By Anthony Jauregui
Senior Staff Writer
You’re walking down the street and you haven’t eaten in days. You come across a Snickers bar on the side of the road so you lunge for it, rip it open and take the most delicious bite you’ve ever had. You rip the wrapper to shreds and toss it on the floor. Boom, you’re fined one million dollars for littering.
This is becoming increasingly popular in that law officials focus on the smallest, seemingly innocuous offenses, rather than focusing on more harmful issues like human trafficking, drunk driving and wearing flip flops with jeans.
Crimes of any nature should be taken seriously, but would you feel more comfortable having our cops put more effort into giving a homeless person a ticket or arresting someone for driving erratically? The driving force behind stopping panhandling in Bakersfield is the Downtown Business Association.
According to bakersfielddba.com, “Whatever the reason for panhandling, it is agreed that most panhandlers need assistance.”
I guess the best way to give panhandlers assistance is fining them even though they can’t afford a can of corn.
South Park made a satirical episode on homeless people, and the best way to stop them isn’t fining them, surprisingly. Just ignore them, and they’ll go to venice beach.
Not all police involvement is bad, however. Over the span of months, internet cafes around the city which harbor illegal gambling and shady people who sell drugs in parking lots were shut down and reopened illegally. The police department shut them down without hesitation to stop crime involving its inhabitants.
This is the kind of police involvement I admire because it shows that they are making an effort to stop overall crime, and not writing a ticket to Goldilocks for eating some porridge.
Recently, a special-ed student from Pennsylvania was charged with felony wiretapping when he recorded himself getting bullied. The school had an anti-electronic device policy, so his iPad was confiscated and the child’s mother had to meet with administration to get it back. According to thedailycaller.com, “he could be ‘facing felony wiretapping charges’ for making a recording in a place with an expectation of privacy.”
Not only should the administration be smacked upside the head, they should focus on the fact that there is obesity running rampant across the nation.
There are much bigger problems out there besides panhandling and recording on an electronic device. I would rather have my authorities target pimps who beat their hoes than a disabled kid who gets beat by bullies.
