Left Side of the Aisle #83 - Part 2

Clown Award: Being mean to the homeless

Back in 2006, the city of Sarasota, Florida, was named the “meanest city in the nation” by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless. It has since lost that particular dishonor to Los Angeles, but it may be trying to get it back.

On November 11, Sarasota police arrested a 28-year-old homeless man named Darren Kersey because he was charging his cell phone at a charging station in a public picnic shelter. He was accused of "theft of city utilities."

There is no sign posted saying that it is against the law to do what Kersey did, which is likely part of the reason the case was thrown out when it got to court. That was after Kersey spent a night in jail because he didn't have the $500 for bail. Note well, though, that it was the judge who threw the case out; the city was prepared to prosecute Kersey for "theft of city utilities" because he dared to plug his cellphone charger into a charging station at a public picnic shelter.

This at a time when those well-off enough to afford electric cars can charge them for free at vehicle charging stations located throughout Sarasota, including at City Hall.

The local chapter of the ACLU has been monitoring police efforts to remove the homeless from city parks. A representative of the group says that "so much happens on a daily basis, it’s hard to keep up with it. Every day there’s something new."

What's not new is the poor getting punished for wanting some part of what the wealthy get for free.

And, to show the true clownishness of this, according to a survey done a year ago, it costs cities three times as much on a per-day basis to keep someone in jail as it does to provide them shelter space.

So the city of Sarasota, Florida, and all the other places around the country that don't want to deal with homelessness but just make it invisible - places like Philadelphia, which last spring banned feeding people in a public place, and Clearwater, Florida, which over the summer made it a crime to sit on a public sidewalk, with a fine of $500 - all you cities more concerned with your image than the welfare of your residents, you, all of you, are ignorant, short-sighted, "suck up to the rich and screw the poor" clowns.

Sources:
http://www.care2.com/causes/homeless-man-jailed-charging-cell-phone.html
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20121112/ARTICLE/121119888/2416/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg&tc=ar
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57549315-71/homeless-man-charges-cell-phone-in-park-jailed/
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/
http://www.nlchp.org/
http://www.nlchp.org/news.cfm?id=210
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-06-10/cities-crack-down-on-homeless/55479912/1
http://www.nlchp.org/content/pubs/11.14.11%20Criminalization%20Report%20&%20Advocacy%20Manual,%20FINAL1.pdf