Remember Elsa's story about how government regulations make helping the homeless find a safe place to sleep so much harder than it needs to be?

Well now it's illegal to feed them too.

Here are some quotes form the story linked below.  

. . . cities that have not banned it outright have put so many requirements on those that want to feed the homeless (acquiring expensive permits, taking food preparation courses, etc.) that feeding the homeless has become "out of reach" for most average people. 

This is just another example that shows that our country is being taken over by control freaks.  There seems to be this idea out there that it is the job of the government to take care of everyone and that nobody else should even try.

In America today, you need a "permit" to do almost anything.  We are supposed to be a land of liberty and freedom, but these days government bureaucrats have turned our rights into "privileges" that they can revoke at any time.

New York City has banned all food donations to government-run homeless shelters because the bureaucrats there are concerned that the donated food will not be "nutritious" enough.

One church down in Louisiana was recently ordered to stop giving out water because it did not have a government permit.

Sadly, those that love to micro-manage others continue to get the upper hand in America.  Back in January, 40,000 new laws went into effect all over America.  The politicians continue to hit us with wave after wave of regulations and laws with no end in sight.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/feeding-the-homeless-banned-in-major-cities-all-over-america

I saw that too. Thanks for posting this, Tess. I stop myself from posting stuff like this all the time because it seems like I am bitching, but really I just want people to know this stuff is happening.

So, so, SO unbelieveably stupid!  Concerns of donated food not being "nutritious enough" so it's banned from shelters completely??  Yeah, because obviously starving to death is sooooo much healthier for you than eating a package of ring-dings.  *eyeroll*

Yeah, because obviously starving to death is sooooo much healthier for you than eating a package of ring-dings. No shit!

Unbelievable!

wow..

They're doing this in Philly too. If you give a homeless person some money or food, you can be ticketed. It is infuriating. The goal, apparently, is to get them to go to shelters. Many of them avoid shelters like the plague.

Don't tell me where to spend my money or what may pass from my hands to another's. That's ridiculous.

Evil.

Except then they make it hard on the shelters to help, too.

As i get more involved at the women's center, I will report what I can from that side of the story, too.

Pluto in Capricorn. :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBiJB8YuDBQ

I just watched this the other day. Its called "Illegal Everything". This surely is a trend. the shadow of Pluto in Capricorn, I think.

If you follow my tumblr, I've been posting about the two guys who set up camp in my neighborhood. I call it Occupy Los Feliz - honestly they are good neighbors and considerate of the public space so I'm glad they haven't been picked up yet.

Bottom line this just sucks. 

But wondering,  if people bring dirty diapers to goodwill, imagine what some assholes might pass off as a food donation. 

Obviously, the idea behind this is to make the homeless move out of town and be somebody else's problem. With a bit of luck, some of the homeless will starve to death, which is even better. Soon, the homeless can only live in the wilderness, feeding themselves with roots, berries and whatever they can catch. Such behavior, of course is a hunting and fishing violation, which means the homeless will in practice be outlaws. Soon there will also be laws against sleeping within city limits, camping without a valid and expensive permit outside of city limits, sitting on park benches without a bench permit, eating outdoors, preparing food without a permit, being in possession of a sleeping bag without a permit and pretty much anything connected with homelessness. To make absolutely sure the homeless can be identified at any time as homeless, so that they could be treated as homeless, they should all wear clear markings in their clothes, perhaps a yellow star or something equally nice and pretty. Impersonating a human being, of course, will be a capital offense. At some point, it may become necessary to place the homeless in a secure environment, where they can be happy in the company of others of their species. Perhaps a camp or a reservation of some sort will be necessary. The homeless would finally have a home to call their own, as long as they agree to pay for their maintenance by submitting to a few harmless experiments by various chemical and medical companies, as well as Government agencies. The poor could finally make themselves useful; afterall, they're genetically almost human and that makes them valuable research assets.

The homeless question does require a final solution, doesn't it? Anyway, they're ugly, they're smelly, they spread diseases, they eat human children and some of them must have rabies. For their own protection from themselves, they need to be segregated, rounded up and shipped out of sight.

This is terrible.

I live in New York City and up the block from my home is a church that feeds the homeless and the needy.  I have lived here over 12 years and I see no change even with silly laws enacted.   BTW, I actually do see what they eat and it is still sandwiches, soup, fruit, etc. 

