Homeless man jailed for recharging phone

Police in Sarasota, Florida, haven't learned shit from the Occupy campaign.

On Sunday, a homeless man was arrested there because he dared to use a public electrical outlet in a public park to recharge his cell phone. He was jailed overnight because he couldn't make bail.

Cops accused him of "theft of city utilities." Bzt! Wrong answer! The city can't install a public outlet and then say people are stealing if they try to use it. This underscores the point that the law is being selectively enforced. Would they have arrested attendees of a Tea Party rally for using the outlet to plug in a microphone? Somehow I doubt it. Indeedity-doodledy, the city erects public outlets all over town for people to charge electric cars for free. The city can't very well claim energy is free only if you have a car.

The city of Sarasota is lean and mean regarding the homeless community. In 2006, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless ranked Sarasota as the nation's meanest city towards the homeless.

But there's a happy ending to this story. On Monday, the judge threw out the charges against the man because the police had no case.

I'm waiting for the Fox News worshipers to clutter the Sarasota paper's comment section with trite complaints against the homeless and "Obamaphones."

(Source: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20121112/ARTICLE/121119888/2416/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg)