Brickbat: Feeding the Multitudes

Bob Denelzen / Dreamstime.com

Pastor James Marino, head of the San Diego Dream Center, says city officials have told him the group must stop feeding the homeless during July, when Major League Baseball's All Star Game comes to town. Merino says he plans to comply with the order, but reluctantly. "Our volunteers come out to give love, grace, mercy and a helping hand, not to get cited or arrested," he said. "I might endure that. But that's not what I want for our volunteers."

Comments

[Eurynom0s]

So basically they're acting like private security at the beck and call of MLB.

[Adans smith]

Yep, look at the way the state and feds bend over for the NFL. Pro sports are the ultimate example of crony businesses.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

I'd put the military industrial complex ahead of pro sports, primarily because it hides behind the banner of legit government function. But pro sports is possibly the most egregious example of crony corruption, seeing as how it hides behind such a transparently deceitful banner.

[Robert]

Around the world, they're always doing shit, like clearing out the bums, for big sporting events. They'll raze poor neighborhoods, anything.

[straffinrun]

"We don't know of any legal basis they have to stop [Dream Center] from doing this," said Dreher.

This lawyer fails for the hidden ball trick every time.

[Adans smith]

He's never heard of the FYTW clause? What kind of an attorney is he?

[straffinrun]

Thought that was taught in first year. Elementary school.

[Adans smith]

You know who else liked to indoctrinate them when they were young?

[UnCivilServant]

OMWC?

[Adans smith]

That is a correct answer,I also would have accepted Warty.

[WTF]

It doesn't matter if they are ultimately exonerated, the process is the punishment.

[Libertarian]

What sticks out for me about this is that it is the police who are telling him not to feed the homeless. The police shouldn't be telling anybody anything -- if this is the city's policy, then the mayor's office should be the one who outlines policy, not the cops.

[Adans smith]

Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha, oh,your cereal?

[np]

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some ordinance in the books that would allow the city to do just that though, as many cities already have them.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Merino said he fears retribution on his ministry for speaking to the press...

At least we know the pastor isn't clueless.

[The Grinch]

Looks like the city decided to pucker up and kiss MLB's ass. Pathetic, spineless, and wrong but not surprising.

[Cyto]

I wouldn't say this is for MLB. It is more likely being done for the city's image. You don't want to have 20k visiters come in from out of town and see your downtown covered in homeless folk.

Kinda like when you have friends over for dinner. You clean up so they don't know that you usually have a basket of clothes waiting to be folded and a bunch of kids toys scattered about. Same deal here. Clean up all the unsightly homeless folk so people from out of town will go home and say how nice your city is.

[Trials and Trippelations]

This is a greater infringement on Christian beliefs than removing a manger or Christmas tree from public property

[Akira]

A lot of "progressives" tell me that without the various big government "welfare" programs, the poor would be much worse off. And they say that private charity will never be common enough to completely fill the need.

I'd be much more willing to listen to that line if the government weren't actively stamping out instances of private charity.

[buybuydandavis]

Mafias always provide. And always stamp out the competition.

[sarcasmic]

Government has to stamp out private charity. Government programs are supposed to replace all charity. The existence of private charity is evidence that government programs aren't enough, or maybe not even needed. Can't have that. So private charity must be stamped out to justify government programs. After all, those administrators and bureaucrats need their jobs.

[Jerryskids]

Jerryskids|6.27.16 @ 11:55AM|#
.....

You want to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, heal the sick? Fine, go to it, there's plenty of charities that could use your money and your time. Get government involved though and you've got a ton of overhead, a bloated budget for frills, set-asides for graft and kickbacks for cronies, plus a maze of paperwork hoops for the people you're trying to help that keeps them from getting help. Try giving a homeless crazy guy a shed to live in and some weed to take the edge off, offer to pay him $5 an hour to mow lawns some time, see how fast the government tells you a shed ain't good enough and weed ain't proper medication and $5 an hour ain't a living wage.

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Or hand out bologna sandwiches to him and his buddies in the city park.

[sarcasmic]

Private charity can never fill the needs of the poor, and to prove it we're going to arrest any private charity that tries!

/proglogic

[Rufus The Monocled]

Private charity is not right because it doesn't get government approval first.

And then they go nuts there's so many hungry or homeless people.

[Agent Cooper]

What are the optics of arresting volunteers giving food to the homeless? If I were the Dream Center, I'd do ask for forgiveness, not permission.

[Jay Dubya]

they arrested food not bombs members in orlando for just that a few years back. mayor there (dyer) still in office.

[frankania]

Invite the homeless into a private property and then do whatever with them. Ain't no business of gubmint.

[Jerryskids]

You mean the way Walmart invites customers onto their private property and therefore is free of government regulation on what they and their customers agree to do? Didn't Bloomberg ban handing out food to the homeless on the grounds that there were no nutritional labels on the bologna sandwiches and bologna sandwiches have unacceptably high levels of fat and salt? I'm sure the city wouldn't need more than 5 minutes to come up with half-a-dozen excuses for banning feeding the hungry on health and safety grounds, not to mention zoning, licensing, inspections, permits, fees, taxes, and other grounds.

[Eric L]

Not here in California. At the Episcopal church I used to be a member of, we used to provide meals for the homeless. State health officials stated that the church's kitchen had to meet the same standards as a restaurant, including restaurant grade equipment. That is because the homeless were not members of the church. If we were only using the kitchen to prepare food for members of the church then we did not need to upgrade the kitchen. And for some reason giving the homeless instant membership would not cut it with the state officials.

[jackrose]

nice post thanks admin