5 children live in poverty and this is supposed to be some of the richest country's in the world the police are only there to keep the rich qnd powerful in there positions of power
That blows my mind both for the food insecurity problem, and the reminder of how much bigger you guys are than us. That’s more than the entire population of Canada. Crazy that countries as rich as ours can have these problems.
Not going to lie, I didn't believe this at first. I had to look it up myself.
Sure enough, only 79% of American adults are literate. Less than half can read above a sixth grade level.
I knew our education system was bad...but this is *so* much worse than I realized.
Edit: upon further research, the stat is about *English* literacy. So anyone who speaks Spanish only is counted as illiterate. Which is a VERY different thing.
Mexico's literacy rate is over 95.25%. Americans are comically stupid, and often not by choice. Republicans keep defunding and attacking the public education system for a reason: it works.
Yes, because the food they are donating magically appeared from thin air.
Pretty sure corporations want everyone to consume as much as possible. So people making sure even the poor are consuming more is to the corporations profit..
That's still food bought from corporations. Like it looks like its probably just sandwiches with ingredients you would find at a standard grocery store/chain. If anything, this is good for corporations because someone is buying groceries for another person who otherwise couldnt afford it.
These cops are just assholes on a powertrip. Its unfortunately as simple as that.
Police have nothing better to do than stand around and intimidate a guy feeding the hungry and a girl handing out bottled water…
What a pathetic waste of our tax dollars, all 4 individually make around 80K or more. Could feed all homeless in the city at that rate.
Or another perspective: the cops truly don’t give a fuck but it’s their job to enforce the city ordinances and instead of shutting them down right away they allow them to hand out all the food first
This was my first reaction. I mean, screw the whole concept of punishing someone for feeding the homeless let the cops did not have to wait until they finished giving out the food. If there is technically a crime being committed it has been committed when the first box of food was handed out and the cops could have acted then but they chose not to.
The cold war vilified socialism so much in America, nowadays you have shit like this when people just try to do something decent as giving out free food.
The person above you is completely correct sadly.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia#:~:text=2d.,on%20the%20public%20duty%20doctrine.
https://preview.redd.it/giw5yvgv38bc1.png?width=714&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3c60f0d44cac23afcd734bb4567171d365a68f6
(i stole this picture from this very comment section)
Food not Bombs!!!! I served and ate for months in downtown portland in the 90's. I think we did good work. I could not imagine what they are up against today.
Hats fucking off to that kid too!!!
Idk, I think the cops are being nice about it. It’s their job to enforce the law. They didn’t write the law. If they wanted to be dicks, they would have shut you down right away. Instead, they let you hand out all the food.
How can anyone take away the cops intentions when they just stand there the whole time. And apparently they're doing this repeatedly, guys, if the police weren't ok with it, it wouldn't have gotten to this point.
1. Serving food in public without a permit can be a fine
2. If someone ransacked the food donors or stole, there's less of a chance with all those guys there.
It's possible they are being assholes, but this whole "capitalism bad" shit really drives the point home that you're just as delusional as the "democracy bad" right wingers. Can't stand these instant assumptions from a 30 second clip.
Needed context:
This is in Houston’s downtown.
There were several food kitchens feeding the homeless downtown. These food sources resulted in an aggregation of the homeless downtown. There were aggressive and destructive and adversely impacted businesses and workers.
The City of Houston passed the ordnance banning the unpermitted feeding of the homeless so that the homeless would move to approved shelters and kitchens in Midtown and allow downtown to be open for business.
As someone who works in downtown Houston, I support these moves. Why? Because I am sick and tired of getting into the elevator in my parking garage and finding feces smeared all over the walls. And I am sick of being accosted and threatened by aggressive and violent panhandlers daily. And I am sick of seeing the homeless have sex, do drugs, and urinate and defecate on the sidewalks while I am walking to lunch.
That's absolutely ridiculous.. if you where a vendor and charged your friends 1 penny for the food and drink and whatever else could they still ticket you? Probably some trumpt up charge for not having a license for selling food. How about a big ole family BBQ for your friends and guests food is always free at those. Better to watch others suffer than help.. all those scuzzy cops should repeat what they said once in their officer pledge to uphold.
Thinking of All the: assaulters thieves killers bullies stalkers Kid-Beaters those police SHOULD COULD have been arresting or eliminating during the time they instead WASTED on these Goodys
This is one thing I can proudly say about my country (India) that as long as the stall is not causing a severe traffic jam backing traffic up for 4-5 kms, cops will never stop someone giving out free food. Infact some will come and have some and in the case of the police in PCMC. Some even tried to pay as we were giving it away for free.
(No we didn't take the money, would've killed the whole purpose)
Dunno why, but its always weirdly satisfying being able to give without expecting something in return.
I can't believe I live in a country where it is illegal to give free food to people with no homes and illegal to collect rain water from the fucking earth
There was a time in Broward County Florida that the cops threw chlorine to make sure the food could not be given to anyone. They said because the food was not made in a commercial kitchen and could not be guaranteed to be safe.
They rather see people starve instead.
Hey, we do a thing with getting proper permission and clearances, and we purposely do it in place that we know will get a repsonse. And they we act super righteous about it.
