Free liquor for the homeless?

Fred Weit of Cape Coral writes:

I am hoping you will have something to say about the squeaky clean politicians who are up in arms about the art dealer handing out some cheer to the homeless.  If the legal thives spent a little more time trying to find solutions to problems rather than creating new ones there would be less homelessness.  After serving my time in the United States Marine Corps (1963-1969) I was basically in the homeless category also.

Mr. Weit is talking about a fellow named Evander Preston, who handed out 100 bottles of bourbon to the homeless in St. Petersburg. Now the City Council is tripping over itself to change city ordinance to ban it. One council member (Bill Foster) called the gift "offensive" and another (Rene Flowers) suggested handing out soap instead.

At the risk of exhibiting common sense, I would turn my head and look away if this is a once-a-year thing. If the guy was passing out free booze on the corner regularly, we'd have a problem and maybe that would warrant the creation of more law.

But this is mostly just righteous posturing by the City Council, and it will be well received. The trouble with talking about the homeless in St. Pete is there is a lot of resentment built up. Downtown business owners and residents are quite rightly fed up with having to fight to get into their own doorways, hosing away human waste and so forth. That explains the lack of, shall we say, holiday spirit. So even a guy just trying to provide a fleeting kindness will be criticized.

As one of the commenters to the news story points out, next time he could just hand out cash and they can buy their own...

Comments

The City council should pass the John Bryan ordinance. No city council member including the mayor of St. Petersburg will sleep with there children and have sex with them. Or adopt children for sex. I will drink too that.

[Sue in St. Pete]

“… and another (Rene Flowers) suggested handing out soap instead.”

That speaks volumes about the character, or lack thereof, of Council Member Flowers.

Tell me Mrs. Flowers; after we get rid of the smelly poor people, should we go after the gays, jews, or coloreds next? What a disgraceful comment; you should be ashamed of yourself.

And you just lost my vote; forever.

[Kay]

You cannot outlaw gifts of legal items. Period. Time of year does not matter.

[Truth]

Since my comment after the actual story was not posted let me try and recreate it here: We all need to curl up in a bottle of bourbon to survive the harsh realities of Rick Baker's city with rampant crime...much of it gang related...thanks to the Uhurus keeping the police department on a short leash, developers building endless ugly condos and the totally ridiculous stadium plan...all in the midst of the economic chaos Florida is in thanks to property taxes and insurance.

[Ron]

While I agree that it is ridiculous for the Council to worry about this, it is also a ridiculous thing for this guy to do. Instead of trying to help the homeless, he chose to feed their addiction. If he wanted to help them, why didn't he load them up in his Bentley and drive them to rehab.

[Don Mott]

To all of those who criticize Evander I would ask what have you done? Mr. Foster? Ms. Flowers?, what have you done other than use the homeless for a political stage? Is it better that you use them for political ambitions rather than giving them a little respite? Or spending your time offering remedies to the situation instead of attacking those that do?

[The Unsilent Majority]

Free liquor for the bums?
WOW, what a great idea!

What's next, Firearms for the Uhurus???

[Chef Tell]

I am going to make the homeless some Killians chili to warm them up. This will be followed by Bananas Foster, aww, those both have alcohol in them.
Well, I'll just go back to throwing spare change into traffic at EVERY stop light so I can watch them dodge cars. All this so they can buy a bottle of bourbon.

[Holly]

I have a better idea, Evander. Since it appears that you have too much money and time on your hands...get busy building a place for the homeless and get them jobs and a better education. Your stunt with the booze is throwing good money at bad. Simply put; you have NOT solved the problem.

[Nick T.]

Evander never claimed to have solved any problem, Holly. He did something that made a certain group of people feel better. No go back to criticizing and judging the man because his method of charity fails to meet with your Puritan and myopic views.

[Mr. T]

Let's make two lines...one for jobs and one for booze...anyone want to guess which one will become the longest....?

[csbrudy]

Giving the booze is totally legit, as Kay says. Drinking in Williams Park is good for a night in jail, though.
And yes, the downtown would not have the occasional wafting aroma of human waste, if a bathroom, say, the one at Williams Park, was kept open all night.
Otherwise, giving booze to alcoholics from the comfort of a Bentley is rather odd, but touching.