West Palm Beach: no handouts for homeless

Well, I guess this is what passes for "compassionate conservativism" in West Palm Beach. The City Commission, under the leadership (and tie-breaking vote) of batshit crazy mayor Lois Frankel, voted 3-2 (with one absence) to ban food handouts in an area of downtown frequented by the homeless.

"How in good conscience can we allow a segment of our community to take the burden of this?" Frankel said.

The measure bans handing out food free or at a nominal charge to anyone - not just homeless people, although that's what prompted the ordinance - in the fountain area, the library property and the Meyer Amphitheatre, saying it conflicts with events at those places.

[...]

"Do people of poverty have the same rights of association as any other person?" said Alan Clapsaddle, pastor of Westgate Tabernacle Church, which lets homeless people sleep at the church. "We're criminalizing people helping people. It just doesn't make sense."

John Pauly, chairman of the Palm Beach County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the measure raises constitutional concerns, including religious freedoms and freedom to assemble.

United Way official Daniel Gibson asked for a delay to give the city and the groups time to hash things out.

But downtown residents said the groups of homeless people who gather on Wednesdays and Saturdays have become insufferable. Business owners said vagrants have brandished knives at them and shot heroin in bathrooms, which they tied to the food distribution, though they didn't have proof.

Dawn Alba, who lives in a condo next to the fountain, said she's "all about peace and justice and all that" but said the feeding programs could be held nearby. "Wherever it is, they'll go get it," she said.

Raphael Clemente of the Downtown Development Authority said some patrons eating outdoors "just get up and leave" when homeless people are nearby.

See, here's the thing, Ms. Mayor: the people giving out food are doing so voluntarily. No one is forcing them to "take the burden of this," as you so eloquently clumsily put it. Voluntarily helping others is what compassion is all about ... not that you'd know anything about compassion. Hell, you'd rather go farther, wouldn't you?

[One commissioner who opposed the measure] noted that other parks also are used for special events, to which Frankel responded: "Would you like to amend this to include all the parks? Because I would go along with it."

[...]

Frankel took a beating at the hearing. Several in the audience shouted their disapproval of the measure she has championed.

I wasn't there, but I have no doubt that Mayor Frankel was being sarcastic. The mention of the other parks was intended to show that this measure was being applied inequitably to only those parks where homeless are known to congregate and that the rationale of protecting "special events" was a sham. But Frankel found a way to twist that to her mean-spirited advantage.

West Palm Beach's mayor may not be as openly vile and hateful as Fort Lauderdale's mayor, the homophobic batshit crazy fundie Jim Naugle, but Lois Frankel is just as much of an embarrassment to her city and to all of south Florida.