Now A Criminal Offense To Be Homeless In Denver - $1000 Fine And 12 Months In Jail.

[TheMastersNemesis]

The Denver police department is now enforcing a new ordinance that makes it illegal to sleep on public property. If you are caught sleeping on a sidewalk or on any public property in Denver you will be arrested. The penalty for such a violation is $1000 fine and a year in jail. At least you will get some clothes and some food though it may be porridge. Many of the homeless are veterans who fought for nothing.

I am a veteran and I feel like I wasted my time. I feel like our veterans have died for nothing. That is because our country has become a hateful bigoted and mean spirited place.

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. Yes it has. Sad K&R

[Angry Dragon]

2. Perhaps Willard could move some of them to California and let them sleep in his car elevator........

[KT2000]

2. this is sickening

today I realized that the conservatives are never satisfied until they have exacted degradation and humiliation of those they consider less than themselves. Mean spirited is right.

[Speck Tater]

2. 12 months in jail is 12 months of room and board.

It wouldn't surprise me if some street people wouldn't prefer a warm cell and a hot meal to a frozen cardboard box and cold dumpster french fries. If I was cold and homeless in Denver, personally, I'd probably prefer rooms and board in a jail.

[GoCubsGo]

29. Yep. I think they're going to regret this new regulation.

It will cost them a small fortune to house them, not to mention tying up the courts with their cases, which will also cost a ton of money.

[Speck Tater]

2. 12 months in jail is 12 months of room and board.

It wouldn't surprise me if some street people wouldn't prefer a warm cell and a hot meal to a frozen cardboard box and cold dumpster french fries. If I was cold and homeless in Denver, personally, I'd probably prefer rooms and board in a jail.

[Angry Dragon]

2. Perhaps Willard could move some of them to California and let them sleep in his car elevator........

[Speck Tater]

32. WoW! Look how many of post #2 there are! The system must have sneezed! nt

[Kalidurga]

7. Really 1,000 dollars

if the homeless had that much cash on them they wouldn't be homeless.

[Burke36]

8. Now A Criminal Offense To Be Homeless In Denver - $1000 Fine And 12 Months In Jail.

[IMG][/IMG]many thanks

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. In this era of for-profit, privately run prisons, it makes more and more (evil) sense.

[coalition_unwilling]

10. This ordiinance seems blatantly unconstitutional and, even if held to pass

constitutional muster, to be constantly prone to abuse by the police and prosecutors.

Specifically, if you are taking a lunch break on city property and napping during your lunch break, will you be arrested for violating said ordinance? I highly doubt it.

I thought the US Supreme Court had thrown out vagrancy ordinances many years ago.

[xmas74]

18. But a number of U.S. cities still have them.

I live in a smaller town in Missouri and we have one. Technically, you must have enough money in your pocket for a motel room for one night or you can be arrested for vagrancy. Does it happen? Rarely, though I have heard that a few homeless persons in the area are actually approaching officers and informing them that they are violating vagrancy laws-especially on nights of extreme weather.

[DLevine]

11. Disgusting. n/t

[raouldukelives]

12. Just looking out for peoples retirements.

Investors can count on increased profits from many sectors with the ever higher victimization of the least among us. It's that individual push for money above any convictions that helps them flourish so grandly.

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. How many Americans can not come up with one thousand dollars while not homeless?

Just how does a homeless person come by that kinda cash, to pay this fine?

And a year in jail? What is the cost to taxpayers?


Simply brilliant!

Very empathetic of Denver.

[jp11]

14. The story since OP provided no link.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_20782099?source=bb

[magical thyme]

15. I'm afraid to ask how they expect them to cough up $1,000

I can only imagine the slave labor they will extract.

At least it gives them room and board for a year. If only they could wrap their stupid heads around what they are doing...

[stlsaxman]

16. at least the Prison Industrial Complex will have plenty of tenants.

gotta put the homeless somewhere- might as well be prison.

[smirkymonkey]

21. Which will cost the city a LOT more than $1,000 - What morons!!

I wonder, after their prison term is up, do they then throw them in debtor's prison for not being able to cough up the original fine?

[Zalatix]

17. Every homeless person should move to Denver. Free room & board, and refuse to do labor in jail.

That'll BANKRUPT the entire state's prison-industrial complex overnight. To say nothing of Denver itself.

I don't get why people don't see and take advantage of these OBVIOUS easy exploits.

[lunatica]

19. I've always felt our veterans have fought and died for nothing

But that's the way us anti-war types think. It isn't the soldiers who start these wars or who end them, but they do pay a very high price whether they get killed in wars or not.

[Mairead]

20. I doubt it will hold up in court. Sleeping on public property when there

are no other options is virtually political speech, and thus protected.

It doesn't make the lawmakers any less odious, of course.

[DearAbby]

22. We will now have Work houses for the Poor.

[firehorse]

23. +1 ... my thoughts exactly

When was the last time sleeping was a crime? Why is being homeless a crime?

Turning homeless into criminals is the first step before turning them indentured slave laborers.

[SalviaBlue]

25. And I am sure they will privately owned prisons.

[Catherina]

27. My exact thought

especially after reading this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002770630

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. Well, that will show them...how incredibly stupid the local government is.

[jeff47]

26. Well, they won't be homeless anymore

Where's the "gallows humor" smiley?

[Woody Woodpecker]

28. I don't recognize the law.

Sorry - but homeless have to have a place to stay.

Civic Center Park is going through renovation, but there's a park across the street near the Capitol and it's best to send a very loud message to the idiots in the Capitol.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

30. Just think more optimisticly... $1000 for a 12mo rent payment (all utilities & food inclusive)

On a more serious note, most veterans of foreign wars fought/fight to make OTHER countries a better place - not necessarily our own country. Unless you are referring to US veterans of civil or revolutionary wars... in which case, not many are around to really have an oinion on America in 2012.

[truebrit71]

31. So all a homeless person has to do in order to get a roof over their head is...um...be homeless?

What kind of stupid-ass fuckwad moron thought this was a good idea..??

[HiPointDem]

33. more of this coming. more homeless, & more of the upper middle class supporting punitive

measures that effectively guarantee the poor are criminalized & can never return to "normal" society.

[Taitertots]

34. The only reasonable thing to do now is have massive "Sleep Ins"

The country is in the shitter, but there are still millions of us holding out for a better world. You only fought for nothing if we all give up and submit to the hateful and bigoted.

[hifiguy]

35. It would be Tienanmen Square all over again.

And do not think for a minute it would be otherwise if push came to shove.

[BlueIris]

36. Criminalizing homelessness. Awful. nt

[FangLee]

37. It's a Shame

It's an absurd to criminalize the homeless! They are feeling bad because their guilty is upon them. They're trying to cover the misery and relieve their consciousness by dragging the poor out of the streets. This way, they won't see the poverty or feel bad about the fact they have what the poor don't have but are too selfish to help them!!!