Easy loophole: befriend them.
Ask them for their name. Tell them yours. It’s not illegal to eat pizza with a friend, and in that instance their situation otherwise is not relevant at all.Fuck anyone who has an issue with it. Keep feeding people who have it rough, if you want.
Easy loophole: befriend them.
Food Not Bombs in Houston gets ticketed all the time by cops who simply do not give a shit about the law. Tens of thousands of dollars in fines get thrown out every year. It doesn’t matter, because the cops keep showing up and keep handing out tickets, forcing volunteers to keep showing up in court and fighting over it.
Fuck anyone who has an issue with it. Keep feeding people who have it rough, if you want.
Absolutely. People love to pretend that “Sticking it too the man!” means throwing on a balaklava and brandishing a gun. The harder truth is that its about keeping our neighbors alive when the city is trying to do them in through social murder.
But let’s not pretend there’s One Neat Trick to outwitting a thumb-headed trigger-happy gang of rent-a-fascists. You aren’t going to argue your way out of a ticket for feeding the homeless any more than a sovereign citizen could. Cops aren’t there to argue with you. They’re there to put the boot on your neck.
Sounds like someone needs to get in the city council, or become mayor or something, and change more of the rules about homelessness. Can’t anyone with compassion for the poor run for mayor these days?
There’s a park in my town where homeless people tend to gather because it’s one of the few places with benches and shade. My friends and I threw a cookout at the park and went around inviting everyone in and near the park to join us. We don’t have a huge homeless population here, but there were a dozen or so homeless folks that joined. Cops showed up and harassed us for a little while, but luckily a sergeant showed up and let them know that no laws were being broken. It also helps that I used to work for the Medical Examiner’s Office, so a lot of the cops know me from being on scenes together. It’s not exactly a “get out of jail free” card, but they do treat me with a little more respect than the average person gets.
I don’t know about the laws in other places, but here in Florida when you hand out food, the cops use the excuse of “food safety” to shut you down or even fine and arrest you. It’s all bullshit of course, but that’s their legal backing. But when you’re throwing a cookout, it’s food that you are eating, and just happen to be sharing with guests. There’s not a damn thing they can do about it.
People should have more cookouts in public parks, invite everyone, and make sure that includes people who are struggling. Then it’s just a party, and like you say, the guests situation otherwise is irrelevant.
“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you. But whenever you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they are not able to repay you. For it will be paid back to you at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Luke 14:12-14, instruction from Jesus himself.
So have your cookout and invite all the homeless, and when the cops show up show them this passage and tell them it’s your solemn duty according to the Bible!
here in Florida when you hand out food, the cops use the excuse of “food safety” to shut you down or even fine and arrest you
When I went to UF the local Hare Krishna temple used to set up on the quad and serve food (for a nominal $1 a plate but you didn’t have to pay). I wonder if they’re still able to do that.
I think it makes a difference if it’s done in a designated area where you have permission, like a University or church. There’s an old man in Tampa who has been arrested a bunch of times because he hands out sandwiches, but he just goes around the street doing it.
Joke aside, giving homeless people isn’t actually illegal right? That’d be almost as insane as half the stuff the US has inacted lately.
Edit: oh wow, that is disgunstingly inhumane and I have no idea how someone can support policy that bans charity and still sleep at night.
Armed to deter cops? Wouldn’t that give them more reasons though?
Cops don’t like fair fights. And they really don’t like it when people are carrying guns that will send bullets straight through their lvl III plates.
“Oh shit those guys know their rights and are armed, I’m reconsidering my power tripping. :F”
It’s very ironic that basically that Black Panthers were the reason for gun control laws. That, like someone said today, the only way to make things happen in the US is when the rich white people become utterly scared.
On that note…
Unfortunately, it probably doesn’t take many Brian Thomspons before Republicans start saying, huh, y’know, maybe gun bans are okay after all…
I’m going to be honest, I used to feel that exact way, but then looking at the way the cops treated unarmed BLM protestors vs. the way they treated armed Proud Boys counter-protests made me feel… a little bit less clear about that feeling. I wouldn’t call it a clear feeling one way or the other, and I’m appalled at the idea of crossfire at what ought to be a non-violent protest, but it’s hard for me to take an absolutely pacifistic stance anymore.
the way the cops treated unarmed BLM protestors vs. the way they treated armed Proud Boys counter-protests
Uh, there might be another reason for that difference. In fact that difference might explain why the Proud Boys felt comfortable packing.
Ok but other than the noted legal expert Ford Fischer, do you have any actual proof that it’s illegal?
To all the downvoters… you do know that laws are written down, right? Like you can go read the laws of the town you’re in right this second. Mine doesn’t seem to have a rule on this.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/texas-volunteers-fined-feeding-homeless-heat
https://reason.com/2013/03/29/feeding-the-homeless-without-permission/
It’s legal if you do it for Jesus. Not if you do it because of your heart.
