Tasty Morning Bytes – Exploiting the Homeless, Gray Not Grandstanding and More Civil Disobedience
Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are some links for a soggy gray day:
Women Beating Homeless Men For Cash; DC Advocates Fighting It Local advocates for the homeless say fights are being staged for a website which offers videos of homeless men being attacked by “scantily-clad women”. Each man receives between $25-50 for allowing themselves to be hit, but the videos sell for hundreds of dollars. “Recently, the National Coalition for the Homeless, a DC-based organization, obtained a temporary restraining order barring the site’s producers from approaching homeless people.” (wusa9.com)
Treading On D.C. Adam Serwer points out that neither the White House nor Congressional Democrats had the courtesy to alert Mayor Gray that “they were trading away the city’s autonomy to stave off further budget cuts.” And as for those who characterized the Mayor and certain Councilmembers actions as a mere stunt? “Gray getting arrested was a stunt. But stunts are really all the city has to register its displeasure, since it’s not like we have representation in Congress that might be able to make a difference.” (The American Prospect)
Witnessing the DC Rights Protest via Flickr Eyewitness account of a local photographer, who was at the protest: “In general, I tend to dislike political grandstanding… but this was different. If our council was being arrested by our own police, I’d think it a cheesy photo op… but now our locally-elected officials were being arrested by the very forces we were out to protest: the Feds. This wasn’t a mere photo op arrest; this was actually a legitimate arrest… the kind of thing that goes on your record; the kind of thing you spent a night in jail for.” (flickr.com)
Metro: New Fees Not Changing Ridership Habits While commuters aren’t thrilled about the peak-of-the-peak fare increase, the extra costs have not reduced congestion, perhaps because a large number of riders are federal workers, who are unable to alter their work schedules: “The fee increases were put into place last year to help Metro fill more than $100 million of a budget gap. Metro says only about 3 percent of trips have moved from the busiest parts of the morning and evening commutes.” (myfoxdc.com)
Kwame Brown talks about his arrest (after protesting for DC Rights) “It just made me think about the stuff that my father had been through in the civil rights movement, and my mom and others who probably didn’t get treated the way I got treated when I got put in that paddy wagon,” Brown said. From a historic standpoint it’s just about civil rights. This is the modern day fight. It really taught me that you can make a difference and you can send a message when we unite behind one issue and you have the courage to just sit there.” (bizjournals.com)