{"id":23698,"date":"2017-12-27T15:17:50","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T21:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/?p=23698"},"modified":"2017-12-27T15:17:50","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T21:17:50","slug":"criminalizing-homelessness-feeding-hungry-state-is-bad-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/2017\/12\/criminalizing-homelessness-feeding-hungry-state-is-bad-guy.html","title":{"rendered":"On Criminalizing Homelessness and Feeding the Hungry, the State Is Indeed the Bad Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere is no bad guy in this,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Sgt. Joseph Corrigan propitiated of an unforgiving crackdown targeting do-gooders with the nerve to voluntarily feed people in need \u2014 part of wider law enforcement action to quash the act of feeding houseless people throughout Atlanta \u2014 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/cities-volunteers-clash-over-feeding-homeless-public-140600487.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the<\/span><\/a> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Associated Press<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no bad guy in this.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Activists and advocates for homeless people everywhere in the United States opine ever-tightening legal <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/26\/feeding-the-homeless-there-could-be-a-la\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">strictures<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> regarding <em>\u2018sharing food\u2019<\/em> in public \u2014 how feeding houseless people is classified under the law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Georgia State University Police Sgt. Corrigan, a chaplain and head of the department\u2019s homeless outreach, and a plethora of detractors, giving people food serves an acute need, but does little if anything to solve the twin crises of hunger and shelterlessness in the long term \u2014 even exacerbating such issues as left-behind refuse, communicable disease, lack of sanitation and restrooms, and more, if allowed to continue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indeed, as the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AP<\/span><\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/cities-volunteers-clash-over-feeding-homeless-public-140600487.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reports<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAbout 40 cities nationwide had active laws to restrict food sharing as of November 2014, and a few dozen more had attempted such restrictions, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. Interim Director Megan Hustings said she doesn&#8217;t have updated numbers but that she&#8217;s heard about more cities considering such regulations.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><div class=\"themi-content_11\" id=\"themi-3625289440\"><div id=\"ld-8755-6417\"><\/div><script>(function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:9217690065945446,size:[0, 0],id:\"ld-8755-6417\"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.decide.dev\/_js\/ajs.js\";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,\"script\",\"ld-ajs\");<\/script><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Nation<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> painted a more appropriately dismal if albeit embarrassing picture on the status of feeding houseless people \u2014 nearly three years ago, in February 2015 \u2014 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/city-outlawed-free-food\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reporting<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><\/p><div class=\"themi-content_15\" id=\"themi-3837300212\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/themindunleashed\/subscribe\" aria-label=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px.png\" alt=\"\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px.png 1920w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-150x84.png 150w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-696x392.png 696w, https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brown-and-White-Modern-Digital-Marketing-Course-Promo-Instagram-Post-1920-x-1080-px-1068x601.png 1068w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\"   \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAccording to a survey of more than 180 cities by the National Law Center on Homelessness &amp; Poverty, anti-homeless laws pervade urban spaces nationwide. Roughly a third of cities barred public \u2018camping,\u2019 for example, up 60 percent since 2011. Restrictions range from prohibiting sitting on sidewalks to imposing steep fees or regulations that effectively criminalize actions of charity groups, often using antiseptic \u2018quality of life\u2019 terms (a tent pitched under a bridge becomes an unauthorized \u2018camp\u2019). Palo Alto has banned sleeping in parked cars. Mobile has imposed zero-tolerance on \u2018aggressive panhandling,\u2019 which could involve just \u2018request[ing] a donation from a person standing in line\u2026no matter how mildly the request was made.\u2019 Last year, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ThinkProgress<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reported, Fort Lauderdale authorized police to bust people who \u2018store possessions\u2019 on public property \u2014 suggesting that homeless people don\u2019t deserve to have what little they carry with them, let alone \u2018quality of life.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notably, it isn\u2019t as if these cities have implemented far-reaching and successful programs to replace the lost assistance of do-gooders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In essence, critics of public charitable food-giving adhere to two problematic mainstays of thought: that people must <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018pull themselves up by the bootstraps\u2019<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; but, failing that, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018teaching them to fish\u2019<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 pointing them in the direction of assistance and having them enroll, for example, in return for food \u2014 rather than simply <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018giving them fish,\u2019<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the only valid means of assisting the neediest of individuals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our way or no way<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, they seem to suggest. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no bad guy in this.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe don&#8217;t want anybody to stop feeding people. We just want it done in a way that&#8217;s connected to social services providers,\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> George Chidi, social impact director for nonprofit community development organization, Central Atlanta Progress, averred to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Associated Press<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cand not on the street corner because we can\u2019t make sure those connections are being made in these street corner feedings.