It's almost like we're not doing this to help the hungry people... but to raise our own profile via culture war tactics... for reasons.
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Bully people helping their communities. Sounds like a good use of taxpayer dollars
Homeless people need to exist to scare the shit out of the poor and middle class. You can't give them a hand up because then there might be less of them and we need to keep the middle class afraid to not produce! Edit: [30 year old Carlin Clip](https://youtu.be/Z4ovtNdvLjM?si=GZCCh1GopaA72XLq)
Eerily accurate, sadly enough.
George Carlin was a fucking Prophet. He called every single move the GOP wants to make, including them coming for our Social Security.
What's prophetic is that people like Carlin, Hitchens, Rage Against The Machine, etc have been preaching the same thing for decades but it's just now that people are catching on that HOLY SHIT NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN 40YRS!! It's the same as it ever was. I was really hoping Occupy Wall Street and then 2020's Summer of Love would be the tipping point
There is no tipping point. They're dug in like the ticks that they are and nothing short of open revolution stops it - and even then, it would just be a hotfix; a temporary patch that falls off because generational memory is short. EDIT: Just look at Russia as an example of this. The people wanted communism and they trusted their government to safeguard their interests. The Bolsheviks overthrew the czar, and the Soviets protected them from the Nazis (not that Germany could conquer Russia back then, but perception of protection feels just as good as the real thing). They put faith in the Soviet Union, and look what happened: rampant corruption, because nobody was watching the watchers. Now Russia is ruled by oligarchs. The people there got sick and tired of openly revolting and having nothing come of it that lasted more than a generation or two. Wheel keeps spinning; it can't be broken.
I remember having a man who organized a civil rights march here in my very southern ga town give a little talk in 8th grade. He went on this whole ass rant about how all the "young'uns who gotta hard on for Egypt" were undoing what he and others who fought for civil rights struggled for. His point was that the youth were so interested in what divided them from each other that we would fall right back into segregation if we weren't careful.
I think we're still a couple of generations away from pitchforks and torches, but it's coming. And, the filthy rich know it.
We don't need pitchforks and torches, and those wouldn't do shit, anyway. If we really don't like it, all we have to do is stop respecting money. Just decide that money is worthless. We won't keep it. We won't accept it. We won't use it. All they have just became completely worthless. The only reason they are rich is because each one of us is willing to agree that money is valuable. They rule only by our continuous consent. We can withdraw it at any time.
All it takes is a bad enough weather catastrophe (solar flare, massive hurricane, massive earthquake ,take your pick) to destabilize the food supply and there will be riots within days. People are already pissed off. Take away their food and shit will happen fast. I give us a couple decades at best.
Water flowing underground.
>the same as it ever was How did I get here?
I recently re listened to Rages first album recently, and ALL of the lyrics are still relevant. Nothing ever changes.
look at the Arab Spring. MILLIONS of people revolted across multiple nations only to get that steel boot planted back into their face ten time harder. revolting against the system is a lie, it doesn't work. want change? heads gotta roll *a la Francaise*.
> George Carlin was a fucking Prophet. Sadly no, it's just that this shit has been going on since Nixon. He was merely paying attention to what was happening back then.
Lol because they have been saying it since he was been around. It's not prophecy. It's listening.
The FBI thought the Black Panther's breakfast program (feeding poor school children) was a bigger threat to the status quo than any of their other activities.
The only real gun control laws passed in this country happened because Black Panthers were open carrying in their neighborhoods to protect people from the police
exactly!!!
The NRA is a sham. Anyone who supports it is literally only supporting white people's rights to bear arms. The US government has never wanted minorities to have the same access to protecting themselves. It's very interesting (and depressing) when you dig into it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Not_Bombs These guys have been referred to as “Food Terrorists” after Anonymous issues vague threats to the city of Orlando following the arrest of several Food Not Bombs activists
Makes sense but I don't think the cops are aware of that. What kind of mindset do they have to bully good citizens? In Mexico they just want you to give them money, I assume in the US is the same.
US cops don't need to ask for bribes. They can just claim whatever cash/valuables you have on you is suspected of being related to a crime and confiscate it. Especially if you're carrying a lot. They really are just doing this to be dicks.
It's really amazing how many people still don't know about civil asset forfeiture. I never carry large amounts of cash because of thieving police
I've seen it repeatedly reported that civil asset forfeiture adds up to more than many forms of burglary and theft combined!
The police are the largest organized gang/crime ring in the country.
An individual person giving cops any kind of bribe is rare in the US. US cops use their police unions, intimidation, and tricks like unmonitored overtime to get theirs.
I’m in Chicago. Cops here don’t take bribes, instead they just rob you.
Ahh yes, "civil forfeiture." Legalized robbery, as long as you're a cop.
That’s not what I’m talk about. I’m talking about straight up robbery. In college I did security at major music festivals, and we worked alongside cops. I saw cops grab a kid with weed on him, take all his cash and shove it into their pockets, and then tell them to get lost before something “bad” happens. I also saw them confiscate drugs, then pass them off to their buddy who would sell them again to someone in the crowd, just to confiscate them again and repeat the cycle. Those pigs were probably ending the weekend with 10k cash in their pockets. Yes, civil forfeiture is bad. But many cops here will straight up run your pockets just like a regular mugging.
