4d ago

but look on the bright side, you helped some hardworking cop meet his quota

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Easy loophole: befriend them.
Ask them for their name. Tell them yours. It's not illegal to eat pizza with a friend, and in that instance their situation otherwise is not relevant at all.
Fuck anyone who has an issue with it. Keep feeding people who have it rough, if you want.
- Easy loophole: befriend them.
  Food Not Bombs in Houston gets ticketed all the time by cops who simply do not give a shit about the law. Tens of thousands of dollars in fines get thrown out every year. It doesn't matter, because the cops keep showing up and keep handing out tickets, forcing volunteers to keep showing up in court and fighting over it.
  Fuck anyone who has an issue with it. Keep feeding people who have it rough, if you want.
  Absolutely. People love to pretend that "Sticking it too the man!" means throwing on a balaklava and brandishing a gun. The harder truth is that its about keeping our neighbors alive when the city is trying to do them in through social murder.
  But let's not pretend there's One Neat Trick to outwitting a thumb-headed trigger-happy gang of rent-a-fascists. You aren't going to argue your way out of a ticket for feeding the homeless any more than a sovereign citizen could. Cops aren't there to argue with you. They're there to put the boot on your neck.
  
  Sounds like someone needs to get in the city council, or become mayor or something, and change more of the rules about homelessness. Can't anyone with compassion for the poor run for mayor these days?
- There's a park in my town where homeless people tend to gather because it's one of the few places with benches and shade. My friends and I threw a cookout at the park and went around inviting everyone in and near the park to join us. We don't have a huge homeless population here, but there were a dozen or so homeless folks that joined. Cops showed up and harassed us for a little while, but luckily a sergeant showed up and let them know that no laws were being broken. It also helps that I used to work for the Medical Examiner's Office, so a lot of the cops know me from being on scenes together. It's not exactly a "get out of jail free" card, but they do treat me with a little more respect than the average person gets.
  I don't know about the laws in other places, but here in Florida when you hand out food, the cops use the excuse of "food safety" to shut you down or even fine and arrest you. It's all bullshit of course, but that's their legal backing. But when you're throwing a cookout, it's food that you are eating, and just happen to be sharing with guests. There's not a damn thing they can do about it.
  People should have more cookouts in public parks, invite everyone, and make sure that includes people who are struggling. Then it's just a party, and like you say, the guests situation otherwise is irrelevant.
  
  "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you. But whenever you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they are not able to repay you. For it will be paid back to you at the resurrection of the righteous."
  Luke 14:12-14, instruction from Jesus himself.
  So have your cookout and invite all the homeless, and when the cops show up show them this passage and tell them it's your solemn duty according to the Bible!
  
  here in Florida when you hand out food, the cops use the excuse of “food safety” to shut you down or even fine and arrest you
  When I went to UF the local Hare Krishna temple used to set up on the quad and serve food (for a nominal $1 a plate but you didn't have to pay). I wonder if they're still able to do that.
  
  I think it makes a difference if it's done in a designated area where you have permission, like a University or church. There's an old man in Tampa who has been arrested a bunch of times because he hands out sandwiches, but he just goes around the street doing it.

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