Is It Now A Crime To Be Poor?

Lorax · August-09-09, 12:11 PM

I really found this Op Ed illuminating on how society views the implicit "crime" of being poor in America.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/op...html?th&emc=th

The behind the scenes of local governments on how to handle this is particularly disturbing, and speaks to a culture caught up in a cycle of poverty, crime, or alleged crimes, and how it plays into the system of our "prison economy" which is documented here and moreso elsewhere.

ccbatson · August-09-09, 08:05 PM

Being poor isn't a crime, the other specified actions [[loitering, etc) may be.

**elganned** · August-09-09, 09:25 PM

Bats is correct. It is not a crime to be poor. However, sometimes the inevitable actions that proceed from being poor are crimes--sleeping in the street, for example.

Their real crime isn't being poor, you see, it's annoying the rich people who don't want to bother with them.

**reddog289** · August-10-09, 12:24 AM

I will drive the extra mile or so to avoid going to a Kroger right by my house. Seems like a magnet for cars with empty fuel tanks. And I must look like Donald Trump.If being poor was a crime I might be headed to DEHOCO

**Gannon** · August-10-09, 08:39 AM

Heh, so it isn't a crime to BE poor, but acting like you are is an anathema to well-heeled society!

They are the poor fuckers...we've got a heel or two for them.

Wow, I was merely trying to turn language around on them, describing how sorry well-to-do folks are to have this worldview...when I realized that is a pun.

They ARE the poor fuckers...and boy, do the poor get fucked.

**Omaha** · August-10-09, 01:39 PM

Hey, the statue that represents Justice is blindfolded. She doesn't tip the scales one way or another. She applies the laws evenhandedly. And uses her mighty sword to enforce the law.

There was some concern that she doesn't wear enough clothes, but the Attorney General who brought that subject up is no longer serving.

Now with regard to the laws...some may favor one class of people over another. But as long as the rich and well-born are favored, who cares?

â€œThe law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.â€ Anatole France, Nobel Prize winner in literature, 1894

**vetalalumni** · August-10-09, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by Omaha

Hey, the statue that represents Justice is blindfolded. She doesn't tip the scales one way or another. She applies the laws evenhandedly. And uses her mighty sword to enforce the law.

There was some concern that she doesn't wear enough clothes, but the Attorney General who brought that subject up is no longer serving.

Now with regard to the laws...some may favor one class of people over another. But as long as the rich and well-born are favored, who cares?

â€œThe law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.â€ Anatole France, Nobel Prize winner in literature, 1894

Blind Implementation [[interpretation, application etc...) of justice is key. Justice is inanimate. Metaphorical terms and phrases [[my favorite is the mysterious invisible hand - lol) are used in an attempt to qualify the complexity. The blind justice model is inherently myopic, and yet the justice concept is practical. Our human discretion can see what The Lady cannot. Let us be polite and helpful to her, but not blindly worship her [[which would be the blind following the blind). Have no fear.

Channeling Peggy Noonan

Some of life has to be mysterious. --- Peggy Noonan, ABC News, This Week With George Stephanopoulos, 4/20/09

ccbatson · August-10-09, 04:59 PM

Sleeping in the streets is illegal by whose decree? Who is the villain?

The proper answer is the Libertarian one. Don't trespass on private property, if it is unowned, or public property, take it up with government and how they are too involved in what should be either private property or open land.

**vetalalumni** · August-12-09, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by Omaha

There was some concern that she doesn't wear enough clothes...

Ahhh, her adornment, whether for protection or modesty. Add gloves, ear muffs, muzzle, and perfume?

Lorax · August-12-09, 10:42 AM

Ashcroft, when he went around placing fig leaves over the genitalia of marble statuary shows the freaked-out religious nature of so many plastic Christians.

I know I won't live long enough to see the medieval mindset vanish from our earth, but I can always hope.

ccbatson · August-14-09, 05:08 PM

Is it religious oppression that makes some people want not to see representations of nakedness? Or is it a matter of taste and discretion...the belief that there is a proper time and place for some things and, conversely, an improper time and place?