Tampa Passes New Law To Toss Homeless People In Jail For Sleeping In Public

[Stuart G]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/22/2335261/tampa-criminalize-homelessness/

If homeless people in Tampa want to avoid jail, they’d better find a place to store their things and a bed to sleep in.

That’s because last week, the Tampa City Council passed a new ordinance, Item #60, allowing police officers to arrest someone they see sleeping in public or “storing personal property in public.” The vote was 4-3.

Advocates are outraged over this new law criminalizing homelessness. Holding signs reading “Sleeping Is Not A Crime” and “Homelessness Is Not A Choice,” many demonstrated outside the Council and testified against the measure, to little avail. A number of the protesters were elementary school children who handed out flyers and asked those passing by, “Where are they supposed to go?”
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Now, if you read this article you will see there are few homeless shelters and the ones they have charge to spend the night..
So, this is what Florida has come to.?

[2Design]

1. means they will have food and shelter - yes the way we treat homeless is horrid

[Stuart G]

2. Oh.....the idea is just to put them in Jail....?.....Jail?....Jail????nt

[djean111]

4. Now that I think about, I bet the jails get money from the state for housing them.

IMO, ALEC is enabling shit like this all over the country, and I don't think demonizing a particular state will affect anything at all.

Okay, I am gonna boycott Wall Street. So there!

[djean111]

3. If you care to visit nationalhomeless.org, it seems the homeless meanies are all over the country.

I think Bloomberg just made it illegal to FEED them. In New York City.

A lot of the homeless here have come down from northern states where they lost their jobs and could not find food or shelter from the cold.
But hey! Boycott Florida!! Because having less money will certainly help! Don't support those dummy Floridians who are protesting!

I worked in Japan quite a bit, in the '90s. In the Kawasaki train station, homeless people were allowed to store their belongings in a safe place all day, and at night, were given spaces to sleep. On the floor, looked like many had quilts to lie on, but out of the weather. Very orderly.

[kimrasmussen]

6. lol america rules -.-

Why doesn't government start becoming humane and build more homeless shelters for no profit, instead of mixing real criminals with innocent people, who may have a bad background. Yes, some homeless people are homeless because they're lazy, but most of them are better than what we portray them as. They just need a little boost. We already spend billions and billions on war, why not use a bit of our money to help others. If we're not even gonna bother doing that, we might as well change our nations name-- "United" States? yeah okay...

DOROTHEA DIX REFORM MOVEMENT BITCHESSSSSS

[TalkingDog]

8. Hey, welcome to DU

Not trying to harsh your rather enthusiastic buzz, but a couple of points:

The percentage of homeless people who are "homeless because they're lazy" is nil. I know people who work with the homeless and I don't think any of them ever mentioned that their homelessness was due to laziness. Many other causes, but laziness was not among them.

So unless you've got statistics to back that assertion up, I'd reconsider that line.

And there are pearl-clutchers on this site who take exception to sexist terms like "BITCHESSSSSS". Be forewarned that this kind of language can get your post hidden and if the behavior persists, you may get banned.

Just a couple of friendly hints. And again, Welcome to DU!

[Kali]

9. good reply

[Brigid]

7. Hello, Tampa?

The nineteenth century called. It wants its worst ideas back.