It's property, see, and even when it goes into the trash, it's still someone's property."

- DU's Very Serious Centrist Brigade

When it is discarded the police can go through it for whatever evidence they want.

"When it is discarded you have no legal clam anymore", as I have been told by one of Tucson's finest.

Who has legal claim to what's in a landfill?

I assume then that the dumpster paid for the food ? Charity and common sense have truly gone out the window .

I can't be sure in this case because locations and waste removal companies may differ from how it works here.

In my neck of the woods, the waste you take to the transfer station or landfill is weighed and you pay a fee based on that weight. Most of the removal companies here that provide dumpsters to businesses are contracted and agree to empty them usually on a schedule, the waste removal company in this arrangement gets paid a flat rate by the contract and pay the weight charges themselves. Less weight, same contracted fee, but less expense to the company as their weight charges would be less, more profit.

whose property are they when they end up in Mr. Potter's trash?

You will never at something as anything other than that WHICH BELONGS TO SOMEONE.
Second, that store may have gone out of business, but you know for a fact that the owner is writing off that food as a loss when he could have DONATED IT AN STILL WRITTEN IT OFF.

this world is too mean.

Last edited Sat Apr 6, 2013, 11:37 PM - Edit history (1)

So pointless . Such a needless waste . Yes the pickup group let these people down big time but common sense, a sense of humanity, compassion should have allowed the bank to say to the people, take it and what is left will be dumped .

The bank's issue was a possible liability law suit if the people got sick or some other bad thing happened allowing them to have it ? Personal injury law suit are very common from those we try to help sometimes ?

Still, They could have had them sigh a waiver of sorts or something with a little fast effort to try and do the right thing instead of being hard jerks .

If I was a cop or the ones with the trucks, I couldn't do it. I'd have to say, "Just take me the fuck to jail."

I hate the insane zero-sum economy.I want it all gone.I want the belief in money to die.I want the rich to go hungry and forced to stand by the 100 or so people,watching dinner being taken when they can't buy food I want the rich to feel the desperation and misery THEY cause..to be nobodies like the rest of us.

to being Poor than it is from being Rich to being Poor.

One of these days, the Economic Recovery Bubble, fueled by funny money and zero percent interest rates is going to pop.

Living la Vida Loca is only good, as long as you have the money to sustain the Lifestyle. When the money runs out, The Gated Community you thought was protection, becomes just another unwelcoming place.

I just started getting into gardening and this is what I realised. On my little 1/5 of an acre lot, I could grow more food than I could eat if I wanted to. One little packet of seeds had the potential for hundreds of plants that could feed dozens of people.

We have the ability to feed everyone but we choose not to because it would drive the prices down. We have the ability to cloth and house everyone. We have the technology to let anyone talk to anyone else in the world or to sit down and watch any movie ever made or listen to any song or read any book but we choose to deny all of those things to the most unfortunate amongst us so that the more fortunate can get richer and richer. And the only excuse we give is that the poor haven't "earned" those things which we could easily share with everyone.

Like you, I have a good sized lot and can grow the things that are so expensive in the supermarket that it makes me want to scream. One of the greatest pleasures on earth is to pick your own tomatoes warmed by the afternoon sun - and eat more at the bush than you put in the basket!

rich people richer is the most important thing in the world.

Time is not on anyone’s side and the earth is bigger than all of us including them.

But hard to figure out how they come to that conclusion at times.

... because they consider themselves Christ's mouthpiece, and they really worship themselves. If Christ appeared and reminded them that everything they were doing was evil, they'd switch labels like a spinning top. I've heard many say that if they ever find out one thing in the Bible is wrong, they won't believe anymore. They don't worship Jesus, and they don't even really worship the Bible (they'll burn you at the stake if you accuse them of bibliolatry); what they DO worship is themselves and their beliefs, which are acutely attuned to their own desires. PERIOD.

Now, see how easy that was?

....would crucify Jesus Christ if he came back tomorrow and tried to get these gasbags to change their ways. Or worse.

"When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God."

Leviticus 19: 9 "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest."

Leviticus 19:10 "Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God."

Leviticus 24:19 "When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands."

Leviticus 24:20 "When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow."

Deuteronomy 24:19 "When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands."

Looks like a pretty explicit Christian doctrine to me.

Dick Cheney's wife and daughter have been hard at work on a 'Conservatives' Bible translation which they promise has been stripped of any references to being your brother's keeper or any other hint of social justice. Once that's published all the conservatives can switch to their translation and then deny there is any other valid one in existence.

But you obviously don't know the scriptures of Supply Side Jesus...

