Photo Credit: Larry Powell/ Shutterstock.com
May 23, 2013
|
Whenever one of our cities gets a star turn as host of some
super-sparkly event, such as a national political gathering or the Super
Bowl, its first move is to tidy up — by having the police sweep
homeless people into jail, out of town, or under some rug.
But Houston’s tidy-uppers aren’t waiting for a world-class event to
rationalize going after homeless down-and-outers. They’ve preemptively
outlawed the “crime” of dumpster diving in the Texan city.
“I was just basically looking for something to eat,” he told the
Houston Chronicle.
But, unbeknownst to both this indigent tourist and the great majority
of Houston’s generally generous citizens, an ordinance dating way back
to 1942 says that “molesting garbage containers” is illegal. In March,
James Kelly, a 44-year-old Navy veteran, was passing through Houston on
his way to connect with family in California. Homeless, destitute, and
hungry, he chose to check out the dining delicacies in a trash bin near
City Hall. Spotted by police, Kelly was promptly charged with
“disturbing the contents of a garbage can in the [central] business
district.” Seriously.
Also, in 2012, city officials made it a crime for any group to hand
out food to the needy in the downtown area without first getting a
permit. It’s a cold use of legal authority to chase the homeless away
to…well, anywhere else.
Such laws are part of an effort throughout the country to criminalize
what some call “homeless behavior.” And, sure enough, when hungry, the
behavioral tendency of a homeless human is to seek a bite of
nourishment, often in such dining spots as dumpsters. The homeless
behavior that Houston has outlawed, then, is eating.
The good news is that when Houstonians learned of Kelly’s situation,
many reached out to help him get through his hard times. Now they need
to reach out to local politicos and get the city to stop cracking down
on this abuse of homeless people.
No comments:
Post a Comment