Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/10/laws-that-criminalize-sleeping.html
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This is only about criminalizing being homeless, nothing else. Imagine if this effort was used to help the homeless.
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I’m sleeping right now.
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There is never enough money for schools, but always enough money for prisons.
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out of curiosity…
If there are “no sleeping in public” laws; how exactly will this effect public parks, beaches, sleeping in your car in between soccer games for the kids, etc?
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Well, it depends. Are you white?
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Call the cops on any sleeping babies/toddlers you see!
Or just wake them up.
Actually, could a parent that encourages or allows a child to sleep in public, in a stroller for example, be charged with contributing to the delinquency
of a minor?
Oh.
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Just wait, I hear they’ve hired Freddy Kruger to do enforcement.
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interestingly enough the issue here is it is being created to combat homelessness…which is NOT in fact based on race at last check. Maybe you hadn’t noticed this but there are homeless people of all racial backgrounds.
Let’s try to stay on point and post things that contribute to the discussion as opposed to just inflaming the thread.
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That should do it. Or, maybe
ETA, actually, really needs to be
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“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.”
– Anatole France, 1894
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not to mention pulling over and napping instead of driving while drowsy
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IIRC, that was the reason they arrested the 90 lb woman who was thrown face first into a concrete bench by a cop while in police custody a few years back; she was sleeping in her car because she realized she was in no condition to drive.
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i just spent sixty days in the jailhouse
for the crime of having no dough
now here i am, back out on the street
for the crime of having nowhere to go
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cc @lava Which is sort of at the heart of my question. Often times lawmakers enact something that is their solution for an issue (rightly or wrongly) and ends up having unintended side effects.
While I am not in agreement of outlawing public sleeping as a solution to homelessness (that is a ridiculous perspective) I am also not in agreement with it because I like taking a nap in a comfy chair in between games at the soccer field or at the beach. I assume many folks are fans of this activity as well.
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A culture that fetishizes punishment.
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No, but I’d bet that in some places the homeless population is disproportionately made up of black men. Race and class do go together, always.
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True enough and I would add region makes a difference too…but I’d rather not have a discussion that becomes about race or region or some other aspect, when that isn’t what it is about…it’s about a legislative attack on homelessness. know what I mean?
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Sure, but homelessness doesn’t happen independently of those other things. I agree it’s an attack on the homeless, but at some point, who those people are and how they got there matters.
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