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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFrench homeless forced to wear 'yellow triangles'
http://www.thelocal.fr/20141204/french-city-issues-yellow-triangles-to-identify-homelessHuman rights groups and government ministers have slammed the yellow triangle cards, comparing them to the Nazi-era Star of David that was sown onto Jewish peoples clothes during the Holocaust....
Being identified by either a star or a triangle is horrific, he said.
French human rights group La Ligue des droits de lHomme said it was troubled by the resemblance of this card and the yellow star that the Jews had to wear during World War II.President François Hollandes government in Paris has also reacted sharply to the initiative.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)Somebody needs a meeting behind the woodshed. Good Lord.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)brooklynite
(94,683 posts)...I see a lot of people complaining about wearing it, but as far as I can see it's a (tastelessly designed) ID card.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)I wouldn't. Crazy.
nichomachus
(12,754 posts)If it's designed to save lives, as it's proponents insist, then why only homeless people? Make everyone wear one. Or no one.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)B2G
(9,766 posts)11 Bravo
(23,926 posts)(Elementary school teacher checking in.)
baldguy
(36,649 posts)truedelphi
(32,324 posts)The earlier tale.
And as long as the same group doesn't get affected the second time around, so what, right?
Derek V
(532 posts)"Hey! Put down that dead rat! I saw it first and I'm starving!"
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)The city is issuing homeless people with medical ID that they can carry to make it easier to help them in an emergency.
It is *not* forcing them to wear them in public, although it's hard to figure that out from the article.
What isn't wholly clear is whether people are being forced to carry them - if they are then yes, that's a violation of their rights.
But it's embarrassingly obvious that someone has seen the opportunity for a parallels-with-Nazism scandal here and leaped at it unscrupulously.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)Just that in a formerly occupied country, if you look right, it looks a lot like this
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)And yes, I think that "calm down, nothing to see here" is pretty much the correct response, modulo the milder concern I already voiced.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)TexasMommaWithAHat
(3,212 posts)If a person is homeless and carries no ID, who is around to give medical history when he is unconscious?
I think the issuance of these cards is a great idea, as long as they don't have to wear them conspicuously on their body. Frankly, I don't think anyone should even be forced to carry them, but I know many European nations have different ideas about ID requirements.
turbinetree
(24,710 posts)Ain't this nice we have the reincarnation of there Vichey government and the death triangle but in a different format, just like the Vichey Government in 1941-1944.
Lets march some of these ner do wells down to the Normandy coast and ask them if they remember at what price it took to release them from death squads murdering innocents based on culture and religion
irisblue
(33,018 posts)and not that far back in time
Glassunion
(10,201 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)"{The reaction} not only questions the necessity of a scheme for homeless people but also the commitment of the city, the SAMU and volunteers to come to the aid of those who need it the most.
Mery rejected the idea that the cards need to be worn visibly and say they "allow above all firefighters and care workers to get access to essential information in order to identify, give efficient help and often to save the lives of people lacking a social safety net.
This is Ebola scare bullshit..........
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)packman
(16,296 posts)T-shirts with that symbol on them and pass them out. I was going to give the example of the King of Denmark in WWII wearing a yellow star when the Nazis took control of their country, but alas that legend is not true.
http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/yellowstars.asp
tclambert
(11,087 posts)Please tell me you knew that.
genwah
(574 posts)Medicine? So if ANYONE is hit by a car, they're taken to a hospital and treated? I get that this is a really, really offensively designed card, and I don't get why it's just for the homeless. Doesn't everyone in France, just by being French, have a medical record somewhere? Okay, you're homeless, maybe you move around in France, don't have a regular doctor or whatever.
And maybe it's me being a dumb American, but aren't we trying to do this with medical records that follow you around? We have pilot programs testing stuff I think...I would love to have a card with a magnetic strip on it that an EMT could swipe into a reader that lists my allergies, drug and otherwise, medical conditions like diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, etc. It's bad enough that people have to BUY medical alert bracelets, and the people who can't afford them are screwed.
Stigma classing people who are homeless? Fine, issue a readable card; name, picture and magnetic swipe for everyone so the first responder won't go in blind asking questions of people who may not know the answers. And the only reason you need a name in the swipe is so that you can ask the person questions if they're conscious.
I was an Emergency Response Team member in a lab of a major petrochemical corporation. If one of our people made a mistake, we could have required the evacuation of 25k+ people depending on the direction of the wind. This was back in the '80s, and one of the things I never forgot was how little people who work around you know about your co-worker's health issues. The subject came up when we were being trained, and not knowing the difference between an allergic reaction and chemical poisoning was literally, "make the best judgement call you can". Medical privacy laws said we couldn't call HR and ask if this could be an allergy, or maybe something got out past the fume hoods, or really, really worse.
Take off the damn triangle, put in a readable stripe and bring on the cards, not just in France but here. Make it a part of the ACA that everyone carry on their person a card that EMTs can read if, FSM forbid, you fall over in the street. No triangles, just a big "Hey! EMT! Look over here!.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)47of74
(18,470 posts)...to the geniuses that came up with this.
That is all.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)how about housing and a regular id