From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 1996 08:09:34 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: SOUP KITCHENS
Message-ID: <ae27b98904021004e701@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 2:39 PM 8/2/96, Sandy Sandfort wrote:

>I find it amusing that the law is supposedly so concerned with
>food purity for the "homeless."  Hang out near a fast-food place
>sometime and watch the street people dumpster dive for the
>half-eaten remains of other people's Big Macs.  That is the true
>alternative to volunteer feeding programs.  (That, or getting a
>job.)

I thought the point you were about to make when you said "Hang out near a
fast-food place..." is that a _lot_ of "roach coaches" are much filthier
than any "Food Not Bombs" soup kettle I've ever seen.

(Fortunately, people survive all kinds of dirt and germs. If dogs and cats
can eat stuff off the floor, and our ancestors did before hot water, soap,
and autoclaves, then so can we. Not to mention children. But I digress.)

The use of zoning and health code ordnances to harass certain classes of
people is nothing new. Like I said, the Boy Scout Cookout and similar
"good" events are not bothered by City Inspectors descending on them to
shut them down.

>The truth is that local officials are perverting the health codes
>to harass these operations, not to "protect the homeless."  At
>it's core, it is a hypocritical abuse of power, not unlike the
>invocation of the Four Horseman to keep strong crypto out of the
>hands of average Americans.

Further, in time past the operation of a "street food" service (hot dogs,
ice cream, various knoshing items, etc.) was a way for otherwise poor
persons to start a business. My own city, Santa Cruz, has no pushcart
vendors, and only one officially-approved sidewalk hotdog vendor. A loss
for us, a loss for would-be vendors, and with no gain in "food safety" that
I can plausible see.

I actually think this shows another side of the harassment of food
giveaways and low-cost vendors: it cuts down on competition with the
established food entities. While I tend to dismiss "corporate conspiracy"
theories about how Giant Corporations are repressing and suppressing the
Little Guys, there is little doubt that licensing, zoning, and other
governmental restrictions are often used by established entities to keep
out competition. Licenses get used for what economists call "rent-seeking"
behavior.

(Examples abound in other areas, too, such as where large chip companies
like Intel actually relish the vast amounts of paperwork they are required
to fill out, becuase this overhead and legal burden can be handled by their
buildings full of paper pushers, but helps to keep small companies from
entering the market. Intel has actually insisted that small companies file
the same environmental impact reports, labor reports, etc., that they have
to fill out. Understandable at one level, but also an example of using "the
system" to put pressure on upstarts. Or, the rent-seeking of professional
guilds, well-known to all of us.)

As to Alan Horowitz's bizarre notion that "public streets" are not to be
used for giving away food, does he believe the same to be true of giving
away speech, giving away ideas, passing books to other people, etc.? "There
are bookstores for selling or buying books, and anyone who engages in this
sort of action on a public street will have his attitude adjusted with my
billy club."

"Public" areas cause problems for analysis of rights, I will grant. The
"commons problem" is well known. But I think that the specific cases we've
been discussing, of whacking bums with nightsticks for the crime of not
maintaining "proper decorum," and of Food Not Bombs being shut down while
the Boy Scouts are not, are clear cases where the law is being misapplied.

(Were I a lawyer, and had the Food Not Bombs case come to trial, I would've
collected evidence that a large number of other groups were not sanctioned
for not having food preparation permits, and I would've argued it was a
case of "selective enforcement" for political reasons.)

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
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