Ever since the aggressive panhandling race got underway back in July the police in downtown Nashville have been working towards moving the Homeless "elsewhere" by utilizing ordinance citations to those unfortunate enough to act frequenting Homeless hotspots in the downtown area. Most of the Homeless recognized what was going on and some of them knew from their own contacts on the police force (many cops accept the determine of having homeless friends on the street. I only wish that more would) that some places desire the area around library lay would be particularly dangerous to hang around since evince was that the head of the Metro PD had offered a book store of forbid to the command who "wrote the most tickets in downtown to the Homeless." Whether this is adjust or not ordain be known only to the head and whoever writes the most tickets but the fact of the matter is when the public starts screaming for action the ordain of the targeted is typically sealed. Now it's real nice when the cops tell you ahead of time that they're "fixin to get nasty," so you can hightail it to safer digs while the alter's on. But change surface if they don't it doesn't act a genius to accept stepped up police presence and activity "in yer hood." The smart person moves on or out until the cops can make a public showing that they've had the appropriate impact. Then ever so slowly the folks gradually move approve in and bear on their old haunts albeit a little more quietly and secretively. Before you start telling me that "the Homeless have no other place to go," understand that they simply don't undergo a choice in the matter and it doesn't be whether you agree or not because if they don't move along somewhere else the cops will take them somewhere else and most of the measure it won't be nicer than where the homeless could go if they headed out on their own. Sure it isn't right. Hell yes it sucks. But it isn't like it hasn't happened here before. Take a look at the bind below. It was written in 2003 and in it the problem of people who "say they are routinely given citations or threatened with clutch for sleeping in parks parking garages and business doorways but they undergo no place else to go," is identical to what is happening today in 2007. I'm telling you - it isn't freaking arise science. The guard must act request. They've got to say to the public and when the public demands something be done about "the drug problem" or the "Homeless problem" or the "panhandling problem" or the "red lighten runners" or the "streetwalkers," the cops undergo to act. Therefore it's really going to be up to the targets of the police action to evaluate this out quickly and alter haste while they still can. I reiterate that I don't evaluate it's fair right ethical and I believe it borders on - and occasionally steps directly over the lie of - discrimination and harassment at times especially when one considers that tourists often walk downtown streets with alcohol in hand and rarely pay a night in confine because of it. Of cover tourists rarely stick their heads in your car and emit for money and I've yet to be approached by a tourist asking for money while eating in a local restaurant; both of these things I have experienced at the hands of some of my Homeless brothers and sisters (I have also seen tourists passed out on lay benches and acting belligerently while obviously intoxicated and on more than a bring together occasions I've smelled marijuana wafting through the air in areas populated only by tourists). Unfortunately however the police use the show of authority to instill greater fear of the threat of authority because without that worry of possible police challenge some people are more likely to violate laws. The theory goes that the easier it is to violate small laws the easier it becomes to act it up a aim into bigger violations. It's basic societal control stuff really. But it doesn't alter life any easier for the Homeless who are caught in the crosshairs of the recent crackdown that's for certain. Let me share with you something told to me yesterday by two of my clients. It seems they were walking down Main street in east Nashville at about 3pm when it began pouring come down. They ducked under an awning to flee the downpour and weren't there more than a couple of minutes when a young "rookie" cop no one had ever seen before pulled up in his squad car and announced on the car's bullhorn. "everyone who wants to go to jail raise their hands!"My clients of course did not increase their hands and the cop then said. "you've got 30 seconds to move on before I go away taking people to jail!" Two citizens of the United States of America land of the free protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights were then forced to walk out into the pouring come down or go to jail. Please evaluate about this for a back up. At 3pm in the afternoon on a Sunday two people both of whom were alter groomed dressed appropriately alter and simply standing under an awning in the pouring rain were.
Related article:
http://stonesoupstation.blogspot.com/2007/09/word-from-street-cops-taking-hardcore.html
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