Do not feed the homeless law goes into effect. First arrests made.

[Robbien]

Eric Montanez, 21, is the first to be arrested under the city's controversial ordinance that bars feeding large groups of people in downtown parks without a special permit.

The rule was approved last summer after residents and businesses in Orlando's gentrifying downtown complained that parks were being used as soup kitchens.

. . .

Undercover officers filmed the food line, meticulously counting Montanez serving "30 unidentified persons food from a large pot utilizing a ladle," according to an arrest affidavit.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/food/orl-homeless0507apr05,0,2602061.story?coll=orl-shoppinghg-headlinesinthek

this reaction taken from a local Florida blog

http://jameslandrith.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

The City of Orlando used undercover police officers to spy on volunteers who feed the homeless. Then, said undercover officers bravely apprehended the dangerous ladle-wielding food server before yet another homeless person was accosted with a hot, nutritious meal.

I don't know about you, but I am impressed. I suggest others do as I have done and email Mayor Buddy Dyer on his city's incredible crime-fighting prowess. I mean really, if they have the free time to take down the city's homeless feeding mafia, all other crime (like rape, murder, assaults, etc.) must have been eradicated long ago. This is incredible news!

You can express your gratitude and amazement to the Mayor here: http://www.cityoforlando.net/elected/mayor/index.htm

[rockymountaindem]

1. I guess the city will be opening new homeless shelters and soup kitchens now

I mean, instead of just making ad-hoc solutions illegal, it would be best to solve the root of the problem, right?

[Monkeyman]

2. Pricks

[dogday]

30. Yes that word does come to mind

does it not?

[Erika]

3. Thank you for the email address

We've visited Orlando twice in the last 10 years. We won't again and the mayor was so notified.

Orlando is a rich man's community.

[Robbien]

25. You are welcome. The Orlando mayor also got an email from here

in Chicago too.

The article made me so mad I wanted to spit. Sending the mayor an email is a good alternate reaction.

[philosophie_en_rose]

4. A public park used as a soup kitchen! How dare they?

How could they use a public park to benefit the public?

God bless the brave undercover officers who no doubt appreciate being taken from real crimes to infiltrate such an insidious soup mafia.

[southerncrone]

5. When did we become so insensitive to the plight of our fellow man?

:shrug:
This is an example of the poison that the neo-con ideology has created across this country. It's cool to be selfish & snobby. :puke:

[Robbien]

7. So many crimes to humanity hidden under the word Gentrification

I believe gentrifying is what they are calling what is happening in New Orleans.

[Eric J in MN]

6. This isn't about public health.

If it were, there wouldn't be a limit that a group couldn't serve meals to over 25 people more than twice a year.

"The law bars groups from feeding more than 25 people without a special permit. Groups may have two permits per year."

This is about trying to get the homeless to go to another city by making things worse for them in Orlando.

[Erika]

8. They want to keep the beautiful minds of the rich

from having to absorb the reality of soup kitchens and the poor. Just like Babs Bush.

[Gregorian]

13. Right. It's an inconvenient truth.

I know one thing, I see through the veneer. I see the ugliness behind the beautiful people. I see the beauty behind the ugly people.

Beauty isn't wealth. Beauty is humility, caring, hope. Beauty is more sadness than strength.

Ugly is cold, ignorant, cruel, separation.

[Canuckistanian]

32. So now the homeless have to dumpster dive

Or else steal from grocery stores. Or rob convenience stores in order to get money.

Or just beg more on the streets.

So, tell me, what has been accomplished here?

[Mnemosyne]

41. Filling empty prison cells is my best guess. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

9. How much of their violent crime do they have compared to feeding homeless?

[DarkTirade]

24. Here in Orlando

our murder rates have managed to get past even D.C. in the last few years.

[LiberalFighter]

26. Hmm... anyone there asking the question about why they want law enforcement

resources to be focused on stopping homeless feeding over murders and other violent crimes?

[DarkTirade]

34. Probably because the cops don't want to bother trying to get

from point A to point B, so they'd rather find somewhere where they can sit and wait for a crime to happen.
Traffic's pretty bad here too. :)
Seriously though, between the crime rates, crappy schools, and ridiculous urban sprawl, I'm planning on getting out of here as soon as I can.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. Worst person in the worldddddd!

Way to go buddy! Spend those tax dollars persecuting people feeding the hungry. Brilliant solution to the problem, and oh so ethical and economical.

Your mom must be proud.

In disgust,

xxxxxxxxxxx

[nam78_two]

11. Jerks

:grr: K&R

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. "What so ever you do to the least of my brothers"

Christian nation?

[Mnemosyne]

42. Don't forget "compassionate". n/t

:grr:

[Webster Green]

14. Orlando is a fucking shithole.

God forbid I should ever wind up there again.

One of the most uncivilized places on the planet!

[rasputin1952]

15. So Mr. Montanez is now a criminal...it is truly a sad day in the US...

when criminalizing feeding the poor and hungry becomes a norm. I don't know if the Mayor goes to church, but I sure hope it caves in the next time he tries to enter, maybe he'll get the message.