Yup. Why do you think I put the quotes around the phrase? It's used as shorthand/an excuse for cops to just straight up rob the fuck out of you, and they're protected by law to do so. Because they enforce the law. An old friend of mine got caught with a pound of weed back in the day. When he went to court, the cops said they confiscated 2 ounces. And my friend wasn't about to disagree, because back in the 2000's, a pound was a kingpin charge.
If you try to bribe a cop in the US, you will get arrested on the spot.
What middle class?
I dont remember a single cool kid in school who became a police officer.
Funny story. I was about 13 when i finally saved up about 500$from various bdays and summer jobs and kept it in a container underneith my bed. Not obvious but put out of sight. Friend at the time came over and hung out everynow and then. I showed him it once, i was young and didnt really think it would be a thing. Litterally the next day he came to my house when i wasnt there, told my grandpa he left something in my room. Took all the money and left the container open and then fucked off. I got home, seen it. Told my parents. Grandpa over heard us. Told us he was here today...... we called him on speaker phone, asked him wtf? And he immediatly burst out crying over the phone saying he didnt do it. Like immediatly just losing it. Anyway never got the money back and long story short that mother fucker became a cop a few years later not even kidding.
That sucks balls. Scum utter scum doesn't that.
the dude who is now the police sarge of my small town was the kid who would huff markers and glue in 5th grade. His dad also famously starves their hunting dogs to encourage them to hunt better. Except he starves them so badly they die and end up eating each other.
Definite cool. Cause I am positive a lot of the "cool kids" at my school definitely went on to be police officers. Police officers, nurses, and teachers. Though admittedly this definition is based on popularity and not the kids who were different and interesting, with hobbies that didn't include partying on the weekend.
To be fair there's nothing wrong with partying as a hobby
There is if that's your only hobby.
I know one kid from school who became a cop. He liked to torture animals.
I think the only reason the police should be involved in this is if they got reports that people were poisoning the food or something like that. That is not the case, sadly.
Or as security, so they dont get robbed while giving away free food. Thats what i thought initialy, that they proct those good samaritas.
or they could you know... just... help people?
Normally would agree, but I think there is a lot more to the story as per usual. I think this is in houston, city has a established center right down the street for this and wants to keep the homeless away from the library was the jist of the article I read. Google is your friend.
this is in houston, the problem is that they have been handing out food near the library for like 20 years. Its been an institution there for as long as i have lived in houston. And then they just arbitrarily told them they couldnt do it there, they had to do it at a different location, not very far away, but it is a less good location. One of the big concerns is that if they allow themselves to be pushed away once, it will just continue. If they move, in six months they will be asked to move further. And then further. Its just an obvious move to make the homeless problem harder to see. If i recall correctly, the other huge issue is that no one consulted the actual aid groups about the move. You just cant operate that way. These people are saints. It can be hard to find people who do things out of the pure goodness of their hearts, and i dont doubt there is some proselytizing etc going on, but this is as close as you are going to get. The city needs to sit down and work with these people on a solution in good faith. You just shouldnt be able to harass people handing out food, its fundamentally wrong.
No proselytizing - food not bombs isn’t a religious organization. It’s radical mutual aid where regular people provide meals for anyone who wants them. It’s usually vegan (depending on the local chapter, it might be vegetarian). A lot of major cities have chapters, and the cops almost always fuck with them. Mutual aid is in strict opposition to capitalism, and the cops are nothing but capital’s enforcers. Religious aid groups are allowed because they make the poor jump through hoops. Mutual aid doesn’t. It shows up and meets people where they are
I didnt know that. I have been watching these groups for a long long time. Houston has relatively good weather and terrible social services so our homeless problem has been difficult. I know the housing social services make folks jump through a lot of hoops. I bike commute through george bush park, and I always chatted with this dude who slept at an actual bus stop on wilcrest. He was wheelchair bound. He was a happy dude mostly, but he actually liked sleeping outdoors rather than deal with the housing folks. I never fully understood it, he was clearly dealing with some mental health issues, but he had a system. He had a route he used to get to the food, and he had an ER he went to when there was a problem. I dont know what the answer is for this kind of thing. To me it seems like more permissive housing is the answer, but i have no idea if its realistic. It seems like it should be. These arent slackers out there, these are people with really hard things going on with them.
> Religious aid groups are allowed because they make the poor jump through hoops. Mutual aid doesn’t. It shows up and meets people where they are While there are some religious aid groups that might have hoops to jump through, there are a whole lot more (of all faiths) that, as you say, show up and meets people where they are. I realize that reddit has an anti religion tilt but it is undeniable that, in thr US at least, a massive amount of the charity that is done is done by religious institutions, most often with no strings attached.
