For some perverse reason, some people seem to enjoy kicking a feller when they's down. We've got at least a couple of those types on Louisville's Metro Council, they're back at the old criminalizing poverty game.
In this particular case they're trying to change the law so that they can go after homeless people for having property in public. Can someone please explain to me the logic of fining people who have nothing?
So here's how that would play out: Person gets busted for having property in public, judge issues them a fine. Considering their financial situation, odds are good they don't have the money and don't pay it. Judge issues a bench warrant. Next time they talk to a cop (happens a lot when you're homeless) they get the shiny bracelets on the wrists and away to jail they go. In Louisville you get a $100 credit towards your fines for each day you're incarcerated, so they spend a few days sitting around in a facility that is "obsolete, poorly designed, and riddled with poor practices" and people keep dying in. Then out the door they go to rinse, lather and repeat.
Fucking absurd, right? Like what is actually being accomplished by any of this? It just keeps them cycling in and out of jail and pretty well guarantees they can't get or keep a job, housing, or much anything else.
A while back I had the privilege of spending over a year living on the streets here in Louisville. It wasn't what I would call an enjoyable experience but it was educational. When you have nowhere to be and nothing to do you have plenty of time to observe.
Of all the things I saw, the callous indifference we so regularly show our fellow human beings sticks out the most. What the Metro Council is considering doing reeks of that.
Yesterday I got word of what I thought was going to be a rally outside Metro Hall to protest this, so I grabbed my gear and headed down there. Apparently I misunderstood what I read because when I got there I found no rally. Instead, everybody was heading into City Hall to attend the council meeting. Since I was a little too well equipped to make it past the metal detectors, I wandered around downtown taking photos, which is where all these shots come from.
Wandering downtown was weird. Quiet, less cops and guns, more suits and tourists.
Speaking of weird, this one was taken miles from the nearest place to get a shopping cart. And that's a city employee pushing it.
They just rode up, leaned the bike against the tree and dropped to the ground and started doing push ups. Is this a bike people thing?
Should probably make an attempt to come down here when there's not a protest going on. With a wide angle. It would probably reflect well...