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, Atlanta joins a shamefully lengthening list of cities choosing to declare a de facto war not only <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/2017\/11\/seattle-plans-to-erect-miles-of-razor-topped-fencing-to-prevent-homeless.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">against the condition<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of being homeless, but <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/2017\/11\/church-ordered-to-stop-feeding-homeless.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">against anyone willing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to offer the stopgap assistance of an immediate meal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Case in point, volunteer Adele MacLean with Food Not Bombs \u2014 who takes issue with the whole of Chidi\u2019s position \u2014 landed a citation and court summons from another University of Georgia law enforcement officer on November 19, after the awareness and advocacy group refused to cease feeding houseless people in a downtown park when threats to obtain a permit were ignored. Although the offense was ultimately tossed by a judge, she feels the incident and the fallacious premise of her supposed transgression symptomatic of the crackdown on homelessness, telling the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AP<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFood is a human right, and you don&#8217;t force people to do what you want them to do by withholding food.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atlanta and other cities added to obstacles between houseless people and those who would provide them nourishment, predicating any immediate assistance on their entr\u00e9e into the impoverishment assistance complex \u2014 while simultaneously frustrating activists and advocates with a deluge of impossible red tape making the act of sharing food a laborious chore for those attempting to work within its confines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indeed, shady tactics apparently land within the purview of enforcing the law. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AP<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, attorneys for MacLean say police have gone so far as to disseminate a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cmisleading pamphlet\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> emblazoned with the city seal and a statement indicating a permit is required to feed homeless people in public \u2014 but it isn\u2019t true. A previously unenforced county law exists, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/26\/feeding-the-homeless-there-could-be-a-la\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">notes<\/span><\/a> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reason<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 which only saw enforcement beginning around Thanksgiving \u2014 but none does explicitly for the City of Atlanta.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Southern Center for Human Rights attorney Gerry Weber, representing MacLean, explained restaurants, food trucks, and festival vendors may indeed require permits from the city \u2014 people voluntarily sharing food in public without charge, not so much.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Food Not Bombs was forced to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.browardpalmbeach.com\/news\/food-not-bombs-sues-fort-lauderdale-over-homeless-feeding-law-6454970\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">challenge<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a similarly <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.miaminewtimes.com\/news\/fort-lauderdale-homeless-feeding-ban-proposed-again-9483644\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">callous ordinance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, arguing before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August such crackdowns on feeding houseless people infringe on the group\u2019s constitutional right to free speech, since members share food <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cas an expression of their political message that hunger and poverty can be ended if society&#8217;s resources are redirected from the military and war.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A decision in the matter has yet to be rendered.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the interim, charity workers advocating for homeless people in cities across this putatively Great (or, perhaps, Getting There) nation will have to contend with an ambivalent public, ludicrous restrictions, and an eagerly authoritarian body of law enforcement in order to give hungry people food in a public setting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI salute genuinely the good will and good nature of all these people,\u201d <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sgt. Corrigan insisted to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Associated Press<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no bad guy in this.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Image: <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/homeless-man-homeless-advice-833017\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Public domain<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"themi-after-content_2\" id=\"themi-160453190\"><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1747048\"> \r\n <\/div> \r\n <script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\"); \r\n <\/script> \r\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThere is no bad guy in this,\u201d Sgt. Joseph Corrigan propitiated of an unforgiving crackdown targeting do-gooders with the nerve to voluntarily feed people in need \u2014 part of wider law enforcement action to quash the act of feeding houseless people throughout Atlanta \u2014 to the Associated Press. There is no bad guy in this. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38357,"featured_media":23699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,34,29,28],"tags":[2454,2455,2456,791,467,2304,2452,1402,2374,2453],"class_list":{"0":"post-23698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-truth","8":"category-corruption","9":"category-news","10":"category-paradigm-shift","11":"tag-atlanta","12":"tag-food-not-bombs","13":"tag-ft-lauderdale","14":"tag-homeless","15":"tag-homelessness","16":"tag-houseless","17":"tag-houselessness","18":"tag-human-rights","19":"tag-right-to-homelessness","20":"tag-war-on-homelessness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38357"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23698"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23702,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23698\/revisions\/23702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themindunleashed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}