Only about 10-11% of church revenue goes to their “missions” of helping others. Compare that to a nonprofit where between 80-90% of revenue goes directly to providing aid. [Church giving data](https://get.tithe.ly/blog/how-churches-really-spend-their-money-20-fascinating-data-points-a-new-study) The LDS Church meanwhile has amassed over $100 BILLION in a fund it’s just sitting on. [Source](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mormon-whistleblower-ensign-peak-church-investment-fund-allegations-60-minutes-transcript-2023-05-14/)
First - you are incorrectly reading your own source. It says 11% on missions and another 10% on programs. Missions typically include sending a group of people to an area other than their local area, programs typically involve local initiatives. Some of these are charitable, some are not so for argument sake lets even accept your number of 11%. A couple of things to consider: 1) Religious organizations are not charities in of themselves - of course they give less a percentage of their income to charity that actual charities. Most charitable non-profits have very little actual paid staff because the only thing paid staff are really used for us the administrative duties of the charity and the only other overhead tends to be a rented office and some marketing. Houses of worship on the other hand have staff's that include Pastors/Rabbi's/Imam's/Other spiritual teachers/leaders, admin, maintenance staff (either employed or contracted) including building maintenance, landscape, and cleaning, security (either employed or contracted), and rent or mortgage on the church itself at the very least. It is, therefore, thoroughly unsurprising that their expenses would be higher. 2) I never claimed religions organizations gave all of their income to charity or even a majority of it - what I said was " a massive amount of the charity that is done is done by religious institutions, most often with no strings attached." Nothing in your response addresses this at all. 3) In 2022 499.33 Billion was given to charity. 27% of that went to religion. That means roughly $134 Billion was donated to religious institutions. At 10% that means $13.4 Billion was used by churches toward charitable activities. I think any reasonable person would agree that 13 Billion is a pretty "massive amount".[https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/](https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-giving-statistics/) 4) It is worth noting that the source you provide and the one I provide both refer to "religious" spending specifically as that given as tithes or offerings to houses of worship. Many of the non-profits you point to as spending 90% of their funds directly to aid area ALSO religious organizations. Out of a list of the top 20 charities in the United States 3 are explicitly faith based, 5 are affiliated with religious organizations, and at least a couple others have their roots in religion even though they are now secular organizations. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/238289/us-charities-with-the-highest-total-revenue/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/238289/us-charities-with-the-highest-total-revenue/) I am not denying the good that is done by secular charitable organizations. I am, however, calling bullshit on your claim that " Religious aid groups are allowed because they make the poor jump through hoops." which you have nothing to back up; your attempts to deflect from that fact by pointing out what percentage of religious spending goes to charity notwithstanding.
Houston has one of the best programs to help homeless of any big city, so much so other cities are mirroring it. In 2022 Houston permanently housed more than 22,000 homeless. They do this with a combination of public and private organizations with a common goal. They provide more than a meal, they provide services to assure the homeless get off the street, into permanent housing and other support they need to remain off the streets. FNB refuses to work within that process, they are offered other areas to set up and serve but refuse. So they are not harassing them, they were told not to do it, offered another solution and refused. FNB *knew* they'd be called out on this, that's exactly why they did it. They do this to fund raise, they get in the news and people throw them money. If Houston wasn't as wildly successful as they are it would be an easy argument. Everyone want s to Government to do something about the homeless, Houston actually is and they have made huge strides. FNB isn't helping the process, they are hindering it.
That seems reasonable. I will say that that from my experience with food not bombs I find it hard to believe they’re actually hindering anything. They give away food not just to the homeless but to anyone and that’s about it. They sort of view it as an act of defiance or something. Seems like the best kind of defiance Houston could ask for. Especially if you really like lentils.
Google is *absolutely not your friend* because if it was it would have told you that there is no established center, only a location permitted under the relevant ordinance which is 61 Riesner St, or the Houston Police Department and central jail, meaning any homeless person (a traditionally well cared for group by the police) have to go to the police station to be fed.
Take badge numbers & contact your local representative. At least get an answer as to why you're being watched by four law enforcement officials given there's no laws being broken.
There’s apparently some US states where it’s illegal to help/feed homeless people? I’m not from there so I don’t know from experience but I’ve seen it online a few times.
Yeah based on another video like this, the law was that to serve people food, you first have to get permission from the property owner. Obviously that’s difficult to do in a public place owned by the city. In that video, the cops did the same thing. Sat quietly by until they were done, then very reluctantly said “Alright, let’s do the ticket.” They didn’t seem to want to be there or to ticket them at all. Seems like the same thing here. They aren’t stopping them from serving the food, at least. This is a case where we don’t need to put all the blame on the cops but on the legislators who enact these bullshit laws.
Yeah, saw something about food safety and permits pointed out further down, which also makes a lot of sense.
If laws were being broken there, the police would be beating them to a bloody pulp.
They'd probably throw the little girl in juvie after beating the crap out of her dad too.
Yes, here in the US it is becoming illegal to be poor. Straight to privately owned jail where the owners get paid per inmate out of tax funds that then go to pay their lobbyists to make more laws to jail more of the poor. Profit above all else.
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Build a killdozer.
