Cappuccino Soul

Cappuccino Soul

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Hatefulness for the Homeless in New York City

I haven’t lived in New York for quite some time, so I’m not in touch with how some of the city’s residents feel about the homeless population there. But as I read a Gawker post today, I must say that I’m awfully glad that I no longer live “up in the Bronx,” because if this is how the elite feel about homeless people in uptown Manhattan, certainly nobody gives a damn about the homeless folks in the boogie down.

The Gawker blog's post today titled, “Today in Suing the Homeless,” contains an odd response to antique dealer Karl Kemp’s lawsuit against four homeless people. Kemp filed the suit this week against “Doe,” “Bob Doe,” “John Smith” and “Jane Doe.” Evidently, Kemp doesn’t even know the names of these people who he claims have alienated customers and blocked window displays at his fine establishment on Madison Avenue.

This is what the Gawker has to say about the "Does" and the homeless in New York:

We have to admit, we've often found ourselves guilty of harboring less than charitable feelings towards the group of bums who loiter drunkenly on the corner of our block all day and night, occasionally interrupting their nonstop revelry to have teary fights, vom[it], and whip out their mottled, chicken sausage-ish wieners and pee. But it's never crossed our mind to litigate.


At least an AP reporter had the decency to call a homeless advocate to get her opinion of the lawsuit. Shelly Nortz, a deputy executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, called the suit mean-spirited. "The complaint that they somehow occasionally occupy a space that is also home to Gucci and Chanel doesn't mean that they're breaking any law," she told AP.

Some of the comments to the Gawker post are even more disheartening. Click here to read this straight dose of heartlessness.

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