By (O)CT(O)PUS
There seems to be a callous, "fuck-you" attitude metastasizing cancer-like throughout the state of North Carolina. Recently, former Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned newly enacted voter suppression laws in North Carolina, warning fellow Republicans: “These kinds of actions do not build on the base. It just turns people away."
Now, authoritarians in the state of North
Nearly every weekend morning for six years [my bold], church groups have passed out free biscuits and coffee to the homeless at Moore Square in downtown Raleigh, N.C. This Saturday at 9 a.m., when volunteers from Love Wins Ministries arrived, 100 sausage biscuits and coffee carafes in hand, Raleigh police officers met them on the sidewalk and threatened to arrest them if they passed out the food.
A city ordinance, officers said, banned food distribution in public parks.
Hugh Hollowell, an ordained Mennonite minister and the executive director of Love Wins, was outraged. The ordinance was no surprise — the city requires that groups purchase an $800 permit to use the park, and since that would require non-profits to pay $1,600 per weekend to distribute food, Love Wins never sets up in the park but on the sidewalk along its edge [my bold]. $1,600 could, after all, buy a lot of biscuits and coffee.
More than 70 people had already lined up outside the park for the free breakfast when the cops issued their threat. Soup kitchens do not operate in the county or city on the weekends, and so the Love Wins breakfast is one of the only ways the homeless can have a free, warm breakfast on the weekends. Feeding the homeless, Hollowell told TIME, is a spiritual calling.
Love Wins is not the only group in Raleigh that has been told to cease and desist in recent weeks. Church in the Woods and Human Beans Together, two groups that also serve meals downtown, report being told to stop feeding the homeless without prior notice, too.
“Rather than threatening to arrest people for sharing food with people experiencing homelessness, these folks should be applauded for dealing with the hunger that is faced daily by the homeless population nationwide,” said Jerry Jones, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. “Cities are just trying to cut off homeless people’s source of food in hopes of forcing them out of downtown areas.”How low can North
Something in the back of my mind recalls a similar incident in Florida. I'd hate to think we weren't first in oppressing and tormenting the homeless while beating everyone else over the head with Bibles here.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was right - it was in Orlando a couple of years ago and arrests were made and the 11th circuit court ruled that the city could indeed make it illegal. Sorry, I just had to see that the dishonor of Florida was upheld.
ReplyDeletePardon me, but reading further I find that just last month Mayor Bloomberg has outlawed food donations to the poor, shutting down a synagogue giving away fresh bagels to the hungry because, as CBS reports, the city couldn't assess the nutritional value and fat content. (God knows we can assess the fat content of starving people)
ReplyDeleteUSA! Number ONE!
First we starve them.
ReplyDeleteThen we deny them the right to vote.
All going according to Koch Plan in NC!
Thanks for the publicity!
Where else but in a state like North Carolina could we find its government fighting patriotically to uphold city ordinances that require hundreds of dollars from charitable groups in order to feed the hungry.
ReplyDeleteAnotole France would be proud of N.Carolina:
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."
I have to say it is becoming increasingly embarrassing to have to admit I live in North Carolina. It is equally embarrassing that my fellow North Carolinians voted in this bunch of degenerates but then again my fellow district neighbors repeatedly vote in that twit Virginia Fox.
ReplyDeleteI have to say it is becoming increasingly embarrassing to have to admit I live in North Carolina. It is equally embarrassing that my fellow North Carolinians voted in this bunch of degenerates but then again my fellow district neighbors repeatedly vote in that twit Virginia Fox.
ReplyDelete