Ninjas killed my parentsSometime last night it looks like the city expanded their existing panhandling law. According to this Bay News 9 story, it sounds like we’re going to start locking up everyone and their brother, which isn’t necessarily true. Since the 70s we’ve had panhandling laws in place, the new bits primarily expand the reach of the law to places like the Pier, Vinoy and Williams parks. It is true, though, that panhandlers can indeed be jailed simply for asking for change.

What the fuck is wrong with us? Instead of exploring social programming that may help prevent the causes of homelessness we’d rather give ourselves reasons for persecuting the homeless and in some cases even jailing them? We live in a city that has had more public discourse on a fucking baseball stadium move than on the issue of the homeless. We live in a city that has largely already removed the poor from the downtown area to build empty condos for rich assholes, while simultaneously removing the junk shops and mom and pops to put in upscale douchebag stores and restaurants for said rich assholes.

It is so fitting that the guy they quote in the Bay News 9 story is the dickshift that owns the cigar bar on Central. You know what I’d rather have downtown than a bunch of assgobblers hanging out at cigar shops? That’s right, panhandlers. I just hope dickshift #2 that opened a cigar bar around the corner from dickshift #1 ends up splitting the finite amount of dongchompers that will buy overpriced cigars, effectively putting them both out of business.

I’m not saying I want to go sleep in the park with homeless people, or that I give to them with any regularity. Hell, I probably find it just as annoying as the next guy, but I also find it really disturbing when this is the official party line from the city:

City leaders say the newer version is just the beginning to keeping a destination place exactly that, despite the possibility the panhandlers could get pushed into the surrounding neighborhoods.

Yes, city leaders are more concerned about the tourist industry than the homeless, but that’s not all! They are also going on record saying you don’t matter, fuck you very much if the homeless end up on your front lawn, just as long as we keep the Vinoy full.

I’ll only give this one long, run on sentence because I’ll cover it more later: VOTE NO ON 1 - social programming is at stake because Charlie “holy fuck I paid a lot in taxes on my mansions” Crist and others have decided that you deserve an extra $200 a year instead of that money going to programs that not only help you, but more importantly those less fortunate than you. And if you get a chance, tell them that they can suck a fat dick if they think any of your money should go to moving a baseball stadium instead of supporting the poor, the disabled and a long list of better uses for our tax dollars.