Patrice, I'm not surprised by that. People are going to ignore laws like these, is my guess.

Civil disobedience a good thing

What really stops charity cold is when the person on the receiving end starts suing for large settlements. Example, the churches no longer allow people to sleep inside over night because they had too many lawsuits over accidents or incidents that happened on their property.  If you come give me a ticket for $100 because I fed some people, I will pay the $100 and keep feeding them.  Jeez, it's not natural to know someone is hungry and no offer them food if you have some.

Just imagine the enormous amounts of food that gets tossed by grocery stores every day.  I can understand it's not worth the risk of getting sued.  It's all so sad.

While I think there is a grain of truth to what daisy posted ( I have seen some of the stuff "donated" to the poor and I wouldn't use it as a cleaning rag), I wished they be as concerned when the homeless eat out of the dumpsters.

More food is wasted every day (put in skips by shops, supermarkets and restaurants) than is eaten, in most urban Western societies. It's insupportable, ecologically and morally

These new laws are sheer wickedness. America was built on philanthropy ffs!

I too have been banging on about political control-freakery for years and years. Politicians should *enable* their compatriots and neighbours in every area. Instead, at some point they saw it their mission to start *preventing* the rest of us from doing things: they turned us into adversaries.

I largely blame the power of entrenched political parties: they only want conformists and select accordingly: mavericks and people who think for themselves need not apply. This ripples up and down at every level of the political process, so we all end up being bossed about by people of little intellect, imagination or ability to understand the concept of personal responsibility

Yet year in year out people continue to vote for these monolithic entities, in the Uk as in the USA. Fresh thinking and a return to grass roots power are urgently required.

Much good that would do us here in Europe though: the EU micromanages just about everything now.

I read the other day that 40 percent (!!!) of the food people buy/eat every day gets thrown out.  Thrown out!!!  And then you mix in asinine laws like this.  Gee.  No wonder we're free-falling down the tubes.

BP - I totally agree with this:

"Yet year in year out people continue to vote for these monolithic entities, in the Uk as in the USA. Fresh thinking and a return to grass roots power are urgently required."

It drives me insane that the US is stuck in this ridiculous 2 party political system. It's a stupid tetter-totter ride as we go back and forth between the two parties. I think we do way more damage than good in this manner. Grass roots and a viable 3rd party would be very helpful in my opinion to create real change instead of just attempting to always undo the others actions.

Here are a couple of articles that go along with the prejuidices against poor/homeless.

http://eugeneweekly.com/2010/08/19/coverstory.html

https://sites.google.com/site/zonesofex/

This is ridiculous.

Much good that would do us here in Europe though: the EU micromanages just about everything now.

Good, good. We're just about to get in -.-

The English* given a vote would get out of the EU tomorrow, but our politicians continue to refuse to give us one!

Meanwhile both main parties and the hanger-on (the third party) all support this monolithic, remote and anti-democratic system, yet people go on voting for them because they always have...  The politicians love it because it tends to give them an extra career after the voters have kicked them out, from which they can make millions (cf Neil Kinnock and his wife)

 One a country has joined the EU it ceases to be a democracy in anything but name

* the Welsh, N Irish and esp the Scots quite like it, as they get lots of subsidies via the EU

 One a country has joined the EU it ceases to be a democracy in anything but name

This is essentially why I voted 'no' on the referendum. 60 % voted yes but almost half of them were people above 60 who were threatened that they will not receive their pensions if we don't get into EU.Literally threatened, overtly. The rest thought that we have no other option, and a very small percent actually believes this is good and it's going to be bread and butter for us once we're in.

Fisrt they bribe you.... then they squeeze you.

Esp through eco-taxes...

But we are thread hijacking! - better stop

Yes, I was gonna say that. Enough of the EU ranting.

Carry on.

This makes me want to cry. I know everyone should be responsible for themselves but how can helping a fellow human being EAT when they have no food be restricted. Ugh

 There is a mentality at the top now it seems. Nothing can be fixed, we must bring about  total destruction and rebuild from our own ashes.. 

   poop4brains I say

Discouraging humanitarianism and community is NOT the way, this pisses me off. Do they want them to just die!?!! Governments are the lowest form of human nature.