Dallas, TX — Feeding and clothing the homeless in the land of the free has now become a revolutionary act. Luckily, however, there are still good people willing to carry out that act.
In December 2014, the Dallas city council enacted Ordinance No. 29595, which makes it illegal to serve food to the homeless without jumping through a statist myriad of bureaucratic hoops, including a fee, training classes, and written notices.
One should not need to file multiple forms and pay a fee to obtain a permit to give food to those in need who are willingly ready to accept it. The folks at Don't Comply know this.
Matthew Short, with the aptly named organization, Don't Comply, and dozens of volunteers from children to adults alike took to the streets of Dallas this week to hand out food, sleeping bags, clothing, and tents to the area's less fortunate.
As TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, often times, police will swoop in and shut down those who would dare defy the authority of the state and conduct charity without a permit. However, most organizations aren't like Don't Comply.
As they took to the streets this week, many of the members of the organization open carried their weapons. This was done—not out of an act of intimidation—but merely to assert rights as well as protect them.
The resultant heavily armed group of do-gooders effectively staved off any attempts by police to shut down the charitable efforts.
In talking with TFTP, Short tells us that although police drove by fairly often, they never stopped and never attempted to intervene.
Success.
"We are not complying with a bad law today," Short, who is the PR director of Don't Comply said, echoing the sentiment from all of those in attendance this year. "Evidently the city of Dallas believes that it's wrong, or bad, or unlawful for us to feed more than a certain number of people at a time. But, during Christmas, we want to show love to our community and give these people a chance to survive the winter, whether it be with blankets or coats, or just giving them a holiday party like today with all kinds of cookies, and goodies, turkey and dressing, and the whole nine yards."
Dubbed "Feed the Need 5," this was the fifth year in a row the group has conducted the event.
Below is the most amazing video showing the results of good people breaking bad laws.
As TFTP has reported at length, the war on the homeless, as well as the war on those who want to help them, is relentless. Just last month, during Thanksgiving, a group giving out food in Atlanta was shut down by police because they failed to pay the state for permission to give food to voluntary recipients.
On Friday, TFTP reported on a new law in Kansas—which appears to be a trend across the country—that allows police to fine and even arrest people not for feeding the homeless but for simply giving them money.
Sadly, the state's endless desire to generate revenue and oppress rights has led to a system which requires permits for just about every activity not just feeding the homeless. This permitting process acts as a stranglehold on those trying to make a living—keeping them in a perpetual state of poverty.
In May, the Alameda County Sheriff’s department posted a photo of a deputy arresting a man for selling fruits and vegetables on the roadside and attempted to justify the arrest. When people read the department’s justification, they lashed out — peacefully — to let them know what they were doing is wrong.
In June, a 38-year-old homeless man was attempting to earn some honest money by providing a much-desired service of bicycle repair to the residents of Kennewick, Washington when he was threatened with extortion and arrest by the local police department, which effectively ended his enterprise.
After the Kennewick Police Department threatened the homeless man and prevented him from making a living, they took to Facebook to shamelessly brag about it. The man was told that while it was illegal for him to fix bicycles, he could certainly beg for money.
Mannnnnnnnn....I thought they were giving the AR15’s TO the homeless people!! That would have been awesome! And why not honestly? Doesn’t the Second Amendment also apply to homeless Americans? These homeless people are undeniably being persecuted by their abusive totalitarian government, so then are they not EXACTLY who the Second Amendment exists in order to arm? Of course they are. It’s a nice gesture that these wellmeaning folks brought the homeless food I guess, but what they REALLY needed to give those homeless people were their AR15’s. Then the homeless people could guarantee their own food every day, and you better believe you’d see these laws banning the feeding of homeless overturned in about 5 minutes once a few hundred fully armed homeless people assemble at Town Hall demanding redress of their Rights.
thank you for sharing valuable information.
I don't think guns are the appropriate answer, but then again, I am not from Texas... San Diego enacted an anti homeless feeding agenda, as well as many other Anti homeless operations, and all we got was the biggest outbreak of Hepatitis-A in many decades. You cannot legislate the homeless out of existence...
Just more proof that Governments have the monopoly on stupid.
This is such a sad state of affairs. So much for the land of the free. It seems that as time goes on it turns more and more into a police sate. Would love to hear from some texans what they thought about this?
Awesome post keep up the good work :)
Any "law, act or code" that stops the people from helping the people should be doomed a human rights violation and struck from our society. Time to end the oppression of people and the strangle hold these rules have on us. If they profit from our misery, we must N OT COMPLY. Respect to all who refuse to allow this continue. Respect to the people looking out for the people.
Thanks for the freedom of steemit press. I found the steemit link from the comments section of an alternet discussion forum https://www.alternet.org/comments/local-peace-economy/can-community-rights-movement-fix-capitalism#disqus_thread and I'm glad I followed it.