[Raksha]

18. The church probably will cave in on him. There's a precedent for that,

believe it or not. In the Jewish tradition, the "sin of Sodom" that sealed the fate of the city had nothing to do with homosexuality. It came when the city fathers of Sodom decided to make charity a crime, and a capital crime at that. A young woman was convicted of giving a poor man a piece of bread. I think of this every time some city like Orlando comes up with yet another anti-homeless ordinance, and specifically one against feeding the homeless.

Does Orlando tend to get hit by a lot of hurricanes? I'm really not THAT superstitious but...just asking.

[rasputin1952]

20. I didn't know that...How ironic...

Thanks for the info...:D

[Raksha]

21. The story isn't in the Bible. It's part of a traditional commentary,

probably the Talmud, but I really don't remember the source.

[rasputin1952]

22. When i was growing up in NYC, I had several friends whose fathers

were rabbis. Being brought up a traditional Lutheran, as time went by I came to respect much of the wisdom these men had. A lot of the situations that they would come across were dealt w/logically and with much discussion as to meanings and to what lesson was being taught. While there was much history to be dealt with, it was more of a situation on the moral aspects of life.

There was also an understanding that taking things out of context and looking for connections was part of the whole basis of understanding what was going on. In essence, you had to search and make the connection, it wasn't going to be handed to you on a platter, you had to work to figure it all out...:)

[Selatius]

16. Are only rich people on the Orlando city council?

Where are the common people now?

[Maraya1969]

17. "Police also collected a vial of stew as evidence." From the article

They took it out of a hungry child's mouth. (me)

I hope the stuff slides out of the bag and onto the court room floor and the janitors leave a stain in the carpet. Someday it might make a good quip for people touring the courthouse of the city that went down in flames of hate.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Vinca]

23. What, exactly, is Orlando's solution to the problem of hungry and

homeless people in their city? Should they stay in the parks unfed and die of hunger? If they don't want them to use the parks, Orlando better build some decent shelter and a large dining facility.

[in_cog_ni_to]

38. It's simple. Ignore them and they either go away or die. THEY DON'T CARE

about the Homeless. We have become a cold heartless nation.:(

[SammyWinstonJack]

27. This country BLOWS!

:argh: MORE TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH! :woohoo: So they can staff their third and fourth homes! Maybe they can employ some of the homeless so they won't be begging in the PUBLIC parks for food! :eyes:

[Ron Green]

28. Florida again. I'm keepin' track.

[Beelzebud]

29. America - A once great nation... Great no more.

When you throw people in jail for feeding the homeless, you've turned a corner.

Welcome to Rome.

[raccoon]

31. I think more like Nazi Germany than Rome. nt

[Daedelus76]

33. On the flip side

I actually live in Orlando. My brother goes downtown sometimes to have fun with friends. It's no fun to be hit up constantly by homeless people, some of whom won't take no for an answer. Yes, you can feel for them all you want, but the reality is that it is hurting business.

I don't know what the cause is, but Orlando needs to really do something about homelessness. Some of it is probably due to the fact that housing prices here are pretty high relative to wages. Also, our warm weather attracts alot of homeless people. Maybe Florida should be lobbying for more federal dollars to attack homelessness, since it really is a national issue that affects us locally, which is probably being caused in part by other states and the Feds.

Orlando is not a bad place to live. It just has alot of growing pains. If it doesn't balance things right, it could end up like southern California- lots of sprawl and poverty with a few wealthy people owning what's left.

[jwdeviant]

35. So they arrested him.

When you figure in the costs of the police time, the paperwork, the court personnel, the jail time, etc. How many homeless could have been fed instead?

[file83]

40. Bingo - the city would rather feed the Police State than starving citizens.

[renie408]

36. You are shitting me. They are ARRESTING people in Orlando for feeding the homeless???

Christ.

I just can't think of anything else to say.

[undergroundpanther]

37. Control who eats

You control who lives and that way you control a population.



The box is full of salmon, and a man sits atop the box. Long ago this man hired armed guards to keep anyone from eating his fish. The many people who sit next to the empty river starve to death. But they do not die of starvation. They die of a belief. Everyone believes that the man atop the box owns the fish. The soldiers believe it, and they will kill to protect the illusion. The others believe it enough that they are willing to starve. But the truth is that there is a box, there is an emptied river, there is a man sitting atop the box, there are guns, and there are starving people.


http://ranprieur.com/readings/jensenbox.html

FUCK THE RICH!! THe "ownership" class needs a swift kick in the ass.

[file83]

39. So if you want to have a BBQ after a softball game, do you need a permit?

What if a friendly stranger walks up and wants burger, am I obligated to proove that he/she isn't homeless???

If I lived in that town - I would SO fuck with the police on this.

Here's the plan:

1) Show up to the park with a BBQ, and a stack of food from Costco (and no stinking permit!).
2) Get all my friends to dress like they are homeless.
3) Have them park far away and walk to the park.
4) They show up to my BBQ and start eating!
5) Police swoop in and arrest me.
6) My lawyer enters the scene and documents all the people eating at the BBQ.
7) I go to court with my lawyer and all my friends as witnesses.
8) Profit.

[Colobo]

43. Compassion is a crime in Orlando...