Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Miami Considers Ban On Feeding the Homeless Without Training

Posted by samzenpus on from the watch-your-fingers dept.

The Miami City Commission will consider a proposal next month that would make it illegal for "unauthorized people and groups" to feed the homeless. They say the ordinance will cut down on litter and ensure the safety of the food that the homeless eat. Anyone without formal training who is caught giving food away would first receive a warning and then fines up to $300 for subsequent food offerings. Without laws like this the homeless might start to associate people with food, and the only thing more inconvenient than having to look at a homeless person in the morning is having to run away from cannibals.

3 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Uh... by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wouldn't a ban on giving the homeless money for alcohol and drugs do a lot more to protect their health? Fining someone for buying a homeless person a burger sounds like a real dick move.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Uh... by sjames · · Score: 2, Funny

      Exactly, because this is the land of opportunity, so all those poor people are just leeches who refuse to go get their $150,000/year job so they can make us all look bad. Naturally, if we make poverty illegal, it will go away, just like recreational drugs! Mission accomplished!

      Were I a resident there, I would suggest to the homeless that they go follow a cop around going 'oink'. Repeat as needed until they're arrested or given food. If they're arrested, they will get fed by the jail. Repeat as necessary. That should give the 'enlightened' community the choice between feeding the homeless or having their cops running from them.

  2. Ah, the idiocy of the well meaning... by asdf7890 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A couple of the food establishments around here used to give their waste food (pre-made snadwiches that were "on date" or always sold as "made today" being the main constituan, though fruit and veg was involved too) to a local hospice at the end of the day - an arragenment the hospice and the people (the truely homeless and those escaping from bad homes) it cared for. The council put a stop to it on health and safety grounds, lord knows why. Now the same food goes into bins that the homeless raid - how much more healthy and safe is that?!