Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?- “They arrested a homeless man in a shelter for being homeless.”

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?

By BARBARA EHRENREICH
Published: August 8, 2009

IT’S too bad so many people are falling into poverty at a time when it’s almost illegal to be poor. You won’t be arrested for shopping in a Dollar Store, but if you are truly, deeply, in-the-streets poor, you’re well advised not to engage in any of the biological necessities of life — like sitting, sleeping, lying down or loitering. City officials boast that there is nothing discriminatory about the ordinances that afflict the destitute, most of which go back to the dawn of gentrification in the ’80s and ’90s. “If you’re lying on a sidewalk, whether you’re homeless or a millionaire, you’re in violation of the ordinance,” a city attorney in St. Petersburg, Fla., said in June, echoing Anatole France’s immortal observation that “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.”


In defiance of all reason and compassion, the criminalization of poverty has actually been intensifying as the recession generates ever more poverty. So concludes a new study from the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, which found that the number of ordinances against the publicly poor has been rising since 2006, along with ticketing and arrests for more “neutral” infractions like jaywalking, littering or carrying an open container of alcohol.

...

That could be me before the blow-drying and eyeliner, and it’s definitely Al Szekely at any time of day. A grizzled 62-year-old, he inhabits a wheelchair and is often found on G Street in Washington — the city that is ultimately responsible for the bullet he took in the spine in Fu Bai, Vietnam, in 1972. He had been enjoying the luxury of an indoor bed until last December, when the police swept through the shelter in the middle of the night looking for men with outstanding warrants.

It turned out that Mr. Szekely, who is an ordained minister and does not drink, do drugs or curse in front of ladies, did indeed have a warrant — for not appearing in court to face a charge of “criminal trespassing” (for sleeping on a sidewalk in a Washington suburb). So he was dragged out of the shelter and put in jail. “Can you imagine?” asked Eric Sheptock, the homeless advocate (himself a shelter resident) who introduced me to Mr. Szekely. “They arrested a homeless man in a shelter for being homeless.”

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09ehrenreich.html

[WCGreen]

1. I just finished reading that piece myself...

It's heartbreaking.

[deaniac21]

2. This is what bush did to America.

[AuntPatsy]

4. This is what the GOP had planned for America and their plan is working

out perfectly...I am sure they are patting themselves on the back as they hurry their steps on the way to another vacation in their private airplanes....all is well....we have become our southern neighbor...

[Orwellian_Ghost]

8. Under Clinton, poverty rates failed to decline, income inequality reached new heights

As to the Polanyi problem, the Clinton years were notable for the passage of the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act, a major blow to social solidarity, ending a core federal protection of the poor harking back to the New Deal, and driving large numbers into the low-wage labor market. Under Clinton, poverty rates failed to decline despite the prosperity, worker insecurity remained high, and income inequality reached new heights. The prison population soared, another manifestation of a crumbling social structure, with poor people treated ruthlessly (and with conspicuous racist bias). At the same time the Clinton team regularly bailed out investors, as in the Mexican and East Asian financial crises in 1994-1995 and 1997-1998, and the crash of the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund in 1998. With the small "peace dividend" and budget surplus that emerged in the late 1990s, Clinton used the money to reduce the national debt rather than spend it for pressing educational, infrastructure, welfare state, or other human needs--so much for the promise to "put people first."

...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1132/is_11_55/ai_n6137109/pg_2/

[Zynx]

17. I'm no huge defender of Clinton, but poverty rates did decline by several percentage points.

We can argue all we want about how they are calculated, but that is a simple fact.

[rve300]

12. When was th last time the GOP had any control of DC city council? NT

[Orwellian_Ghost]

5. Hate to break it to you

but this ain't just a BushCo thing. Inequality is a bipartisan thing. The thought that such problems are to considered to have their roots in the criminal Bush administration actually lessens the probability that the problem can be examined in whole and understood politically or historically.

[bobbolink]

6. So what are you going to do about it now?

[gateley]

10. I think it began with Reagan and the ensuing R's carried the torch. nt

[Indenturedebtor]

13. Please - this is what the vicious spiteful half of Murka did to America

Bush didn't do this. We've dehumanized the poor so that we don't have to face how vulnerable we are to the whims of our Corporate Overlords.

[bobbolink]

3. And where is the "progressive" outrage?

Does anyone see this as important?

Will this be discussed on Air America? On Rachel? On Keith?

Will there be a mass campaign to change these draconian laws?


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:shrug:

[AuntPatsy]

7. Not really, so many outrages against American citizens as well

as those in other countries..and honestly...so little time..after all...we must stick to the script....but thank God for a few bright spots of caring...Send it to Rachel..

[bobbolink]

21. Yes, TOO LITTLE TIME for homeless people, but so much outrage for gays, the environment,

and a host of other causes too numerous to mention.

I'm sick to death of the excuses.

Just be honest, say you don't give a damn, and be done with it.

[slampoet]

9. It has been a crime to be poor in MANY places since the Great Depression.

Not a crime to be homeless but a crime to not have money in your pocket.


It is called a Vagrancy law and they are anywhere and everywhere.


I had a friend spend a week in jail because he didn't have more than $3 to his name and got caught in the wrong county walking along a road.

[NoSheep]

11. I think it has been a crime to be poor all my life.

[Kievan Rus]

14. Thanks a lot, Ronnie and Dubya

Hands down, the two worst Presidents in American history.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

16. See post 8

[bobbolink]

22. Stop with the short-sightedness.... IT'S DEMS TOO!

Tell me.... what the hell is OBAMA doing to reduce homelessness?

Hmmmmmmm?

What are YOUR congresscritters doing?

What have you demanded they do?

What are YOU doing to reduce homelessness.

Your blaming is CHEAP.

[Ocracoker16]

23. thanks for reminding us that we need to point the finger at ourselves rather than some politician

I have read all the posts so far and I am not convinced that anyone is expressing really genuine concern. Ofcourse, certain politicians have had a role in getting us where we are today. However, I think sometimes we find blaming these politicians to be a convenient way of putting aside the issue and deciding that it is someone else's problem. I think that when we do that we only end up reinforcing the idea that this is the status quo and is going to be how it is. We may not have been the ones who made decisions that created this mess, but by our silence and our failure to act we have allowed these problems to continue in our society. We can't fix these problems overnight, but should we allow that to make us decide that there is no use in trying to bring about change. Nobody needs to be the ultimate hero for the cause and do everything. We need to be vocal with our leaders. We have to tell them that we will not allow them to just maintain the status quo.

[abumbyanyothername]

15. A friend of mine

(trying to get it together in a recovery program) is a name plaintiff in an ACLU suit against the City of Santa Monica that charges that essentially the city is rousting out the homeless (doh -- it's the annual tourist season sweep) and trying to force them into neighboring communities.

He was arrested for sleeping in a doorway. He was quite concerned about the whole deal because he's got two strikes already. Not that this would be a third strike, but he doesn't always react calmly to being arrested.

[G_j]

18. K&R

[Odin2005]

19. K&R

[TexasObserver]

20. Recommend

[Cleita]

24. It seems like it has been in the works and more laws are being passed that

will make things worse. I feel it's beating up on the victim. Hopefully, the police and courts won't enforce those laws because they are unjust or at least some activist lawyers will take on the cases to shine a light on the injustice of such inhumane treatment. Have we gone back to the days of throwing a hungry person into jail and executing him because he stole a loaf of bread?