Food Not Bombs, a volunteer group that feeds the homeless, was issued tickets by Houston police for distributing meals outside the Central Library in violation of a city ordinance. At the first trial for one of the volunteers, Phillip Picone, the jury found him not guilty. The city claims the ordinance is meant to connect homeless people with social services, while Food Not Bombs argues it violates their freedoms and rights. During the trial, the police officer testified that he issued the ticket but that he also likes feeding the homeless. In his closing argument, Picone’s lawyer argued there was reasonable doubt since the group had been feeding people there for years with the city’s permission. The jury unanimously found Picone not guilty, which his lawyer saw as confirmation of his faith in doing good for the poor.
Typical red states. The cruelty is the point.
Here in New York City folks were distributing free bagels to the homeless. Out of concern for the food safety aspect of it all, our government helpfully disrupted the work and dumped bleach over the bagels to protect the needy from potentially unsafe food.
When the authorities finished their good work, the hungry folks proceeded to eat bleach-tainted bagels.
Governments don’t need to be red to do awfully stupid awful things.
I agree with you, but that line of thought doesn’t apply here. Houston is famously one of the big three blue bastions in Texas, arguably the bluest, and this is a city ordinance. As a Texan, I’d expect this ordinance literally anywhere except Houston, honestly (and possibly Austin).
I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but Houston’s approach to homelessness is considered by some to be one of the most successful in the nation, and one of the components as I understand is to coordinate care for the homeless through a central agency, which then refers individuals to other programs and agencies. The idea is that it reduces duplication of effort. I’m not sure if this ordinance is related, though.
I mean, in that case, it seems to me that the right move is to add Food Not Bombs to the network and allow the city to refer people to them. This is a group of people who clearly care about their community, and they should be given every tool to help them succeed.
Yeah absolutely. Please don’t take from my earlier comment that I agree that this group should have been ticketed.
Good to see common sense get a win for a change. Kind of scary that it had to go so far though.
why live in texas if you can be human?
Low taxes
No income tax but more overall taxes than California.
I don’t think so. Maybe for very low income people.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy thinks so. They rate Texas as the second most unfair taxation policy in the country, with the lowest 20% of incomes paying 13% of their income in taxes, over two percentage points higher than in California.
In fact the only ones who do better in Texas are – to the surprise of literally no one – the top 1%.
The only source I could find that tried to argue differently was The Tax Foundation, which is primarily founded by corporate interests including the Koch Brothers and has a history of advocating for right-libertarian economic policies.
Are they tho… Just because there is no income tax doesn’t mean they don’t fleece you else where lol
Ya my property taxes suck. Time will tell, i am soon to move states to one with an income tax - but it’s supposed to be less taxed in total.
I respect the appreciation of the nuance. People need to start doing holistic calculations instead of just going off propaganda.
These things are too personal for over generalized political points to work. I am sure for some Texas is lower tax state tho, just likely have to be upper income brackets with cheap property for that scenario to pay out.
Low income taxes usually benefit the upper middle class, and often mean higher sales taxes, which incrementally penalize lower income citizens. So it’s perfect for red states.
My brother lives in Texas and his property taxes are astronomical. I think that’s better than higher sales taxes since it’ll tend to favor those who are wealthy enough to own land and be higher for those with more property/properties, but it still shocked me. I live in Washington, though, we get the shit taxed out of us and in pretty regressive ways too, like high sales and gas taxes that disproportionately impact the poor.
Yeah low taxes and low intelligence too, not to mention high bigotry and cowardice (uvalde?)
Cop ticketing him even though he “likes feeding the homeless” is exactly why “ACAB”. It doesn’t matter how good a person you are, as a cop if you do your job perfectly and follow the rules of the system, you’re still harming people.
Yep. “I actually think what you’re doing is morally right, but my job forces me to punish you financially and legally for doing it” is the sort of thing that means you need a new job.
Absolutely fucking ridiculous that these folks were taken to court for feeding their fellow man. Like sorry to bee unkind for a sec, but what the actual goddamn shit, fuck the police
They were stopped and their time and money wasted. Cops got what they wanted. I have no doubt they’ll continue as such
“You can beat the rap, but you can’t beat the ride.”
So how does not getting food connect the people with social services?
damn wtf