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"The bank ordered the food to be loaded into dumpsters and hauled to a landfill instead of distributed. The people that gathered had to be restrained by police as they saw perfectly good food destroyed. Local Sheriff Richard Roundtree told the news “a potential for a riot was extremely high.” "

I wondered whose plan this was....SunTrust Bank. I figures.

And I am shocked that there was not a riot. It is about time for one and it is amazing that these people had that much self-restraint.

Far to many of the homeless are not the old stereotype. Many had jobs, saved, did all a person is supposed to do. Then things happened and now, even though they did their part, they worked very hard, they are with nothing.

We also have old Vets on the streets. We have Vets coming back to nothing. This too will add to the unrest.

We also have those with no job, and are losing everything no mater how hard they fight. They go out every day and place applications and yet no call for even a quick interview.

Last but not lest is those that are hanging on a thread. They are the ones fight to keep 2-3 jobs to keep a roof of some sort. Yet, they keep fall behind the old "eight ball".

I keep posting on other sites about how we must use words and use good old MLK type of Civil Disobedience to change things. But with what I have heard at the food pantry, the unemployment / job hunt help office , even outside on the street and on the bus, I don't think many will keep peaceful for long.

And that scares me.

they know if the lid comes off, they will be completely fucked for at least another 50 years in America, as much of their wealth and power will be (rightly) stripped from them. They seek to strike a balance between you being scared of the rioting, and your NEEDING to participate in those same riots.

When it does blow...

And when the lid does blow off, as it must and shall, for a time there will be no containing the understandable rage of the masses.

If I might drop a note about the blind stupidity of conservatives, though, let me tell you the story of one I met here who tried to tell me the evil fascist dictator in 'V Is For Vengeance' (or whatever the movie was called) represented liberals and not the rightwingers! This was a woman who virtually worships all the Bushies.

I'm trying to say, some people are dumber than dirt and you can't change that. Even when the present system crashes down around them, they'll still deny responsibility.

I've probably got the name wrong, but I love the movie. It's late for an old lady to be up, and my new meds are kicking in. Sorry.

If you have a head for processing what some people don't consider literature, get a copy.

Sorry I couldn't think of the correct title. Sometimes when I'm tired enough - in this case angry enough, too - I'm lucky to be able to think at all.

Their money isnt here. They have homes in several countries. They arent really from here anymore.

that it would not be peaceful for long, because the only reason it was kept peaceful during MLK's time was that he was such a powerful leader. And you need a strong, respected leader to keep people focussed. I see no one at this time.

But I also do not see people moving toward change. It may be hidden under the surface, but I don't even see waves.....it is like everyone has given up. For now.

When all the people that are getting restless start to act on their own, and many are getting to that point, their will be anarchy like the world has not seen for a long time. And that is what really scares me the most.

But it may wind up being the only way out of our present mess.

What amazes, saddens, and shocks me is that they and we have become convinced that in such a situation a riot is not considered appropriate; that we have become so cowed that hunger in the face of discarded, unwanted, and literally trashed (but perfectly good) food is not enough justification by Very Serious And Reasonable People to defy Order and Authority with massed force and fully righteous rage.

What use has a bank for discarded food bound for a landfill? What use has a bank for an unowned and unused home, car, or boat? Banks should not be able to own such things. Banks should not be able to own things it cannot, by any applicable logic, ever actually use.

When the dam breaks, it will break loose hell itself. Banks themselves will be one of the first targets for wholesale destruction. I don't know whether to shudder at that prospect with trepidation, or with anticipation.

Or both...

I am one of those people who try to do the law-abiding thing. And I do not think that riots are the answer. But I also agree that one of these days, it will be inevitable. And I worry about that day.

it follows the thought of those who would rather see people go hungry than someone get something for nothing

.... of plutocrat thinking. When I was married, my ex went to work for one of the most powerful forces of conservatism. You might guess we divorced soon after. But meanwhile, this woman proudly gave me a large amount of premium honey even though I kept insisting it was far more than my family could use in a lifetime.

So I turned around and gave most of it to the farmhands who'd cared for the bees who made the honey. When Ms. RichBich found out, she screamed at me in a purple rage. "Why did you do that? Those people don't even know what to do with it!"

I looked at her with my awful faux-confusion and mumbled, "Well.... I figured they'd just eat it, same as I did with my part."

It was her husband, a state senator, who told me in public later that the only good Democrat was a dead one. Though I do have to admit I'd chained myself to his booth at the state fair.

Sun Trust Bank should have allowed the police to give the food away. What was the point of throwing away good food. However, the police should have just disobeyed the order and given as much of the food away as possible. What would have happened to the police? I think that if Sun Trust would have tried to retaliate against the police they (Sun Trust) would have had supporters, but I think more people who have supported the police. I think most people would have said it was better for good food to be given away than for it to be thrown in the trash.

