How America Turned Poverty into a Crime

An excerpt from Barbara Ehnreneich’s book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America on Salon:

The viciousness of the official animus toward the indigent can be breathtaking. A few years ago, a group called Food Not Bombs started handing out free vegan food to hungry people in public parks around the nation. A number of cities, led by Las Vegas, passed ordinances forbidding the sharing of food with the indigent in public places, leading to the arrests of several middle-aged white vegans.

How America Turned Poverty into a Crime