I don't disagree that they are "inclined" to commit petty crime, just like the rich are more inclined to cheat on their taxes. (when is that last time you heard a poor person rant against the inheritance tax?)

But, I disagree that your social status decides guilt.

Rich/famouse/politicians shouldn't get away with crimes they commit based on their status anymore than a poor person should. Crime is crime. Just because the judge/police/whoever feels social pressure to not enforce the law means everyone else suffers.

Feeling pity for someone's situation does not absolve them of their actions. Personally knowing poor/homeless people gives me a perspective that they aren't total victims and that they don't deserve absolution based on status. (just like the rich don't)

I don't think he's disputing that crime and poverty are correlated. I think he's disputing both the idea that poverty causes crime and the idea that cracking down on petty crime hurts the poor.

There are many people who are poor due to unfortunate circumstances, but more than likely, if a poor person commits crimes, it has less to do with their poverty and more to do with other factors that caused both their poverty and criminality. We may have reasons to feel sympathy for or try to help the criminally inclined poor, but showing them leniency doesn't usually help them.

It also doesn't help poor people in general, because typically the victims of poor criminals are other poor people.

I would add that sometimes, getting really in trouble is what helps some younger people straighten up in life. It's a disservice to the poor to ignore their crimes against others.

It's a disservice to the poor to allow them to become unfairly entrenched in the legal system. No one is ignoring crimes wholesale. This argument is about which of these "crimes" are legitimate and which aren't.

My mother's family was so poor that they ran out of beans to feed 7 kids one winter. They never stole, hurt anyone or broke any laws.

Society decides the moral boundry, and currently stealing is immoral.

Then clarify your context, what crime is appropriate for homeless people and the poor to be arrested for?

I say it's the laws that currently exist, what do you say?

What kind of question is that? It doesn't even make sense and I don't know what kind of answer you expect. Why do you continue to derail this conversation so hard?

I was discussing this point:

>"It's discriminatory [law] against the poor, not the homeless"

I think it's fair to express how my experience is evidence that this is not a universal truth and there is room to challenge it.

Threads naturally change topics as they grow.

You're telling me that if I was rich I would still have risked my freedom to steal food from the supermarket during the time when I was homeless and extremely sick and unable to work?

And conversely, that I should have just starved instead of stealing food in order to maintain my moral standing? That is arguably an illogical position.

In America (my personal frame of reference) I could eat 7 meals a day as a homeless person. No one starves here if they go and look for food. I got food stamps the day I walked into the social services office.

"Starving or stealing" in the US today is a straw man argument.

That's not a straw man. What you're thinking of is a false dichotomy. Not everyone is in the same position you were, and it's stupid to think that your experience is the baseline experience. Sounds like you were doing a lot better than others.

If you live in San Franscico there are a ton of places you can get food:

https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/110356/where-homeless-peop...

Where do you live? I will likely be able to find food for you online. If not from a website, there will be a church, if not a church a social network that will get you food.

I've even seen people post on imgur.com and get sent pizza by people on the other side of the country.

If you need help getting food right now, post an email address here and I will find a way to get you food.

I've used plenty of those programs growing up in a poor family. It was never enough. And today, with budgets becoming ever tighter, it's less than ever. I work hard for the food on my table but it wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be here if I had never stolen food when I needed it most. But none of this has a damn thing to do with your straw man argument that I was saying being poor causes someone to commit crimes, and it has nothing to do with the drug war. I'm done talking with you because you're just playing devils advocate and derailing the conversation.

Every single time I asked for help I got something, even if I had to ask a few different people.

I am sorry you have experienced bad times. But have you considered that you could have asked for food instead of stealing it? Every restaurant I ever worked at gave food to people who asked. A number of other companies did as well. I have given people food that weren't even asking for it because I could see they needed it. (I have plenty of experience dumpster diving, which I chose over stealing)

You can justify breaking the law, and I wouldn't hold it against you for the sake for food, but it doesn't means it's the right thing to do. I begged on the streets and found charity every time.

The post is about being homeless, and your original comment was this:

>This is a complicated issue because the Drug War is inherently discriminatory, and asking for our government to enforce these laws will always lead to discriminatory practices. All of the other issues definitely need to be addressed, however.

But you seem to have derailed the conversation in your response, because the comment you replied to was this:

>I’m not saying punish homelessness, I’m saying enforce existing laws regardless of who the perps are.

I am discussing laws and the effects on poor people, I feel this is on topic, just like the original comment. And in my experience the law protects everyone from everyone, and the loudest claims of "discrimination" were from people who broke the law, just like you are doing now. And the people who don't break the law don't feel discriminated against.

The parent comment to this was how a homeless guy bent over backwards to fit in with society and did not break the law. Yet you seem to be the only one saying the poor/homeless are victims of the law and discriminated against in this entire thread.

If you change the topic, you should expect to be challenged.

Maybe consider the possibility there is a completely different way to live that protects you from what "seems" like discrimination, and that would be suffering a little to do what is right. Humble yourself and ask for help instead of blaming others and breaking the law.

Obviously I am saying neither of those things, because I am speaking in generalities (as they apply in the US) and have no knowledge of you in particular.

If the generalizations I am making are an inaccurate reflection of the reality of poverty and crime, then please enlighten me.