Siiick. Usa! Usa!
Depends on the area but it certainly is illegal in some places.
Edited to add, to be clear it’s not really laws that say “you cannot feed homeless people”. But that is how they are enforced.
it’s illegal where I am in the USA to give housed people a bottle of water standing for hours in the direct sunlight if they’re in line to vote.
The hope is that will disincentive people to vote.
I would get in the habit of carrying cases of bottled water past lines of voters and tripping.
Yes, electioneering is illegal.
and which party is the dehydration party again?
Wait, what the fuck are you even talking about? Do you know what electioneering is?
in general it’s telling people who to vote for
in context it’s telling people who to vote for while in line
the “joke” I was making is that handing people water while in line does not support a specific party
handing people water while in line does not support a specific party
So, you’re right on the merits, but you’re wrong on the political strategy.
Long lines are a deliberate consequence of under-supplied polling locations. And under-supplied polling locations are a result of disenfranchisement efforts by incumbents. By subverting the intent of the incumbents to discourage voting, you are de facto in support of anti-incumbency candidates and are therefore breaking the spirit of the law.
You’ll note that the long-line polling locations also tend to be over-policed and over-surveilled precisely for the purpose of identifying edge-cases that violate the law and prosecuting it. Neighborhoods with richer and more incumbent-friendly voters tend to have a police presence more fixated on hedging out anti-incumbent protesters and keeping out people not registered to vote in these wealthy enclaves.
I just don’t agree with your assertion that voter disenfranchisement efforts are necessarily a function of an incumbent party. There are many politicians who want people to vote even if it’s not for them.
Providing material aid to voters in line can be construed as electioneering. Even an unlabeled water bottle. It sucks, but it keeps the harrasing threatening bully types away from voter queue lines.
no, it does not. this is a false narrative designed to obfuscate voter suppression.
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If water bottles are such a hot button issue we need to be discussing the mental fitness of adults who are unable to think ahead or bring their own supplies.
Do you support or condemn interfering with election processes?
Edit: I noticed no one is answering the question above.
we need to be discussing the mental fitness of adults who are unable to think ahead
Stupid voters should have known better. It’s their own fault.
If you need to wait in line to vote maybe your country is already a failed democracy, at which point let the people get their fucking water
In other countries going to vote is a sub-15 min task, you can do it on your way to work/school. in the US it can be a multi-hour experience which is designed to be as difficult as possible.
More older people vote than young people, so perhaps the whataboutism question here should be, “why do you want to torture older people?”
Providing material aid to voters in line can be construed as electioneering.
Only by the stupid.
There was literally harassment in this presidential election the fuck you on about?
https://bridgingdivides.princeton.edu/analysis-threat-and-harassment-data-2024-election
Those laws exist to suppress voters.
Just like actively doing something against climate change. They are striving to make both things illegal and punishable.
Community service should be a far more common sentence than it is.
In all honesty it’s not really even a punishment. It’s paying the community back for causing it harm.
Doug Stanhope is the GOAT.
His recent special is so well shot. Probably one of my favorite comedy specials tbh. I’ve always liked his way of telling stories. I especially liked the story about Ichabod, his dog that got to live out his last days in practically dog heaven, it’s chapter is called “Perfectly cooked bacon”.
With all the horrible, horrible shit that your priest is pumping into your kid’s head, his dick should be the least of your worries, honestly. That’s just a little mouthwash and a few years of therapy’ll get rid of that. That Jesus shit will torture you for a lifetime
Deadbeat Hero, 2004
What I like about Stanhope the most, is the way he can get you to laugh at an edgy/dark joke, but he immediately follows it up with a thrust of either social/political commentary, or asks so you to think about why you laughed at that. Throughout his career he doesn’t punch down, bits like the ‘transvestite hooker incident’ are on face problematic, but he’s never judging them or thinks he’s better than other people who are often seen as lesser by society.
You wanna feel bad for someone in a down-turned economy, I’ll give you someone…prostitutes. Because a prostitute doesn’t have that same “worst case scenario” B-plan that we all enjoy. No matter how shitty things are going for you on the job. “Danny, if they lay off anymore people, I’m gonna be out on the streets sucking dick for a living. I got nothin’ else. I’m serious.” Hooker doesn’t have that same safety net. Hooker’s already out there, sucking dicks.
Before Turning the Gun on Himself, 2012
I was a bit surprised to see him on Lemmy.
I miss the socialist Dale Earnhardt memes that were going strong for a little while.
The community you’re serving is nowhere near the location of the offense btw
Speaking of food, what’s the deal on airlines - how old are those pretzels?
I’m thinkin’ Hey!
Ah, the old boomer strategy of making you smoke the whole pack.
Getting arrested for feeding the homeless, right…
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