via Michael comes this revolting blog post from Rachel Moran, a nice Florida girl who thinks that the homeless are sub-human and should be physically assaulted for having the audacity to speak to her. No, really:
We are thinking about proving this nuisance and need for civil action by making a short film called “Eddie Rolls on the Homeless,” whereby Mark secretly videotapes me and Lil Sis in a variety of situations to see how many homeless people approach us and, then, how many of these situations escalate into harrassment. Then, he’s gonna videotape Eddie in the same scenarios, only Eddie is going to beat up every homeless person who escalates the contact after being told that his panhandling is illegal and annoying.
You’re planning on beating up homeless people on video and it’s panhandling that’s illegal and wrong?
I suspect that Rachel and her friends are under the impression that beating someone up in response to verbal harassment is self defense. She may have a problem demonstrating that in court, though, when her idea to attract as many homeless people as possible and then physically assault them is published on the internet, and the crime is videotaped.
I resent street harassment as much as any feminist (or any woman, for that matter). I support calling men out on their bad behavior. And if a man attempts to assault someone, I hope his would-be victim puts him in the ER. But I certainly don’t support unprovoked assault, or attacking someone because he asked for money or responded when you told him that he’s a lazy bum who should go to Hell.
But then, this Rhodes Scholar’s problem doesn’t seem to be with harassment. It’s with the very existence of these filthy street “people” in her city.
At the table, Eddie was a little heated still and started to tell another story about how he had beaten up some other homeless guy.
We have decided that the homeless problem in St. Petersburg is becoming entirely out of control. Part of the problem is that a bunch of idiot liberal ‘Burgers will just stand there and let homeless people ramble on at them and then fumble for money or let themselves get yelled at when they don’t have any. I seriously know girls who are, like, afraid of downtown during certain times now, which is horrendous, because, for Christ’s sake, this is St. Petersburg, not Manhattan.
As someone who lives in Manhattan, I’ll point out that the homeless aren’t particularly threatening. Homelessness is a social problem, and it needs to be dealt with — but not by treating homeless people like stray dogs. The majority of homeless people are only homeless for one day. Rachel is talking about the chronic homeless, the people who usually suffer from serious mental health problems or physical addictions. The chronic homeless need ongoing support, not an overburdened shelter system which, for all of its good intentions, is limited to pushing them through a revolving door. And they certainly don’t need a narcissistic fuckwit blogger and her sociopath friends attacking them.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to courageously fend off Manhattan’s homeless minions as I walk downtown to get dinner.
Michael encourages you to contact the St. Petersburg police.