The homeless and public order
MIAMI – In King Henry VIII’s England, begging for alms was punishable by whipping. So, if you were a poor man or woman you had only two options: die of hunger or break the law.
Under Henry’s son, Edward VI, the situation worsened. A first offense was punishable by two years’ imprisonment and the inmate was branded with the letter “V.” A second offense was punishable by hanging.
In today’s Miami, the chairman of the City Commission, Marc Sarnoff, proposes jailing homeless people so they won’t disturb “the public order.” The abuse of the strong over the weak is being institutionalized with ever greater speed in those societies where the ruling elite distances itself from the civilian society.
In South Florida it is illegal to erect a tent on vacant land. Local officials want to eliminate any signs of poverty that might scandalize the society of the opulent.
It is almost a tradition of capitalism to try to hide its shame by issuing abusive decrees against the poor. Although arresting a citizen in Miami-Dade County costs taxpayers about $3,800 per arrest, the desire to eliminate the homeless from public view is so intense that Sarnoff and his allies in the Commission have hired a legal firm to try to amend a 1998 law that forbade policemen to arrest homeless people who slept on park benches or ate on the sidewalk.
Throughout the United States, poverty grows unabated and the rich are willing to conceal that reality by supporting those unpopular orders. It is hard to hide the fact that 46 million U.S. citizens live in serious conditions of poverty, and a new type of fascism could be germinating in the minds of the higher classes, who are no longer satisfied by the rule of law in view of the deep crisis that grips the country.
Several cities in South Florida have penalized feeding the homeless, giving rides to pedestrians on public roads, or giving money to beggars. Every effort is made to keep civilian society from looking after the poor or coming together in solidarity.
One of the features of the capitalism that pretended to create the “welfare state” was to break up any spontaneous gesture of social compassion that might empower the people. Therefore, many people assumed that the bourgeois state would take care of the most vulnerable, which was a mirage.
Despite the growing militarization of police forces, there are good policemen who refuse to mistreat a citizen just because he’s dressed poorly or appears unshaven. The political elites have not yet won that war.
Under the “rule of law,” good will is crushed under the weight of thousands of robot-like lawyers who, in constant search of individual success, steer the law in favor of the power that benefits them. It is these lawyers, judges and legislators who become the gravediggers of the rule of law and open the gates to an odious police state.
Because Mr. Money is so powerful, it is most likely that capital will end up defeating the homeless.
Because the press serves the wealthiest social class, the Miami media often defame the homeless. They try to create a hostile opinion against those without a roof over their heads. That negative image of vagabonds addicted to drugs or alcohol encourages young people with fascist ideas to go out at night to beat up indigent people. Meanwhile, the most right-wing city in the United States adds to the abuse by legislating against the weakest citizens.
I don’t know what the abusers will do now that women and children are increasingly filling the ranks of the homeless, because it is no secret that families evicted from their homes by bankers and sheriff deputies live in abject poverty, often sleeping in their own cars, parked in dark alleys.
This failed system, which is incapable of offering jobs or a decent living to the less successful citizens, will continue to try to cover the sun with a thumb – until the thumb is burned.