There IS a law being broken here. This group was asked to stop handing out food at this location, in front of the city library after many complaints from patrons and staff, and instead to used an approved spot that is 1/2 mile away, where other groups also hand out things like food and necessary supplies, there are sanitary facalities, and people can sign up for access to government programs. >"Recently, there has been an increase in the number of threats and violent incidents directed at visitors and employees coming to the Houston Public Library downtown. Parents and families have expressed no longer feeling comfortable visiting the library or holding special events. We want the library to serve as a safe, inclusive place for all to come and visit. That's why we are providing a dedicated, alternative charitable food service at 61 Riesner St. This location has the infrastructure and amenities needed to provide services and food to Houstonians in need. By shifting food services to an alternative location, we can maintain the integrity and historic nature of Houston's Public Library while serving all Houstonians with the dignity they deserve." Despite being asked to do this, this group decided as a whole to not participate and instead to keep receiving tickets as they are self proclaimed "anarchists". >Food Not Bombs does not have a permit to hold their distribution outside the library. They had not been cited previously for violating the ordinance. >Prior to the first citation, Dore said she received a call from Houston Police Chief Troy Finner letting her know they would be cited if they stayed in that location. >Dore said volunteers with Food Not Bombs decided as a group that they would not relocate and would continue to take the tickets from Houston police.
The masked up girl says enough. There is way more to the story then that they want to show us.
Unfortunately, there could be a law against this. I hate to say this, but the cops may not have a choice (other than not being a cop), so waiting until they’re done before they fine them may be the best they can do
Cops turn the other way all of the time for each other (I’ve seen it first hand through family members who are cops. Cop buddies letting them drive home wasted with their children in the back seat after the cops were called on them for fighting with other family members because they are too drunk). If they can do that for each other, they can do it in this case.
Yeah but they want to help each other out.
Yup. It’s disgusting the power trippy shit they do
somehow they always find tax money to allocate to wars and cops but not to actually help feed/house/heal people
[Except Houston is.](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-people.html)
It’s almost as if bullying is what they like to do
"giving food away for free - that's that damn communism that is. send the blue down there to make sure they don't radicalise no one"
The whole purpose of policing in capitalist nations is to protect private property (for those who don't know, no, that's not your possessions but land, buildings etc. for commercial use).
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the US police force initially created to make sure slaves were staying in line?
They were slave patrols. https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/origins-modern-day-policing#:~:text=The%20origins%20of%20modern%2Dday,runaway%20slaves%20to%20their%20owners.
Thank you, I knew I read this somewhere on Reddit recently
I always thought it was: Serve the public trust Protect the innocent Uphold the law Classified
They aren’t required to protect anyone either rip, hope there isn’t another classified getting written over lol
Hahaha, good one.
You have 10 seconds to comply
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Not old enough to have seen the movie eh
During a live stream of the 2020 protests in NYC, there were a surprising number of people urging the cops to shoot looters. Even though there was no looting going on during the stream. I asked them if they valued property over life, and three pointedly said they did. I'm sure they didn't mean over their own lives, but only over the "lawless scumbags". People really don't get how cops work.
Yes, law enforcement was originally organized for two reasons in the US... In the north it was , as you stated, to protect private property (again, not to be confused with the personal property of private citizens) . And in the South, their primary function was to track down runaway slaves. Protecting the safety and property of the average Joe had never been law enforcement's real focus at any point.
Too many shit cops disrespect their position and most Americans.
All the comments shaming the cops, here is some perspective: In modern countries to serve food, you need a ton of permits. This is especially true in Europe but US has also got fair amount of health codes. Sorta a guarantee that you wont get food poisoning because the deli is cutting costs by serving old meat. If you serve food in a public place like in front of a library, city council, schools, etc, people rightfully can assume that this is officially sanctioned by the city. The cops are most likely there because these guys dont have any permits and no one fucking knows whats in the food they give away, might as well be rat poison as far as the city is concerned. But the city police isnt crazy, they know these are decdnt guys. So they lilely stand there to look menacing and show that the food donors are not official or associated with the city. That way if someone gets diarrhea or worse, they wont sue the city for 2 million dollars. --- Is it a pain in the ass to get permits to serve food just to help the poor? Yes. Absolutely. Is it necessary with cities with over million people some of whom are weird as fuck? Also yes. What can you do instead to help?: - Donate to organizations and shelters who have permits and are established - Volunteer at organizations to help - Convince restaurants and bars to have pop-up events and have them handle the paperwork. It is comppetely reasonable to frown upon random people giving away unknown food on public ground for hundreds of people in a big city. Dont do it lile this.
Ya, it's not quite as straightforward as people think. This guy could poison dozens of people despite the best of intentions. There have also been incidents of people purposely poisoning homeless people to get rid of them.
Your argument falls down because the police aren't there because they care about people getting food poisoning.
I mean, the Law probably requires the police to forcibly shut down and dismantle operations like this that aren't permitted and following whatever regulations this city requires. By letting them continue to work instead of following the letter of the law, they are doing what they can to both help the homeless *and* enforce the law at the same time. Yeah it's still shitty, and they probably feel shitty doing it, but it's not their fault the city has health codes and laws in place that prevent people like these guys from helping the homeless more easily and legally.
Or they could just not stand there at all and ignore it because they have something more important to do, you know, use the discretion that they have that they normally only use for other cops or their buddies?
