opSafeWinter - Anonymous Worldwide

[thorfourwinds]

This did my heart good... posted on my faceb00k wall.


Chris Shankle
December 2 at 11:12am · Saint Petersburg, FL ·

A few days ago, I stopped by a Walgreens, instead of getting out right away, I had to make two chess moves, and play Words with Friends.... I noticed a homeless man sitting on the corner as people walked in and out of the store without paying attention. He wasn't asking for any money, just sitting there.

Pretty sad. For the first time, I didn't walk by and act like I was on the phone, instead, I grabbed all of the change in my truck, around $7.00, I walked over and handed it to him. I thought he was going to cry, he thanked me...

Today, in a McDonald's drive thru, there is a homeless guy sitting near the trash can , I picked up my phone to act like I was on a call so he wouldn't bother me.. But, I realized I don't really need my cheeseburger, so I drove back around and handed him my food, I kept the fries though, ha.

He thanked me. It feels good to help someone out sometimes, so hopefully everyone realizes how lucky we are to have what we have, and who knows what tragedy or addictions they have gone through to have ended up where they are...

Help someone, even a little, this month. I am still hungry though...

Happy Holidays everyone!

[zorgon]

[thorfourwinds]

In 33 U.S. Cities, It's Illegal to Do the One Thing That Helps the Homeless Most (Image Credit: AP)

In 33 U.S. Cities, It's Illegal to Do the One Thing That Helps the Homeless Most

By Tom McKay
June 12, 2014

The news: In case the United States' problem with homelessness wasn't bad enough, a forthcoming National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) report says that 33 U.S. cities now ban or are considering banning the practice of sharing food with homeless people.

Four municipalities (Raleigh, N.C.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Daytona Beach, Fla.) have recently gone as far as to fine, remove or threaten to throw in jail private groups that work to serve food to the needy instead of letting government-run services do the job.

Why it's happening:
The bans are officially instituted to prevent government-run anti-homelessness programs from being diluted. But in practice, many of the same places that are banning food-sharing are the same ones that have criminalized homelessness with harsh and punitive measures.

Essentially, they're designed to make being homeless within city limits so unpleasant that the downtrodden have no choice but to leave. Tampa, for example, criminalizes sleeping or storing property in public. Columbia, South Carolina, passed a measure that essentially would have empowered police to ship all homeless people out of town. Detroit PD officers have been accused of illegally taking the homeless and driving them out of the city.

The U.N. even went so far as to single the United States out in a report on human rights, saying criminalization of homelessness in the United States "raises concerns of discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

"I'm just simply baffled by the idea that people can be without shelter in a country, and then be treated as criminals for being without shelter," said human rights lawyer Sir Nigel Rodley, chairman of the U.N. committee. "The idea of criminalizing people who don't have shelter is something that I think many of my colleagues might find as difficult as I do to even begin to comprehend."

Image Credit: Affordable Housing Institute

Meanwhile, the programs in place to support the homeless are typically inadequate, making claims that ending food-sharing is for their own good specious at best.

According to government data, about 600,000 people are homeless on any given night.

Some 20 states bucked a nationally declining homeless rate from the height of the recession, increasing in measures of homelessness from 2012-2013. According to the NCH, one survey of homelessness found 62,619 veterans were homeless in January 2012.

Other at-risk groups for homelessness include the seriously ill, battered women and people suffering from drug addictions or mental illness.

The economy isn't helping. More Americans live in poverty than before the recession began in 2008 and the number of households living under the poverty line has reached levels unseen since the 1960s.

Some city officials, like Houston's Mayor Annise Parker, claim that "making it easier for someone to stay on the streets is not humane" and say that uncoordinated charity efforts "keep them on the street longer, which is what happens when you feed them."

A local Food Not Bombs activist told VICE that the actual effect was to intimidate local residents from giving out food. Other cities are harsher. In 2011, more than 20 members of Food Not Bombs were arrested in Orlando for sharing food. Love Wins Ministries in Raleigh was threatened with arrest for providing biscuits to the homeless.

Daytona Beach fined, harassed and threatened jail time for Debbie and Chico Jimenez, who run a ministry called "Spreading the Word Without Saying a Word."

Debbie and Chico Jimenez, who run a ministry to help people in poverty, were were ticketed last week $373 a piece (along with four other people) for feeding about 100 homeless people at a Daytona Beach Park. (photo courtesy NBCnews)


NBC News: Police Allegedly Ticket Volunteers for Feeding Homeless - Video


"Homeless people are visible in downtown America. And cities think by cutting off the food source it will make the homeless go away. It doesn't, of course," NCH community organizing director Michael Stoops told NBC News. "We want to get cities to quit doing this. We support the right of all people to share food."

