Posted on Sep 22, 2016
Gulf Coast town repeals ordinance criminalizing the poor after SPLC action
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Have you seen local city and county ordinances designed to target and generate revenue off of people who can not pay their bills?
Gulf Coast town repeals ordinance criminalizing the poor after SPLC action
Posted from splcenter.org
Poverty
Law
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
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It worked for the longest in Ferg. Ticket those who cannot pay, lock up those who cannot pay, and charge them more money on top of what they already owe. Yup makes total sense.r
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SSG (Join to see)
It shouldn't surprise anyone that folks are angry and willing to burn everything to the ground after a few decades of being treated that way.
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Fact of life: rich people run the system to bleed the poor people. The justice system is no exception. For the same crimes, rich people pay less and are treated nicer. Poor people are harassed, bled dry, and all at the point of a gun.
It's really expensive to be poor. Now that I have a little money, I notice that my interest rates are less, businesses give me good deals, even my taxes are less (percentage wise, in the aggregate). It's much cheaper to live when you're rich.
When you put a few billion people together on a planet, I'm pretty sure that this must always happen, by the nature of the beast. Some win, some lose. And the winners, by and large, will continue to support the system that allowed them to win. It's a law of nature. It's not just in our DNA, it's a rule of the game (like gravity) that cannot be changed for any significant length of time.
Sadly, most folks will be able to gather only enough to get by, and that is all. I'm pretty sure it's been that way since before humans appeared.
And this "rich get richer--poor have babies" is entrenched in most people's minds as the Right Way to be. If I say, "you know what, other countries have more fair systems, other countries have tighter regulation on their capitalists, other countries are able to support their lowest classes instead of taking advantage of them," then many of RP's readers would call me a communist or sick in the head, or worse.
It's really expensive to be poor. Now that I have a little money, I notice that my interest rates are less, businesses give me good deals, even my taxes are less (percentage wise, in the aggregate). It's much cheaper to live when you're rich.
When you put a few billion people together on a planet, I'm pretty sure that this must always happen, by the nature of the beast. Some win, some lose. And the winners, by and large, will continue to support the system that allowed them to win. It's a law of nature. It's not just in our DNA, it's a rule of the game (like gravity) that cannot be changed for any significant length of time.
Sadly, most folks will be able to gather only enough to get by, and that is all. I'm pretty sure it's been that way since before humans appeared.
And this "rich get richer--poor have babies" is entrenched in most people's minds as the Right Way to be. If I say, "you know what, other countries have more fair systems, other countries have tighter regulation on their capitalists, other countries are able to support their lowest classes instead of taking advantage of them," then many of RP's readers would call me a communist or sick in the head, or worse.
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SSG (Join to see)
The irony is that many of those countries that have fairer systems, tighter regulation on their capitalists, support their lowest classes instead of taking advantage of them, were rebuilt by the US after the end of WW2. Perhaps the greatest generation still has some lessons to teach us, lessons passed on to us via Western Europe.
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Capt Michael Greene
SSG (Join to see) - Agreed. Europe got to rebuild from scratch using Marshal Plan dollars. The Greatest Generation gave us a lot of things, not all of them good.
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SSG (Join to see)
Where are communities and community leaders on this? How do city and county governments get away with this sort of thing? Communities shouldn't need the SPLC to make a fuss, they should run those politicians out of town on their own.
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CPT Pedro Meza
SSG (Join to see) - Unfortunately most Americans don't care, I still recall that prior to 911, homeless veterans that slept in parks and on the streets of down town Los Angeles were constantly harassed by cops and business owners to make them move. In the early 70's a lot of Vietnam vets end up around Santa Monica Beach but once the beach became a tourist mecca the vets were driven away. At least something good came out of 911, better respect for homeless vets.
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