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Originally Posted by MaggieL
The law removes the burden of proving that operating a food kitchen in the park in a specific instance created a nuisance, just as having a speed limit law creates a presumption of reckless driving. If you're stopped for speeding, try complaining to the cop that he should instead be enforcing "laws that actually prohibit crime"; that always works.
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Let's think about this comparison for a moment.
Speeding/drunk driving laws: based on legally binding contracts that apply to
everyone that signed them (the little card in your wallet) preventing actions based on personal decisions that directly cause life threatening situations.
Don't feed the homeless in the park law: attempts to prevent
already illegal activities that are based on the decision of a person that are somehow related to the completely benign actions of another party on those of a specific social class defined strictly by income level and resident status.
Does this sound right to you? A law based on a specific class of people and the harmless actions of another? Say, graffiti is a big problem, right? The action, itself, is already illegal, so we should obviously
ban the sale of spraypaint to minors. Not all paint and not to everyone. Just spraypaint and only to people under 18. But, ah, minors don't have equal rights, so...
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Originally Posted by MaggieL
The law isn't intended to "remedy the larger issue of homelessness"...and neither is handing out sandwiches.
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And that is exactly the problem of these pointless band-aid laws that single out select races/classes/ages/genders of people and perfectly harmless actions -- They do about as much good for the community as, well, handing out packets of free food to the homeless.
They could have passed a law that prevented distributing free food in public places by anyone for public health reasons, maybe? Setup hours of operation for the park and no trespassing laws? There are plenty of other ways to accomplish the same goal.
Silly thought: it'd be funny if a disaster hit the area, causing the Red Cross to setup relief operations in the park to serve the suddenly homeless population of the city. Wonder if they would let the law slide then?