Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor? Op-Ed BARBARA EHRENREICH

Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?

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.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09ehrenreich.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

It IS a crime to kidnap and eat people.


Perhaps the laws having to deal with vagrancy and loitering should be looked at, but "being poor" is not a "crime", and to bill it as such is pure sensationalism.

..because your 89 year old mother got cancer and you exhausted your bank account....

As I said, I'm not making light of the plight of the homeless, but it's dishonest to suggest that it's illegal to be poor.

This is a serious enough issue. We don't have to resort to sensationalism.

Believe me, you can be arrested for doing nothing but taking up space and making the area look bad.

There are actual statutes that are violated.

Again, these statutes may bear review, but nobody has ever been arrested for "being poor".

I see nothing dishonest in her piece. Sensational, yes, but it takes a lot to get people to pay attention to the misery of the poor. I can forgive some sensationalism on that topic.

:dem:

-Laelth

"A Modest Proposal"

when we see or read such blatant but not politically correct truths...

my nephew is in jail for that reason right now.

property in almost every state I believe.

If you don't have friends or family willing to take you in you are vulnerable to being arrested.


http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/criminalization.html

This is a cause close to my heart, and it isn't sensationalized enough imo.

:hi:

forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread”

- Anatole France

but I've come to learn another thing... it's very expensive to be poor.

The poor pay TONS more for everything they do... starting with cashing any checks (without a bank account, it's very expensive)... then paying for temporary shelter that is not "public"... transportation, hah! Everything you take for granted as being readily available and relatively cheap... for the poor, it's not.

Shelter came first. I'd had a brief taste of homelessness and I'd have starved before I'd lose shelter. There was always ten bucks in a checking account so I could cash checks. When the fees got it under ten bucks, I replenished it. I taught myself how to cook and sew. My clothing was shabby as hell, but it was clean and mended. My diet was dull as dishwater, but I ate the right things and avoided being run down and sick.

I still despise turnips, but I learned how to get them down.

But yes, everything you do is much more difficult. Cheap flats are never near supermarkets, meaning you need to take long public transit rides to and then back with heavy bags because you sure as hell can't afford it every week. Laundry meant doing it in the sink until it came time for sheets and towels, then you did that one expensive load in the laundromat.

The trips to the convenience store for between times bread or milk were a lot more expensive than those things were at the supermarket but cheaper in terms of time when you were overscheduled.

Poverty sucks more than you can ever imagine. Nothing makes my blood boil hotter than hearing some fucking smug yuppie intone that poor people choose to be poor.

Nobody would choose to struggle and live with that kind of daily humiliation.

I wish we could recommend individual posts within a thread. I would definitely recommend your post.