Editorial: Fighting the wrong fight

Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006 | 8:04 a.m.

L as Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's backward War on the Homeless continued last week with another evildoer cited for her bad behavior.

Homeless activist Gail Sacco received her third citation Friday for the dastardly deed of feeding the homeless in a city park.

The novelty in Sacco's latest citation is that it came under a city ordinance that takes the city's fight to ridiculous new lows. It outlaws providing "food or meals to the indigent for free or for a nominal fee" in a city park and goes on to define an indigent person as one "whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive assistance" under state law.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has sued the city in federal court over this ordinance and another that requires a permit for groups of 25 or more in a city park - Sacco was cited twice under the latter.

Lee Rowland, an ACLU of Nevada public advocate, said the latest ordinance is clearly targeted to discriminate against those without money.

"It creates a government-sanctioned caste system," Rowland said. "It's not only morally revolting, it's frightening."

Under a strict reading of the law, Rowland says, "You could have two friends go on a picnic, but only one of you could share your apple pie because the other's on welfare."

But that's not the intent of the ordinance, which is to sweep the homeless out of the parks and someplace - any place - else. It's understandable that people who live around city parks are upset by homeless people living in parks, but to criminally cite the good Samaritans, shooing them out and shoving the homeless onto the street is the wrong way to address the problem.

A year and a half ago Sacco started to help and has since become an advocate, something of a social worker and a friend to the homeless and an occasional target of city leadership.

"They've used me as a scapegoat," Sacco told us. " 'Oh, look, Gail Sacco is drawing them to a public park or away from social services' " by feeding the homeless in a park.

"I don't draw them away from the (homeless) corridor. They live down there," she said, referring to where she feeds them.

The meals, though, are an opening toward long-term help.

"Normally homeless people are thinking about survival for that day - food, hydration and proper clothing for just that day," Sacco said. "The homeless, especially the chronic homeless, are a very difficult bunch of people to work with. Six days during a week they may say, 'I'm not going to Salvation Army, I'm not going to Catholic Charities,' and then that seventh day I may be able to get them to wherever."

That's exactly what the city ought to be doing instead of trying to criminalize poverty and homelessness.

The citations don't bother Sacco, who pledged to do "whatever I can as long as I can" to help the homeless and change the system. The citations bring media coverage, which helps.

"The city and county are doing more things, they're doing different things, and that's what we need, a different approach," she said. "When it's out of the media, when it's out of the public eye, they stop doing stuff."

And that's when they push idiotic ordinances that only exacerbate the problem.