I knew a guy in the late 90s who checked himself into jail every winter. He just didn’t have enough money to heat his home and buy food at the same time, and he was disabled and couldn’t land a job in construction no more, so that’s the only thing he found to stay alive.
When the snow started to come down, he’d go to our local minimart with a plastic gun. You know, like the really cheesy ones with a red cap at the muzzle, to make sure nobody would think it was real and gun him down my mistake, and to avoid getting a harsh sentence. He knew the store owner, since it was a small town and everybody knew each other.
He’d say hello, point the gun at him and gently say “Could you please call the police like last year?” The store owner used to try to talk him out of it, but he’d say “Don’t force me to make it real because I don’t wanna.”
Then the sheriff would show up - they knew each other too of course - and he would try to convince him this wasn’t a good idea. And the guy would say “Look, will you book me or not? Because if you don’t, you’ll come back next week to my place but with the coroner this time.”
So the sheriff would book him. And the judge, who knew exactly why he was there at the trial, would sentence him to 5 months - time enough to get out in spring.
After I left town, I heard he kept doing that for many years, until he got tired of being poor and committed suicide.
I lived in Austin, TX and used to know a homeless guy, Walter Dwight Green 1955, back in '98 that spent winters in jail for public intoxication for the same reasons.
Including name, in case anyone else knew him and wants to chat. He was originally from Kentucky.
I was a teenager at the time but I tried to help him as much as I could.
I had to leave town for a year, when I came back, I found out he froze to death in the winter I was gone.
Didn’t know your Walter, but a family member of mine was a corrections officer at a small town jail in Podunk Tennessee. 17k people in the whole county, and each winter the jail would triple their numbers for this exact reason. First snow’s coming, time to buy 50 bucks of booze and get lodging for the winter. Fucking horrible people have to do that. I’ve been desperate. Like, living in a shack with no plumbing, no electric, and by the grace of God and some clever shop lifting a propane heater to keep 4 of us warm in 110 square feet in -26 degrees level of desperate. I can’t imagine being so desperate as to willingly go to jail. Which just shows despite all that, how fucking lucky I am. I worked in commissary, family members have been jailers and cops. It’s better than freezing to death, of course, but no one should ever have to make that choice. Housing is a right, and our laws need to catch the fuck up with that.
And then Einstein clapped the Baby Jesus’s ass and all the harpies cried at the wave after wave of baby bald eagles flying over. Amen.
I’m a cynical guy, but the only unrealistic part is the implied community cohesion that resulted in him not getting shot in the face. If you are going to shout into the void, put a little more effort in, even if it might only be for your own benefit.
the only unrealistic part is the implied community cohesion
Those who are old enough and grew up in small town America remember the sense of community. If you’ve never experienced it, I feel sorry for you, whether it’s because you grew up in a big city or because it disappeared for your generation.
But I will say this - echoing what Bamfic said: yeah, you kind of needed to be white. I was and so was the store owner and the dude who was doing the fake holdups. So I’m not deluding myself: I know the sense of community didn’t include everybody necessarily. But it was a thing for sure.
This reminds me of a news story from a few years ago. An elderly man had robbed a bank and only asked for $1. When he was arrested he said he couldn’t afford to get the various medical treatments he needed so he wanted to go to jail so he could get the healthcare they would provide him as a prisoner
I think they don’t even do that anymore nowadays. Provide healthcare in prison that is.
This is false, they absolutely still do.
Watched an inmate receive one of the ridiculously overpriced antiviral cures for Hepatitis-C.
In older times you could ask any grocrey store and they’d direct you to a place in back where they give away their just-expired food. But now they’re salting their throwaways. ERs are supposed to not turn you away, and if they do it might justify stealing food.
Find out how the police respond to homeless people in your area (fellow transients will know). Some will help you out while others will be glad to assault you knowing no one will care.
Religious kitchens will force you to convert. In the old days, it was easier to play along, but I dont knownwhat the new methods of coercion are. They’re a lot more abusive and bigoted now.
Obviously it depends on the church and area, but I rarely experienced people trying to convert me when I was homeless. Most were trying to help the less fortunate and it ends at that. There was a church who would set up for lunch 3-4 days a week with no strings attached. A pastor came and delivered me MREs at like 2am in the morning one time after getting a call from one of his friends. He never once mentioned church. I’m thankful they were able to keep me alive in that dark time in my life.
Hold up any bank in the United States. Make sure it’s not armed and don’t actually take anything.
You’ll get like five years in the feds. Do 3.5-4 years in a camp. Get universal healthcare and free meals…
America is a third world country.
And if you don’t get caught you can use the money for food, housing and healthcare.
Only 10% of bank robberies fail, and 80% of stolen bank money is never recovered.
You’d hate to hear where law’s like loitering is illegal come from.
The idea behind them was basically to book the released slaves and then rent them out to the farms again.
I think its funny (incredibly depressing) how disability doesnt scale with cost of living in your local area. Like my disabled mother makes about $1K a month off SSI and she lives in CA luckily with family.
She would be in this same situation if she had to move tomorrow. I aint doing much better but even working a job I dont make enough to rent here so we will have to find a way out together.