On another note, we have to stop blaming things like this on Capitalism. This did not happen because of Capitalism. This happened because of a few individuals who made a decision. You can give things away in a Capitalist society. Yes, most things are sold for a profit, but you can, under certain circumstances, give some things away. We have to start blaming individuals who make certain decisions and not the system.

It is an unsustainable system that siphons capital from the many to give to the few.

it needs an external, guiding Moral Compass that is NOT Avarice. (FDR figured that out, and in so doing, saved the Wealth of his own class, even if the rest of his "class" were too dumb to see that at the time. )

The Christian Conservative block in this country think that that Moral Compass is the Bible, and the rest of us think it's the will of a Moral People, excercised by the Proxy Arm of the State, empowered to act, again, by Our Free Will. It's why they don't think that programs like the New Deal are even MORALLY acceptable, (as it seeks to remove even the need for INDIVIDUAL Morality) let alone Constitutionally legal. And for the record, when they say to me "thats EXACTLY correct", I ask them to explain to me why they favor outlawing Abortion, and thats usually when they get REALLY PISSED and walk away.

The GOP and thier idiots believe the immorality of Randian greed (and if you press them, they admit that's what it is) can be countered by many acts of individual morality. Liberals believe a SINGLE act (elected Empowerment of Government) of MASS Moral Conscience is better suited to the task.

It must suck for them that the Structure of our Government clearly lends itself to our way of thinking.

The Capitalist system does not have to take from the many to give to the few. We just need more people to try to empower the many.

It encourages and enables massive greed of the plutocrats and economic slavery of everyone else. Not my notion of 'freedom and justice for all'. The 1% must be restrained to a far greater degree than the law allows now, and you know they won't do right voluntarily. If Warren Buffet sits there and sounds sympathetic to any degree, it's only because he knows fat cows give more milk. I'm tired of the rest of us being considered valuable livestock at best, with no inherent rights our masters don't choose to bestow on us.

as a liability where somebody could sue them later if the became ill from spoiled food: no matter if it was a non-perishable.

I'm not condoning what the bank did as just. Too many people are suffering while stupid shit like this happens day in and day out.


I'm not sure of the amount, but businesses throw away good food at the end of the night simply because they can't sell it the next day, and they won't give it away for free.

There are businesses that do give food to homeless shelters, but what are the percentages involved in that?


Sucks.

the free food could hold the bank liable for some sickness? Come on. Would a food bank be liable for a food born illness? Has anyone sued the soup kitchen yet? You see that's what this country has come to .. cover your own ass .. people who are hungry and poor be damned. Don't you get it. It is ALL ABOUT CAPITALISM .. CAPITALISM HAS EATEN, AND IS EATING, US ALIVE !!

Interesting how that fucking industry keeps ending up holding the reins, isn't it?

Fucking interesting. Like a purple legion on one's skin.

if they can find any that are not under lock and key----because people do not want to see this happening in this, the greatest country in the world.

This was put out at the curb. It belonged to no one. It was the equivalent of a dumpster, with food that was still good and not covered in crap.

ahead of time, reducing nonperishable food items at reductions finally down to below 75% off until everything was gone. Some grocery stores donate outdated stuff to charities. The Laney Walker people could have found a much better solution. My experience in retail has indicated that damaged or outdated items must be "written off," but trashing unsold food to this extent is criminal.

Mine's been predicting stupid shit to me lately, too, and in exactly that way. So has my sister's.

I'm starting to wonder if we all got a really really bad update somehow....

Guillotines, anyone?

We just might see some nasty things...

Because societies never seem to learn their lesson until too late.

The bank said, "Let them take the cake to the landfill."

Guillotine?

No.

Stake. Wood. Flame. Burn. Goodbye.

anyone have the feathers?

The fact that this could even happen is indicative of how the capitalist world system has corrupted civic society.
The folks emptying the building could have handed toe food over, the driver of the truck could have stopped and let the food be removed. Any number of decisions could have gotten this food into the hands of the people that need it.

(before I knew him) when his employer instructed him to break/destroy the toys that didn't sell over Christmas. How heartless can you be to prevent hungry people from picking up discarded food? Criminal.

...at all, there must be maintained a lack/inadequacy within the people of the society as a whole. Too much lack/inadequacy risks social upheaval and insurrection and the imposition of the Police State.