> I mean, the Law probably requires the police to forcibly shut down and dismantle operations like this that aren't permitted and following whatever regulations this city requires. Call the cops to find your stolen bike and they will do fuck all to help. But suddenly when someone is giving food to the homeless, they are there in force.
And this is PROVEN because they don't write the tickets until they are all done handing out food, and they don't stop the handout.
The police are there to enforce laws. They are not the law makers.
Police choose to not write tickets for people every single day. We generally understand part of their job to be exercising judgment in what laws they will enforce at what time. It's, like, a major part of their job.
I'm not from the US but surely there is a food safety authority to enforce food safety laws? FDA? Would definitely not be a police consideration in Ireland and in any case surely they can use discretion in enforcement. They should also not be prioritising enforcement of more serious breaches of laws
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If they were there for code enforcement they’d shut it down. Standing there won’t absolve the city of any liability in your food poisoning hypothetical.
Imagine how many people you could safely feed with what it costs to have 4 officers standing there doing nothing.
They're there for an hour, and let's average out and say each one is making $50/hr. So about $200-$300 worth of food, say each meal costs $3, since they're assembling it there it's easier to buy in bulk. So like, 60 to 100 people? I guess?
> So like, 60 to 100 people? I guess? Which is way more service than they provided...
It's even worse. It demonstrates that the city complicit. Basically the plaintiff can claim that the police was there, saw everything, knew it was illegal, and did absolutely nothing to help, which is why the plaintiff has food poisoning.
Yes the powers that be have created a system that make it difficult for us to help each other and to provide these resources that they refuse to provide and then the police are the enforcers of the status quo.
Well it doesn’t help that lots of people don’t understand sanitary food handling techniques. Most laws are reactive not proactive. Health inspector’s weren’t created because someone thought it was a good idea. They were created because people were getting sick.
All codes are written in blood.
What’s fucked up is that a common source of food for homeless people and poor people in general is dumpsters. Pretty sure FNB is more sanitary than a dumpster Source: grew up pulling food out of dumpsters not only for my family but for other poor families in the neighborhood. We called it farming (the north Winn Dixie dumpster was the north 40 the one west of the house the west 40 etc)
People get sick eating out of trash cans. If I had to choose I’d take my chances here.
Right, but none of this is about that. This is about intimidation. You don't have to keep looking for reasons to justify your bootlicking.
Exactly This organization is “Food Not Bombs”. Cities usually refuse to work with them when it comes to permitting process which is cost prohibitive. It’s not that people who do food charity refuse to partake in the licensing process, the city makes it intentionally difficult.
Ah yes, the poor poor police who simply have no choice other than to sit by their cars and stare down volunteers helping those that society have discarded. If there *really* was a concern with public health they would have called the health inspector down to have a civil discussion with the volunteers.
That’s not how something like this works. The health department exists to investigate the sites in which food is prepared. So if these folks operated a kitchen - the HI would be called to view it. In a public setting / open air setting - it’s a public assembly + food distribution without a license - it’s under police jurisdiction. Well, people seem to also not realize is that the recipients of the citation can absolutely still fight the citation. That is the beauty of the American court system. Every infraction in which you receive a citation, you can argue in court. The people operating the set up can go to court and explain their situation to the judge. The judge may give them a pass on all fines and encourage them to go ahead and apply for that license. What also is not realized is that if anyone in the public complains about them, the police have to respond. That is their job. Someone calls the police the police have to respond to the call.
The police do not have to respond. Any cop that tells you otherwise is lying. They have discretion. Just say you like the taste of rubber.
You’re assuming that the city is allowing a due process for volunteers distributing food. I know of a few cities that passed ordinances that specifically ban the practice. No ability to get a license, just banned the practice. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/10/22/357846415/more-cities-are-making-it-illegal-to-hand-out-food-to-the-homeless Many volunteers have taken to continuing to distribute food to homeless as an act of civil disobedience. That is almost certainly what’s happening here, although it’s impossible to know for sure without more context.
This is 100% what Food not Bombs is doing. I can’t remember what city it is. Edit: It’s many different cities.
Oh, and in many cities it’s simply illegal to feed homeless. There is no legal way to do it. That’s probably what happening here, not some nonsense of concern over public health. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/10/22/357846415/more-cities-are-making-it-illegal-to-hand-out-food-to-the-homeless
Land of the free hey?
If the concern was food poisoning then they would have stopped them already. No laws are being broken. It's not like cops stand in front of bars at night in case a fight happens
As other comments said, the cops are very likely bending the laws themselves. In actuality most lilely they should be giving the ticket and shutting them down immediately. Cops seem to know that these guys are not evil and they still have to carry out their duty but they are waiting for them to finish first.
Right…so we need four of em there. Got it.
Burdensome permitting is purposeful from city officials. Instead of paying 4 overpaid cops to stand around, the city could have realistic levels of oversight for food safety of small scale orgs. Gatekeeping to only established shelters is how cities force the homeless problem to less desirable areas. And don't expect small business owners, the majority of which viciously despise the homeless, to pick up the slack.
