Tonight at The Mink: Protest the City’s Criminalization of Charity

Utterly ridiculous. I’ll freely admit I haven’t been able to follow this like I’d have liked, but even the basic facts of this seem ludicrous. Under a new law, if you want to freely give food to the homeless, you have to get permission from the property owner (meaning the City of Houston, in a lot of cases) beforehand. Otherwise, you’re breaking the law and get to pay a $500 fine. Awesome.

You remember that whole “charity” thing, where helping people is actually good? Yeah, well, fuck that. Apparently the need to not have to see/hear groups of those dirty/freaky/evil homeless people trumps helping the less fortunate. sigh. Welcome to America in the 21st Century, where the motto of even the supposed “good guys” (i.e., Mayor Annise Parker, this city’s first openly gay mayor) turns out to be: “If you’ve got money, we’re on your side; if you don’t, well, get lost.”

I’m not going to go into the whole thing right now, but check out Nick Cooper‘s group Houston Keep Sharing Free! and this excellent writeup on the Texas Observer.

Then head on up to The Mink tonight (Sat., April 14th) for a benefit/protest involving some very cool bands — {Free Radicals} & Days N’ Daze, for two. Anybody with a conscience should be willing to fight this thing, y’all.