But with a sustained level of poverty that lies just under the tipping point of a lack and/or inadequacy of the basic requirements of a normal life with nutritious food, shelter and clothing (as the planet is more than capable of providing us all), the more solidified capitalism's position becomes. And since no one wishes to be the one to upset the apple cart (because we've been taught that any other system will surely result in utter chaos) we tolerate its moral insufficiency out of FEAR.


- And yet that is why capitalism's end is inevitable. It is SOCIETAL CANCER and if not cut out it will kill its hosts......

K&R

Zombie Bankers Eat Brainz!!!

Away every day due to the rampant amount of litigation in this country. Even entire truckloads are sent to landfills if fhe trailer is damaged in transit.even if there is nothing wrong with the product.

Not defending this just explaining why.

In his famous novel The Grapes of Wrath (Chapter 25), John Steinbeck described how food was destroyed during the Great Depression:

“Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people come for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges... A million people hungry, needing the fruit – and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country.

Burn coffee for fuel in the ships... Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out [with nets]. Slaughter the pigs and bury them... And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates – died of malnutrition – because the food must be forced to rot.”

A few more facts. In 1933 alone, the US federal government bought 6 million hogs and destroyed them. Vast quantities of milk were poured down the sewers. 25 million acres of crops (the area of a square with sides 200 miles long) were ploughed under. In Brazil, 69 million bags of coffee, equivalent to two years’ output, were destroyed. All to keep up prices.

More: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2010/no-1272-august-2010/material-worldwaste-and-want-grapes-wrath-revisite

Same as it ever was.

Where has the America that I grew up in gone?
Has runaway capitalism killed it, while making a few greedy individuals rich?
I seem to think so.

I suppose if the bank ordered the cops to open fire on the poor they would have to do that too.

while hungry farm workers starved. The farmers spray oranges with kerosene, throw potatoes in the river, slaughter and bury excess pigs. They overproduced and to reduce the excess supply and increase prices, the market demands that they let food rot.

"There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." --from chapter 25

This struck me as a failure of our free market system. Here we had food available for picking. We had workers willing to work. We had hungry people who needed the food. And our banks and business people and the whole capitalist system could not figure out how to bring these ingredients together. The economics of the situation demanded that children starve to death with food rotting on the ground. The farmers had to, felt forced to, poison that food because the "invisible hand" of the marketplace could not allow people to have food for free.

... the more we stink ourselves.

Thank God I've had no dealings with banks since 1978.

North Korea? Nah, no worries. BANKERS have a long history of abuse and killing and generally damaging human beings. THEM I worry about, and this story is a perfect example.

"The normal process is once law enforcement leaves, it becomes public property. But again, with 400 people out with items such as these. These were brand new items from the store. We saw that the potential for a riot was extremely high," says Sheriff Richard Roundtree.

From: http://www.wjbf.com/story/21800863/laney-supermarket-gets-evicted

I think quite a few hear got spun up by spin.

FROM THEMSELVES.

That's a heap of bullshit right there. They KNEW- THEY FUCKING WELL KNEW- there were hungry people, people with kids, there that day.

There were too many, so nobody gets anything?

Bull. Shit.

They would have done the exact same goddamned thing if there had been two, or twenty, or none at all. How do I know this?

Because it's happened before, out of sight, with nobody there to glean from the discards.

Is that here is a legitimate news article that says that the sheriffs office made the decision to keep people away.

So while many are spewing anti-centrist, anti-bank, anti-rich, world hating, anti-christian, anti-corporate, anti-capitalist, business hating rhetoric, they didn't read the majority of the more mainstream articles out there. They describe the bank as asking the Sheriffs office to have the store left overs removed from the premises. So the Bank had no claim on that stuff. The store owner was willing to give it away, after all, it belonged to him. It was the sheriffs office that made the call to not let people have it.

So get mad at the sheriff, yell and scream, he deserves it. The chaotic ranting so far is like the liberal version of a teabagger rally. It doesn't aid in spreading a liberal ideal IMO.

I cannot get this to open.

provided which doesnt oddly have any updates on the story is http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-03-27/food-bank-receive-items-evicted-augusta-grocery-store

Ramblin' Round
by Woody Guthrie

Ramblin' around your city
Ramblin' around your town
I never see a friend I know
As I go ramblin' 'round boys
As I go ramblin' 'round

My mother hoped that I might be
A man of some renown
But I am just a refugee
As I go ramblin' 'round boys
As I go ramblin' 'round

The peach trees they are loaded
The branches bending down
I pick 'em all day for a dollar boys
As I go 'ramblin 'round
As I go 'ramblin' 'round

Sometimes the fruit gets rotten
And falls on to the ground
There's a hungry mouth for every peach
As I go ramblin' 'round boys
As I go ramblin' 'round

©1962 TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (ASCAP)