Orlando "liberals" on city council declare war on homeless people

Orlando "liberals" on city council fucking suck

I moved back to jacksonville after graduation to live with my parents but having heard about several of my college friends getting involved in a protest yesterday, I paid Orlando a visit to join in because the issue made me so mad. The issue was that the city council, at the behest of the business community and yuppies moving downtown pricing poor people out of thier homes, were going to pass an ordinance making it illegal for organizations like food not bombs and a few churches from giving food to homeless people as they have been doing in Lake Eola park without a permit which they only give out twice a year.


The worst thing is that the traitor that sponsored this is a democrat that ran as a progressive candidate. The other side argues that the weekly feedings at Lke Eola were attracting more homeless people to the area. Apparently, homeless people are not human beings and not as entitled to the same right to use a public park. Opponents claim that there already is a coalition for the homeless and offered other areas to do these feedings.

What they don't want to admit is that the coalitions food is awful and is mostly sugary junk food and the shelters are known to be more dangerous than the streets at times. People smoke crack outside the shelters. Food Not Bombs offers healthy and complete vegan meals. Another thing the yuppies don't want to admit is that the alternative location is in a much more dangerous part of town, where several homeless people have been beaten up and or killed, for sport. Unlike the alternative location which is under an overpass, Lake Eola is much safer and has public bathrooms and trees and flowers.

It's generally a nicer place over all. I get the impression that the yuppies supporting this are upset that they don't have the privledge of not having to look at people who are poor. Out of sight, out of mind. Hell, one guy at the meeting said he didn't like having to use the same bathrooms as poor people. Some lady also came up and argued that Food Not Bombs have ulterior motives because FNB is anarchist, a blatant ad hom logical fallcy which I called her on when it was my turn to speak. I observed other people making strawmen arguements that our arguement that starving homeless people would be forced to turn to theft was a threat against his person.

Several people who attended the meeting with us were homeless. Heck the majority of the room was on our side but to the city council and DINO mayor Buddy Dyer, the concerns of homeless voters don't matter. In the end, the ordinance passed, just as several other ordinances passed. I couldn't imagine the christians on the board voting for this. When was the last time you heard jesus object to helping the less fortunate because it "lowered the property values" or because "the business community objects. Orlando has a statue of Martin Luther King and around the park are statues of people like Ghandi. Would they have voted for this? The idea that a measure is morally justified because of property values or concerns that crime rates would go up are the same excuses people used to use to not let black people move in to thier neighborhoods. Besides, if this is a public safety issue, then how is it wrong to supposedly endanger public safety in downtown but perfectly fine to endanger public safety, not to mention the safety of the homeless, by moving it to a different, more crime ridden neighborhood.

You know what, fuck what the city council says. Food Not Bombs and the others have the ACLU and NOW on their side and they are going to get an injunction against the city and follow up with a lawsuit. Even though the ordinance passed, FNB is going to disobey and continue to feed the homeless anyway. I want to see them, the city, actually send paddy wagons out and try and get on film arresting these kids for feeding starving people.
Here is the story from the Orlando Sentinel

 

They are first and foremost protecting their real estate values...it's hard to fight the hardcore capitalist, they are only in it for their own gain. What do they care of society at large, only how it affects their portfolio.

New York cleaned up Time Square, why can't the other yuppies clean up their neighborhoods?

The poor are someone else's problem not theirs. They just don't want to look at them or acknowledge them.

 

Perhaps someday they will be poor.

 

What happened to the Orland votes in the 2000 election? Did you think anything would come of this little one? The big guys won that election, and they have the upper hand.

 

that is just absolute bull shit if i ever heard it....
that is cruel and useless abuse of power by someone who is probably going to hell. Homeless people are still people and i dont think that having homeless people eat in your community lowers the value...hell, if i was homeless, i would hitchhike to florida. If you ask me, they might as well get rid of the sun! Because the warm weather attracts homeless people!!!!!!!

 

This has to be one of the saddest abuses of power I've ever heard of.

I agree with Gardener, it's all about property value. It seems that when money comes into the picture, morality goes out the window.

 

my boyfriend reads a lot of news on the internet, and this morning he told me that now Las Vegas has also made it illegal to feed the homeless. if you guys want to help make a difference on this, it is my suggestion that you pull up the websites for these city councils, and begin to email the mayors of these cities. But dont stop there. Also take down the office telephone #s and call them and let them know you disapprove.
Write in to your local papers and let them know what it going on...this is something people wouldn't really know about unless they were told, and we have a duty as good citizens to take care of eachother.

 

Sad....

 

My question is this: why would the so called "greatest and most free nation on Earth" (i.e. the U.S.A.) deny the most basic of human rights to it's weakest and most vunerable citizens?

Is it the policy of a "great nation" to tell it's people they are not allowed to eat?

And how is it possible that a nation can become so immoral as to tell those who have food available that they are not allowed to feed starving people?

When I was growing up you only heard about this kind of thing in the draconian dictatorships of the third world.

The fact is America is not great and is not free, as this anti-homeless campaign demonstrates. We could be a free nation once again, but the goverments of the U.S. are going to have to give up their greed-driven policies of oppressing the poor before that can happen.

 

Yes, its true, but the thing about this kind of oppression is that people actually support it! We have to write the congressmen of that area, and you have to call their offices and let them know that you disapprove. You should also write into your local papers and let people know what is going on! We have to do things like that so that people have the knowledge to change things...you know?????

 

Yem, you're absolutely right. We have to get active if things are going to change for the better.