"Nobody would suggest that the ideal situation for a homeless person to be in is living on the street, but the reality is people are living there and they will die there if they don't receive food," National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty policy director Jeremy Rosen told VICE.

Why you should care?

This is cruelty at its basest and most pointless. The homeless are real people who deserve to be treated like human beings. And if a city bans sharing the necessities of life with them, it doesn't bode well for other ways they treat the homeless.

Meanwhile, successful programs have demonstrated that systematically providing housing and food for the homeless costs society less than leaving them on the street.

[thorfourwinds]

Greetings:

Most excellent!  Thank you for your contribution.   

And now, for the rest of the story...

1:58 #OpLiftTheBans #Anonymous stands up for the homeless #OpSafeWinter

Published on Dec 1, 2014
Operation Lift The Bans Engaged.
#OpSafeWinter    #FoodNotBombs    #WaveofAction      #OpFeedTheHomeless     #OpLiftTheBans      #ResistHomelessHateLaws

Arnold Abbott, 90yrs old, arrested three times recently for feeding the homeless in Ft Lauderdale (photo credit: screenshot TV)

Anonymous Op LiftTheBans Successful in Allowing the Feeding of Homeless in Ft Lauderdale Florida

For 30 days, police are not allowed to arrest or issue citations to people feeding homeless in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Arnold Abbott is the founder of Love Thy Neighbor, a local nonprofit that helps the homeless.

"I appreciate all of your concern for my safety, but I have faced the Klu Klux Klan on many occasions, and I have no fear of spending the night in a Fort Lauderdale jail," Abbott wrote on Facebook. "I thank you all, and I pray that we all stay strong. We shall prevail!"


Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler was addressed on Monday when Anonymous announced "Op Lift The Bans."

Anonymous gave the city and mayor, Jack [John] Seiler, 24 hours to lift the ban before commencing "Operation Lift the Bans." Sure enough, for several hours on Monday, Ftlauderdale.gov and FLPD.gov were down. Seiler's personal website was also dark.

Authorities claim they took down the Ft. Lauderdale website as a precaution once the attacks began, but even if this is true, it appears Anonymous accomplished its goal. On Tuesday, only a day after the #OpLiftTheBans was launched, Judge Thomas Lynch ruled that no arrests would be made or citations issued for the next 30 days.

Anonymous — who engage in worldwide activism — have also been critical of rules that target the homeless by banning panhandling, sleeping in public property and the use of homeless spikes.

[ArMaP]

Anonymous gave the city and mayor, Jack [John] Seiler, 24 hours to lift the ban before commencing "Operation Lift the Bans." Sure enough, for several hours on Monday, Ftlauderdale.gov and FLPD.gov were down. Seiler's personal website was also dark.

Authorities claim they took down the Ft. Lauderdale website as a precaution once the attacks began, but even if this is true, it appears Anonymous accomplished its goal. On Tuesday, only a day after the #OpLiftTheBans was launched, Judge Thomas Lynch ruled that no arrests would be made or citations issued for the next 30 days.

Here we go again, with Anonymous taking the laurels of some positive action that was not made by them. 

[thorfourwinds]

Anonymous gave the city and mayor, Jack [John] Seiler, 24 hours to lift the ban before commencing "Operation Lift the Bans."

"Hello, citizen of the world and Fort Lauderdale.

It has come to our attention that Mayor John Seiler has become an embarrassment to the law abiding citizens of Fort Lauderdale, arresting Arnold Abbot, who is 90 years old and served our country, for feeding the homeless.

You are a disgrace, Mayor John Seiler.

So therefore, we have a list of demands, and if not met, then we shall shut down the main site of Fort Lauderdale, among other sites.

Our demands are to lift the ordinance C-14-38, which makes panhandling illegal at busy intersections for not only homeless but also charities; C14-41, which makes it illegal for anyone to sleep in public in the downtown area; and C14-42, which prohibits citizens from being able to hand out food unless certain requirements are met.

You have 24 hours or less, depending on whether this reaches you, Mayor John Seiler — 24 hours to comply with our demands or the site will be shut down, along with other sites belonging to Fort Lauderdale.

Operation Lift the Bans engaged.
We are anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
You should have expected this, Mayor John Seiler."

[thorfourwinds]

Here we go again, with Anonymous taking the laurels of some positive action that was not made by them. 

Here we go again, ArMaP spouting off about which he does not have a clue.   

Here we go again, with Anonymous taking the laurels of some positive action that was not made by them. 

As if You could prove otherwise.   

[thorfourwinds]

Information for Those who might be interested.