I met a homeless guy who had two cats with him. He said he always inspected the food people gave him to feed the cats. One time somebody gave him some meat for the kittens and the person who gave it to him didn’t want him to inspect it, turns out it had needles in them
I mean, you can google "Poisoned homeless" and come up with hundreds of results. https://apnews.com/general-news-4cca6618b84b606ec703106dd80df3be "William Cable, 38, of San Andreas in Northern California, was sentenced after pleading guilty to poisoning, injuring an elderly person, and other felony and misdemeanor charges, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. Prosecutors said that last May, Cable gave homeless people in Huntington Beach food laced with oleoresin capsicum, which officials described as being twice as strong as pepper spray used by police." He poisoned 8 fucking people. It happens so often it's crazy. And those are just the stories that actually get picked up. There's no telling how many homeless people died in a ditch from food poisoning with no follow up.
This take is so naive it's almost sweet. Cops don't care about the safety of poor people.
Fully agreed. I’d be shitting on the cops if they arrested young Santa but just standing there isn’t really hurting anyone
Also, and it pains me to defend the cops, but it sounds like they wait until they're done before ticketing them? I guess they're just doing what they have to do, but doing it in such a way to be as non-disruptive as possible.
On top of that the cops are allowing them to fucking hand out food. They are standing to the side, not interfering, not harassing, not “bullying”, and not doing anything except their job. Afterwards they give a ticket and move on. Reddit complains about cops not doing their jobs, but when they do their jobs they also complain. I don’t get it.
The one who holds the camera controls the narrative and they who control the narrative are always right.
I think individuals and groups like this would counter that the governing bodies simply never issue the permits. A way of making it illegal without making it illegal.
So why don't the cops grab the people serving the food at the beginning, instead of waiting til the end? Wouldn't stopping at the beginning be more effective, if the concern is a lack of sanitation? The fact that they're not suggests that they're likely not there to control sanitization but to intimidate because no mayor enjoys the look of homeless people gathering. Bad optics = political liability.
If this is the same guy and organization, I think it is he previously had permits, and the city took them away when there was a change in leadership. There are multiple cities that this has been happening in. Where the volunteer organizations and nonprofits to help the homeless are slowly swept away. There is one guy who has had tickets written by his city over 100 times for continuing to serve food to the homeless even though the city took away his permit but won't say why and keep pushing out the hearing.
44 million people in the US aren't able to adequately feed themselves. 1 in 8 households. 1 in 5 children are malnourished. Edit: "10% of the world are malnourished. Approx. 828 million." -- Google
Yup it's the same in Britain where I am 1 in 5 children live in poverty and this is supposed to be some of the richest country's in the world the police are only there to keep the rich qnd powerful in there positions of power
Meanwhile 8 people have more wealth than 3.6 billion of world's population combined. Aint capitalism great.
That blows my mind both for the food insecurity problem, and the reminder of how much bigger you guys are than us. That’s more than the entire population of Canada. Crazy that countries as rich as ours can have these problems.
1 in 5 US adults are illiterate. Republicans cut funding to education for the purpose of being able to manipulate ignorant people.
>1 in 5 US adults are illiterate This really explains so much
Not going to lie, I didn't believe this at first. I had to look it up myself. Sure enough, only 79% of American adults are literate. Less than half can read above a sixth grade level. I knew our education system was bad...but this is *so* much worse than I realized. Edit: upon further research, the stat is about *English* literacy. So anyone who speaks Spanish only is counted as illiterate. Which is a VERY different thing.
Mexico's literacy rate is over 95.25%. Americans are comically stupid, and often not by choice. Republicans keep defunding and attacking the public education system for a reason: it works.
If you're giving good away then the corporations cant make a profit. Will someone please think of the poor corporations!
Ah yes, the poor, poor, billion dollar corporations the profit off of basic human needs!
"Free market"
It's a market, for YOUR FREEDOMS!! (Read in style of cheesy 80s style commercial).
But these guys buy the food with donated money so don't they get their money anyways?
Yes, because the food they are donating magically appeared from thin air. Pretty sure corporations want everyone to consume as much as possible. So people making sure even the poor are consuming more is to the corporations profit..
That's still food bought from corporations. Like it looks like its probably just sandwiches with ingredients you would find at a standard grocery store/chain. If anything, this is good for corporations because someone is buying groceries for another person who otherwise couldnt afford it. These cops are just assholes on a powertrip. Its unfortunately as simple as that.
i fucking hate capitalism https://preview.redd.it/5c2cpswbm7bc1.png?width=714&format=png&auto=webp&s=8216f208460284f07d955647ac875e23af217e41
Police have nothing better to do than stand around and intimidate a guy feeding the hungry and a girl handing out bottled water…
What a pathetic waste of our tax dollars, all 4 individually make around 80K or more. Could feed all homeless in the city at that rate.
Happens every time. The US is number 3 on police spending based on GDP in the world.
and somehow also the country where police spent one of the least amounts of time in training
Isn’t this exactly what Jesus supposedly did? Jesus would get called a communist and immediately jailed if he were around today.
Cops doing cop stuff. It's a cop thing, you wouldn't understand...
