Read more about it here
Some people, for some reason, consider their day wasted if they don’t make at least one person they perceive as lower on the totem pole than them suffer. And they consider themselves good guys, helpful guys and pillars of their communities. Which is too fucking sad and infuriating to put into words…
I am a doorman for a highrise full of wealthy people. Pretty regularly someone reports a “suspicious” person near the bus stop. Every single time it is just a black person waiting for a bus. No matter how polite and proper they may seem, the wealthy are all scum.
I watched a documentation about police (EU) some months ago. They were called because supposedly there were “foreigners” causing trouble. They arrived and tried to figure out what the deal was but they were very confused. So the “troublemakers” were friendly and cooperative and the old man who called the police wanted the others gone. Police quickly realized who the actual problem was but the guy was having none of it. He even escalated and was even taken into custody if I recall correctly.
Not sure where the hell I was going with this story but your story reminded me of it. Something about suspicion I guess?
I’ve leaned away from being polite using the magic words and rituals of interaction they teach us in elementary school. And think about how upset it makes older generations when the young say things like “no problem.” We do things for others because we want to, and when they show appreciation we let then know we did it out of a shared sense of humanity. And the older folks hate that. They prefer “you’re welcome” because
- That’s what they grew up with as the ritual
- The implied dynamic is “you are welcome to my help” which is very different from “I was happy to help” or “it was the least I could do” or “I did it out of a sense of shared humanity.” They want to have their entitlement to our help affirmed.
So yeah. Don’t be polite for the sake of being polite. Don’t be rude for the sake of being rude. Be kind for the sake of a shared human experience. And tell people who don’t participate in a revolution of empathy they can fuck right off
Well see here’s the kicker. There are words you can find to put into that situation. They don’t have to be good words, complicated, or even particularly useful. The most important thing is to speak out. We tend to be too tolerant and unwilling to place ourselves in the center of attention. Saw it during Covid, see it in most situations. We turn our heads and avert our eyes, subverting the expectation that good people should stand for good reasons.
I’ll say it plainly: Most of us mean well and speak well. We do nothing though.
is the implication that Americans might not be the most moral beings in the world that scary?
So it is illegal to sleep on a bench?
Yes. Vagrancy and loitering laws criminalize the homeless people in our community
I am not a native English and I remember having a really hard time understanding what “loitering” actually means. I thought “it cannot mean just standing around. it is a crime after all. how can ‘just to exist’ be crime?”
Now that I am older I see that it is just an excuse to discriminate.
Oh gosh no. They destroy all of their property and put them in jail for 30 days. Then the next time when they try to protect their property they get sent to prison for at least a year for resisting arrest.
And that’s if they don’t get shot by someone who’s not homeless, as at least one state has a law that self defence is a legal defence to shooting a homeless person. As in their homelessness is a legal reason to be shot.
Everyone’s got their eyes on minorities but it’ll be the homeless that America herds into concentration camps first.
20ish years ago I got roused and told to move along by a cop for sleeping on a bench at a rest area off I95 in the middle of the day. I’d been up all night and stopped because I didn’t feel safe driving anymore. That didn’t matter to him/the law so I got back on the road.
I had something similar happen in Louisville. I pulled off the road because I was legitimately dangerous to myself and others. Cop told me I had to move on
For an example of how it should go: I was a young buck in the earlier 2000’s driving after work going across several states. Got way to tired and pulled over. Few hours later I was woken up by a state trooper questioning me (probably the most disoriented I’ve ever felt waking up without a sedative in my system). Explained my situation and he gave me a business location a mile up the road where it would be safer for me to park and sleep because the police monitored the building at night and he would let them know I was there. For reference, I was not a minority and had a decent car at the time.
Not necessarily, but thanks to SCOTUS, cities can make it illegal all they want now.
But also, there’s this:
§ 559.45 Behavior in Parks
Sleeping or protracted lounging on the seats or benches, or loud, boisterous, threatening or abusive, insulting or indecent language, or disorderly conduct or behavior, or any act tending to a breach of the public peace is strictly prohibited. Source
That’s when you call constantly for that law being broken. Report literally every instance. At some point, the law will be removed because it’s a surd.
No, they’ll just stop responding. Or arrest you for wasting policeresources.
The police are allowed discretion. They can decide whether they want to enforce laws or not. This is why they for instance can let you off with a warning instead of writing you a ticket for speeding. Or allow a gunman to murder 19 children in an elementary school while they stand outside.
Here’s what to do if you see someone sleeping on a bench or in a park: mind your fucken business, unless some is dying or being actively hurt mind your fucken business
I’ve always applied the “should I be allowed to do it?” Reasoning to these circumstances. And yeah, I should be allowed to nap in the park on a nice day if I want.
Should I bring 6 shopping carts of stuff and block access to public benches for days/weeks at a time? No. But anyone just napping in the park is using the space as intended.
“Damnit Jesus go back to heaven already you know it’s illegal to sleep here” Police probably
For context, Bay Village is one of the wealthiest and whitest Cleveland suburbs.
And probably “Christian”. As in those that say their Christian but don’t exhibit Christianity’s ideals.
The key tradition colonizers spread to the new world was calling yourself a Christian before doing some heinous, very-unchristian shit.
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