3,589 Homeless Shelters and Social Services in America

[thorfourwinds]

[zorgon]

From reading the reports it appears that feeding the homeless in a PUBLIC PARK is illegal but its okay on private property like a church.

Seems the Mayor and Abbot shook hands and came to an agreement



The week before, Abbott was busted on two different occasions for feeding the needy at Stranahan Park, just a few blocks from where he was Sunday.

"What Arnold's doing is actually a very kind and compassionate act," Mayor Jack Seiler said during a face-off with Abbott on a local TV station on Sunday. "We are just simply asking him to do it in a proper location."

"We have tried many, many times to find indoor locations to feed the homeless and they have not been available to us," Abbott responded. "If you can find locations like that, I am not married to Stranahan Park."

Abbott avoided the wrath of cops on Sunday by feeding the homeless indoors, at a local church in Fort Lauderdale. A new city ordinance forbids anyone from feeding the homeless in public.


The mayor also admitted making a mistake, saying "we were wrong in not getting the word out sooner. And in fairness to Arnold, we should have sat down with him ... making sure that he was on board. But obviously that message got lost."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fla-man-90-vows-feeding-homeless-arrest-article-1.2005323


No mention of Anonymous in this deal



There was this though...

"On Friday, three members of a group called Food Not Bombs were busted for helping out the homeless at the park, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

"As Martin Luther King Jr., said, our responsibility is to disobey unjust laws," 25-year-old Nikki Rye, one of the three who was arrested, told the Sun-Sentinel. "These actions violate basic human rights."

Perhaps they were Anon?

[ArMaP]

As if You could prove otherwise.   

Can Anonymous prove that they were the reason for the judge's decision?

[thorfourwinds]

Can Anonymous prove that they were the reason for the judge's decision?

Can ArMaP prove Anonymous was not the reason for the judge's decision?

General consensus gives the point to Anonymous.   

[zorgon]

General consensus gives Gary McKinnon the credit for exposing the Naval Space Command while we are chopped liver

General consensus is usually wrong

[ArMaP]

Can ArMaP prove Anonymous was not the reason for the judge's decision?

That's not an answer, that's a bad excuse. 

Those that say that Anonymous was the reason for the judge's action are the ones that have something to prove, I'm just expecting (not really, as those things are never backed by real proof) for facts that support it.

General consensus gives the point to Anonymous.   

More words tossed without anything to back them up, as expected. 

[thorfourwinds]

Cook n' Grub Pitch In #OpSafeWinter-NYC Community Potluck | OpSafeWinter
Join members of the NYC Activist community each Friday evening at 60 Wall Street, ?New York City, NY 10005.

Donations of hot healthy food are needed to help those living on the streets. Bring your favorite dish (along with anything you might need to serve and plate) and a pair of new adult socks to 60 Wall St.

If you can't come we hope you'll consider sending a pizza or buying needed supplies like To-Go Containers via the #OpSafeWinter #NYC Amazon Registry:
http://j.mp/OpSafeWinterNYC

If you are interested in participating on a regular basis help is needed with online outreach, street canvasing & with the weekly cooking effort on Staten Island.

If you'd like to join the volunteer cooking a group meets each Friday at the Staten Island Ferry at Noon.
Transportation to & from St George is provided and the group returns on the 6 PM Ferry to serve at 60 Wall Street.
Please email OpSafeWinterNYC(@)gmail.com to sign up to volunteer or to let us know what dish you plan to bring.

Each week we need plates, plastic forks, napkins, gloves & cases of bottled water.

EVENTS COMING UP
   •   Fri. Dec 12, 2014 - 6:30 PM - Cook n' Grub Pitch In #OpSafeWinter Community Potluck
   •   Fri. Dec 19, 2014 - 6:30 PM - Cook n' Grub Pitch In #OpSafeWinter Community Potluck
   •   Fri. Dec 26, 2014 - 6:30 PM - Cook n' Grub Pitch In #OpSafeWinter Community Potluck

Wednesday is #OpSafeWinter canvasing day in NYC, where we check in with houseless comrades & touch base about potluck.

Read more about OpSafeWinterNYC: http://www.nycga.net/events/cook-n-grub-pitch-in-opsafewinter-community-potluck-7/


#OpSafeWinter Saturday 13th December 2014 1pm start | OpSafeWinter

We know of these OpSafeWinter events happening tomorrow on the same day:
OpSafeWinter Liverpool

https://www.facebook.com/events/374971422660110/


OpSafeWinter Nottingham

https://www.facebook.com/events/866996486644824/


OpSafeWinter Cardiff

https://www.facebook.com/events/605930929533088/

If we've left anyone out then get in touch and let us know: email: contactopsafewinter@gmail.com