Let’s check in on the compassionate, caring, nannying Democrats in Denver, shall we?
You are welcome here. That’s the message that Denver officials say they hope to convey to its homeless community as the Democratic National Convention approaches. No one will be swept or bused out of the city in an effort to “clean up” Denver during the event. But some homeless advocates say that a city program makes the homeless feel particularly unwelcome in public parks, and that the city plans to empty parks of the homeless before the convention.
Called Come On In, the program, which was launched in 2006, urges charities that serve outdoor meals to the homeless to move their operations indoors. If the “feeders,” as officials call them, serve indoors, then the homeless will have access to clean water and toilets, not to mention a plethora of other services. Plus, the program will placate neighbors who complain that the homeless litter and defecate in picnic areas.
All in all, it is hard to disagree with trying to make life a little better for the homeless, right?
Yet some homeless advocates question the impetus behind the program. Mackenzie Liman of Food Not Bombs, which still serves outdoors in Civic Center Park, says that the purpose of the Come On In program “was to decrease the visibility of homelessness downtown.” Liman attended city meetings in 2006 and 2007, where she says the city’s homeless officials said they wanted the program in full swing by fall of 2008. The timing, she says, made her suspicious that Denver wanted to scour its parks of the homeless before the DNC.
“Because of the way the meetings evolved, there was funding and energy put into decreasing feedings in Civic Center Park. That happened to run parallel to preparations for the DNC,” says Liman, who maintains that the Food Not Bombs meal is an important picnic for Denver’s hungry, and is not less safe or less sanitary than eating indoors. “As someone who works with homeless people and with people who depend on services downtown, when I hear that there is a big event that the media is excited about, my heart sinks because it is not going to be good for the people I work with.”
Unfortunately, the lives of the homeless who live in the park get in the way of the Democrats. It would look bad on TV.
On the flip side, about the only way to tell the difference between the homeless and the crazy, unhinged Democrat protesters – who are Democrat voters, btw – is that some of the Democrats will be wearing clothing, such as Che Guevara icons, Maoist symbols, and pink, that the homeless have too much pride to wear. Oh, and many homeless tend to mutter to themselves, while Democrats tend to scream out insanities. The homeless defecate in the park, while Democrats smear feces on themselves so the cops won’t touch them. Do you see a trend here? Sounds like Democrats need mental health professionals quite a bit more then the homeless.
Strangely, Democrats have complained about how many people have become homeless under Dubya, as the did while Reagan was president, but, surprisingly, none there were none while Clinton was president.
Oh, and where is the ACLU, to protect the rights of the homeless in their time of being pushed to the side so that no one on TV sees them?
Follow up, via Memeorandum
The prospect of protesters linking themselves with devices that bolt cutters can’t sever or throwing buckets of feces on police has Denver considering putting a new law on the books before the Democratic National Convention.
Demonstrators would be banned from having items such as chains, quick-setting cement, homemade locking devices that are resistant to bolt cutters and “any noxious substance,” City Council members said Monday.
Gee, I wonder which Party voters they are talking about? <#@>
