This is mainly a follow up to Maria’s post on the
restrictions of the homeless in Fort Lauderdale. Below is a video from the
Colbert Report on Comedy Central where he addresses the issue. Just watching
this clip is very interesting in comparison to our readings. Stephen Colbert
brings up a lot of the issues that came out of Mitchell’s article “The End of
Public Space?: People’s Park, Definitions of the Public, and Democracy” (1995).
In one part of the video Colbert brings up the issue of the public/private
divide that Mitchell discusses. To paraphrase, Colbert says that the homeless
should enjoy their meals in the privacy of wherever they live. This speaks to
what Mitchell discusses in that homeless people make the private public.
Without their own private space, they are forced into the public and this is
unacceptable to the dominant group in power. The clip goes on to show parts on news
reports. One report that is show discusses how the mayor of Fort Lauderdale is “looking
out for everyone” but then specifies this by saying taxpayers and tourists.
This is defining the public as a specific acceptable group of people just as
Mitchell describes. The mayor is again in the video, this time perpetuating
stereotypes of the homeless as dirty and a danger to public health. Because of
this, I agree with what Maria said in that the law may be short lived. To
criminalize what many see as a kind act is ridiculous and this type of discrimination
will only lead to more lawsuits against Fort Lauderdale.
If this sort of discrimination continues, people are going to stop wanted to go out of their way to do these acts of kindness out of fear of being arrested. I find it amazing that officials see this act as unsanitary and that it promotes homelessness. There will always be homelessness. It isn't a simple fix. And by not feeding them, you simply have hungry homeless people. To take away something from people who hardly have anything to begin with is just cruel. There are so many other problems in the world. And if we choose to focus on nit picking "issues" like these - e.g people looking out for one another - we will never truly face the issues that are actually harming people.
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