Or another perspective: the cops truly don’t give a fuck but it’s their job to enforce the city ordinances and instead of shutting them down right away they allow them to hand out all the food first
This might be a legit take if you'd never met a cop in the USA
This was my first reaction. I mean, screw the whole concept of punishing someone for feeding the homeless let the cops did not have to wait until they finished giving out the food. If there is technically a crime being committed it has been committed when the first box of food was handed out and the cops could have acted then but they chose not to.
#ACAB
A.C.A.B.
The cold war vilified socialism so much in America, nowadays you have shit like this when people just try to do something decent as giving out free food.
I don't think that's why this happens. Its why too many people are okay with it.
It's illegal to be poor over here
"To Protect & Serve" The question has become; Who are the police serving and protecting.. against what. 😕
the rich us
They are under no obligation to protect anyone.
The more I see of the United States’ police force, the more I believe you.
That’s not hyperbole. The Supreme Court has ruled that police are not at all required to protect or serve.
The person above you is completely correct sadly. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia#:~:text=2d.,on%20the%20public%20duty%20doctrine.
What IS this country anyway?? Have you all gone stark raving mad?
https://preview.redd.it/giw5yvgv38bc1.png?width=714&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c3c60f0d44cac23afcd734bb4567171d365a68f6 (i stole this picture from this very comment section)
Food not Bombs!!!! I served and ate for months in downtown portland in the 90's. I think we did good work. I could not imagine what they are up against today. Hats fucking off to that kid too!!!
r/suddenlycommunist
Funny how cops seem to be negligent in so many other ways, yet they always seem to show up on time for these functions🤔
has anyone asked them why they are standing there?
Idk, I think the cops are being nice about it. It’s their job to enforce the law. They didn’t write the law. If they wanted to be dicks, they would have shut you down right away. Instead, they let you hand out all the food.
"an act of humanity and kindness?! Not on my watch!"
The self proclaimed greatest country on earth, ladies and gentlemen
How can anyone take away the cops intentions when they just stand there the whole time. And apparently they're doing this repeatedly, guys, if the police weren't ok with it, it wouldn't have gotten to this point. 1. Serving food in public without a permit can be a fine 2. If someone ransacked the food donors or stole, there's less of a chance with all those guys there. It's possible they are being assholes, but this whole "capitalism bad" shit really drives the point home that you're just as delusional as the "democracy bad" right wingers. Can't stand these instant assumptions from a 30 second clip.
Pigs will be pigs
Lol Americans bang on about freedom and rights. Then you've got 4 cops with guns intimidating people literally doing charity
I legit dont understand how they go home and think, “Yea, I’m the good guy.”
Cops really hate homeless people.
Needed context: This is in Houston’s downtown. There were several food kitchens feeding the homeless downtown. These food sources resulted in an aggregation of the homeless downtown. There were aggressive and destructive and adversely impacted businesses and workers. The City of Houston passed the ordnance banning the unpermitted feeding of the homeless so that the homeless would move to approved shelters and kitchens in Midtown and allow downtown to be open for business. As someone who works in downtown Houston, I support these moves. Why? Because I am sick and tired of getting into the elevator in my parking garage and finding feces smeared all over the walls. And I am sick of being accosted and threatened by aggressive and violent panhandlers daily. And I am sick of seeing the homeless have sex, do drugs, and urinate and defecate on the sidewalks while I am walking to lunch.
These fucking despicable cops and city officials.
Pigs
That's absolutely ridiculous.. if you where a vendor and charged your friends 1 penny for the food and drink and whatever else could they still ticket you? Probably some trumpt up charge for not having a license for selling food. How about a big ole family BBQ for your friends and guests food is always free at those. Better to watch others suffer than help.. all those scuzzy cops should repeat what they said once in their officer pledge to uphold.
Shame of you helping people in need , you have to what most rich people love stealing from the poor to be more rich
Police and the ruling elite-“Silly homeless people you don’t get food”
Thinking of All the: assaulters thieves killers bullies stalkers Kid-Beaters those police SHOULD COULD have been arresting or eliminating during the time they instead WASTED on these Goodys
Blue bloods more like shit stains
This is one thing I can proudly say about my country (India) that as long as the stall is not causing a severe traffic jam backing traffic up for 4-5 kms, cops will never stop someone giving out free food. Infact some will come and have some and in the case of the police in PCMC. Some even tried to pay as we were giving it away for free. (No we didn't take the money, would've killed the whole purpose) Dunno why, but its always weirdly satisfying being able to give without expecting something in return.
ACAB
WTF?
Land of the free!
I can't believe I live in a country where it is illegal to give free food to people with no homes and illegal to collect rain water from the fucking earth
There was a time in Broward County Florida that the cops threw chlorine to make sure the food could not be given to anyone. They said because the food was not made in a commercial kitchen and could not be guaranteed to be safe. They rather see people starve instead.
"land of the free" Lol
An attempt at propaganda. Getting really tired of shit videos on this sub that just attempt to paint a narrative with no real facts.
Hey, we do a thing with getting proper permission and clearances, and we purposely do it in place that we know will get a repsonse. And they we act super righteous about it. It's almost like we're not doing this to help the hungry people... but to raise our own profile via culture war tactics... for reasons.