That's right folks, if you are caught giving a homless person a sandwich in Sin City you will recieve a fine of $1,000.00 and/or 6 months in jail! Of course, it's for their own good.... http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/jul/31/073110578.html July 31, 2006 Las Vegas marshals ticket 7, arrest 3 amid homeless protests By KEN RITTER [size=-2]ASSOCIATED PRESS[/size] LAS VEGAS (AP) - City marshals blocked a radio personality from feeding homeless people at a City Hall park Monday, and issued summonses to a television news crew covering a publicity protest against a ban on "mobile soup kitchens." Three people were arrested and seven were issued summonses at two parks, city officials said, including a reporter and a cameraman ticketed for trespassing while covering the protest for KLAS-TV, the CBS affiliate in Las Vegas. Beth Monk, a KKLZ-FM radio morning show personality, became the first person to receive a summons under a new city law that makes feeding the homeless a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $1,000 and six months in jail. "The idea was to go out there and show the mayor this ordinance makes no sense whatsoever," said Monk, 24, a traffic reporter and radio comedy team sidekick who has engaged in publicity stunts including mud wrestling on the job. Monk said city marshals confiscated food and water she set on a cement wall at Frank Wright Park - a patch of green wedged between a downtown bus terminal, a historic post office building and Las Vegas City Hall. She was threatened with arrest if she did not leave. "I think right now everyone's realizing how outrageous this is," Monk said in a telephone interview. Two people also were arrested Monday for trespassing before 7 a.m. at Huntridge Circle Park, city spokesman Jace Radke said. Huntridge is an urban park several blocks east of downtown where city officials first acted against so-called soup kitchen meals for homeless people. "The ordinance makes it illegal to run mobile soup kitchens or feed the homeless in city parks," Radke said. "Marshals are going to enforce the law." Bob Stoldal, vice president of news for KLAS, said he had not decided whether to fight trespassing summonses issued to reporter Kyla Grogan and photojournalist Jorge Montez. "We're going to continue to cover the story very aggressively at all public parks," Stoldal said. The staged protest came less than two weeks after the Las Vegas City Council passed a law criminalizing charity in parks, and a month after the city began rounding up homeless people for 72-hour mental health evaluations. Officials, led by Mayor Oscar Goodman, say they want a long-term solution to homelessness rather than stopgap measures in a city with limited resources for those living on the streets. "Rather than giving someone a sandwich once a day, the city supports efforts to end the cycle of homelessness and address the issues that keep these individuals on the streets," the mayor's office said in a statement Monday. It calls for the homeless to seek aid at social service agencies. Activists and civil libertarians called the crackdown unfair and unconstitutional. "They are treating people in public spaces in a way that is inconsistent with the First Amendment and our nation's history," said Lee Rowland, American Civil Liberties of Nevada public advocate in Las Vegas. She promised a lawsuit challenging the city law. Linda Lera-Randel El, longtime executive director of Straight from the Streets, a Las Vegas area homeless advocacy group, said she distributed water, sandwiches and bus tokens at the City Hall park Monday, but was not issued a summons. "I'm not saying feeding people in the park is the answer," she said. "But I don't think people in power can just pass an ordinance every time they don't like something or they're frustrated by the inability to fix it."
So charity in a public place in sin city is a crime? Is not a social service building not a public place, a police station, a school. So no free lunches at schools, arrest all the kitchen staff, a school is a public building. A jail is a public building so if they feed the inmates is that not charity? Arrest all the cops for breaking the law too. How stupid, its a crime to be poor and now its a crime to help the poor.
latest news is the courts have for the time being struck that one down. but the advocates of anti-charity in lost wages have vowed to keep reintroducing anti-charity legislation. what is actualy going on in the streets and soup kitchens i can't say as i'm not there. (that town is a screwy place, and i'm damd sure glad i don't live there. i had to bum a ride with a carney once to get out of it.) =^^= .../\...
That's how the world works today. If you're rich, you're an undisputed god; if you're poor, you get pissed on. It's a shame that our "great nation" has stooped to such a low level.
The law enforcement in many cities country-wide are locking people up who are apart of food not bombs organizations for feeding homeless/poor people. All over. It's really the craziest thing ever, but it's not all that surprising. I think if everyone knew all of the laws we have in this country a lot more citizens would be outraged by the government and take action to take the country back.
Good News. A judge overturned the new law. People can now obey Jesus' command to feed the hungry and not go to jail. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/20/judge_nixes_las_vegas_homeless_food_ban/
that's pretty messed up. Are they making soup kitchens illegal too? Oh well, ya cant do anything about it. Just go with the flow I guess.
people helping other people prevents people from getting help from the institution! you can't help your fellow human, you just have to pay into the system if youve got something or wait for what they see fit to kick down to you if you don't. a law that makes sharing a crime..what the fuck..
Trouble is since Bush took office there are no institutions to help, only the generousity of the churches. Remember Bushes "Faith Based Initiative", ever wonder who oversees it or hands it out. Have you noticed any improvements on the services offered the poor in your community? Who got the funds? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15228489/ Where'd the money go? Anyone want to ask?
why dont people get together in Vegas and form a branch of the "reclaim the streets" movement? It started as a movement which hated the idea that people were secondary considerations in the planning and design of streets geared toward motor vehicles but its now the leading light of the global anticapitalist movement in Britain and ranks at the top in Europe. Its all about making public spaces return to the ownership of you the citizen - not the criminals that run the cities. It is easy to do - in Britain where it started the reclaim the streets people would advertise a rave party in lets say trafalgar square london. Then they would wait till about 5000 people had turned up - jump out the back of a couple of vans and erect a marquis tent in the middle of the road - get the decks going and whip up a crowd of dancers - it teaches the people who THINK they own the city that they are there at our discression and to prove the point - while the party is going on - inside the tent they do stuff like dig up the road and plant a garden of flowers. JOIN US http://rts.gn.apc.org/ and set up your own with the help of those people It is part of the global anticapitalist movement and theres a revolution coming to a summit meeting near you SOON http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclaim_the_streets
