What the heck!?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

FEMA camp? I hear they have the guillotines installed and ready to use.

Only in the French speaking quarter.

[Cybermat47]

Everytime I see a homeless person, I cry a bit inside. You think of poverty as something that happens in other places, but it's at the very heart of countries like Australia and the US.

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

Everytime I see a homeless person, I cry a bit inside. You think of poverty as something that happens in other places, but it's at the very heart of countries like Australia and the US.

It's all just Darwinism in action.
Survival of the fittest.
Granted it is a sad commentary when the fittest turn a blind eye but still proclaim in a loud voice to be Christians who love their less fortunate brothers and sisters.

Every day will be Sunday by and by but those dirty mongrels who poop in our park will not be invited to Sunday dinner any time soon.

[Betonov]

We learned to tell apart genuine hobos and drug addicts/drunks.
A genuine hobo is a must in every city. Sounds mean of me, I know. I'd rather see everyone had a home and a job.
But still, they ad flavor to a city, a part of it's heartbeat. And they're usually unintrusive. There was one in Ljubljana when I studied there. For a euro you'd find out the weather, where the cops are, what's going on in the town...
He didn't beg, he sold his services as a mobile news outlet.

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Betonov

We learned to tell apart genuine hobos and drug addicts/drunks.
A genuine hobo is a must in every city. Sounds mean of me, I know. I'd rather see everyone had a home and a job.
But still, they ad flavor to a city, a part of it's heartbeat. And they're usually unintrusive. There was one in Ljubljana when I studied there. For a euro you'd find out the weather, where the cops are, what's going on in the town...
He didn't beg, he sold his services as a mobile news outlet.

It's ok if they provide a service rather than standing around with the jingling cup demanding alms.
Some here brave traffic to wash your windshield for you.

[Platapus]

There is a right way and a wrong way to help the homeless. The wrong way is to violate an ordinance. I am sure there were multiple legal ways this couple could have helped the homeless. But for some reason they choose not to do it and instead decided to violate and continue to violate a law.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. However good intentions does not trump laws.

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Platapus

There is a right way and a wrong way to help the homeless. The wrong way is to violate an ordinance. I am sure there were multiple legal ways this couple could have helped the homeless. But for some reason they choose not to do it and instead decided to violate and continue to violate a law.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. However good intentions does not trump laws.

Laws are only for providing a judicial recourse for meting out a punishment when the law is broken or ignored. I'm sure there are plenty of people who hold barbecues in the park in question and they probably share the food with friends and relatives and maybe even the odd stranger. Should they be hammered by the long arm of the law too? Likely not as long as uncle Barney doesn't take a dump in the bushes.
If the homeless have no right to enjoy the park in their own way (getting a free meal from a generous couple of retired residents) then the law becomes hypocritical. Kind of like your signature wouldn't you agree? The only people who should be infracted in this instance is the ones who decided to defecate in a public place which seems to be the crux of the matter. So a couple of indigents chose to ruin it for their peers and the city decided to punish all of them by demanding a cease and desist order against the two benefactors in order to run all the hobos out at once.
Not exactly the Christian attitude by any stretch of the imagination. Just more asphalt for hell's thoroughfare.

[Sailor Steve]

I've been homeless. Here in Utah there are Rescue Missions, Homeless Shelters and free food kitchens in different places. There is a big breakfast served under a freeway onramp every Sunday, and a group who serves food in a local park on Tuesdays. As far as I know both have paid permits and are legal. Salt Lake has a lot of services.

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I've been homeless. Here in Utah there are Rescue Missions, Homeless Shelters and free food kitchens in different places. There is a big breakfast served under a freeway onramp every Sunday, and a group who serves food in a local park on Tuesdays. As far as I know both have paid permits and are legal. Salt Lake has a lot of services.

All legal beagle as long as they "pay" for a permit to provide charity? Oy vey! Methinks Caeser doth protest too much to get what is his.
Like I said before, "you're only as free as your wallet will allow."
I'm so sorry that you found yourself homeless Steve and I'm happy that your situation has improved.
I don't know the circumstances that landed you in that situation so I won't judge.
It's sad that there are so many, with so much that erroneously think they are qualified to judge those who are less fortunate. I think that today if Jesus held another sermon on the mount and fed the masses who showed up to listen, they would all get arrested for an illegal assembly and possibly get their heads thumped in the process.
The Chitwood city council would have been better off if they had spent those millions of taxpayer dollars assisting their homeless instead of wasting it on a park with selective usage rules. Maybe the homeless would be accepted there, as long as they're on a leash?