Homeless people arrested for selling newspapers. What gives?

If they want the homeless to go away, they shouldn’t buy the newspapers. Somebody has made an ass of themselves, that’s for sure.

The homeless probably sell newspapers they acquired via five-finger discount. That’s why the police get involved.

Are they selling Street Spirit or papers from the newsstands? Sometimes the homeless pay for one paper and take the entire stack to sell. Not exactly supposed to do that, but no one seems to care. Seems like they’re using any excuse to move them out.
This makes me sad.

Bagels, I did a little investigating and the newspapers are printed for the use of the homeless people, in order for them to be able to do something in their life to contribute to society. The printer, I assume, takes an income tax deduction, for his costs involved. As far as I can tell, it’s all legitimate and I personally think it’s a great idea. It keeps most of the homeless off the streets and away from the whiskey bottle for at least a short while.

Cops fucking with innocent people….nothing new about that.

It seems ironic that the homeless who have tried to take some initiative (versus just panhandling) are the ones being punished.

Way to send out a good message, Franklin.

This is a perfect example of what happens when cops have too much time on their hands.

Usually suburbs have very strict guidlines about selling things with permits, so maybe they violated that rule.

But then again, as @cheebdragon said, probably bored surburban cops.

Aren’t they allowed to sell that paper that they contribute to in Nashville if they have a proper ID?

I’m guessing that it’s probably the license issue that @cletrans2col alluded to. The City of Franklin web page dealing with business license and “privilege tax” is pretty clear. Presumably better-heeled merchants on the streets where the homeless are “offending” would be militant about making sure that the t’s are crossed and the i’s dotted for “competing” businesses.

But “arresting” seems draconian. (And licensing seems to be unwarranted.)

@CWOTUS not only merchants but suburbanites too, I’d bet.

NIMBY.

It is the same mentality that some cops have when they issue tickets to girl scouts running lemonade stands. Someone is on a power trip and common sense went out the window

FWIW, It may not be the cop on the power trip, (s)he may just be doing what he was ordered to do.

The police are paid to enforce the law. They have very little say in the laws they enforce. It is not a good idea to blame the police for a problem they did not create. If there is an issue with the law, the people involved should use the avenues available to them to change it.

It is not my business to interfere with the laws of a community that I know nothing about.

Remember, I am on the side of the homeless, in this situation.

It’ll sure teach those homeless a lesson or two about trying to improve their lives. Good riddance!

On a more serious note, I dont think theres enough information here to determine if the police have much of anything to do with this. My gut reaction is someone in local politics getting overzealous with their authority.

Wow, that’s so backwards. We have a paper like that here in DC, called street sense, which is written and sold by homeless people. It’s a really neat way for them to earn money and be productive, and it raises awareness about homeless issues.

It makes me sad that this town would arrest homeless people who are working to help themselves.