Skip to main content

Loaves & Fishes’ program of “Collective Punishment”

Auschwitz gas chamber. While Loaves & Fishes' Collective Punishment acts and threats are not of a magnitude of what happens on the international stage, the psychology/philosophy is unjust, wrong and cruel, too.
In recent days Friendship Park co-manager Garren Bratcher and Jay, another Loaves & Fishes employee, have threatened the crowd in the cul-de-sac with closure of the Park for an hour if there are any instances of running when the gates are opened at 7am. While Garren and Jay have been beseeching, and seemingly kindly in the way they express themselves, it is fully a threat they are making, nonetheless.

I have complained, with a flier two years ago and a recent blogpost, about this grotesque practice of punishing all for the misdeeds of one or a few. Truly the punishment, and mere threat of such punishment, is unjust and can and does, when deployed, greatly disrupt the efforts of many homeless people to improve their lives.

I have now learned that Loaves & Fishes’ ongoing practice is termed “Collective Punishment,” which, is, of course, greatly condemned. At wikipedia, the term is described thus:
Collective punishment is the punishment of a group of people as a result of the behavior of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions.

In times of war and armed conflict, collective punishment has resulted in atrocities, and is a violation of the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions. Historically, occupying powers have used collective punishment to retaliate against and deter attacks on their forces by resistance movements (e.g. destroying whole towns and villages where attacks have taken place).
An example of an atrocious effort in Collective Punishment is the blaming and harming of Jews, by some Christians, for the supposed acts of some Jews, 2000 years ago, in being causal for the death of Christ. Collective punishment is also the method of the Nazis, used against Poles, in World War II: Killing ten Poles, arbitrarily, if one Nazi soldier was killed while policing the streets in Warsaw.

Collective punishment is the basis of racism and tribalism and the most backward and unjust of actions. It is the underpinning of War Crimes and is one of Loaves & Fishes’ longstanding practices to control homeless people, in tune with the philosophy of “warehousing the rabble.”

The administrative people in Friendship Park, known at Green Hats, are fully capable of punishing precisely those who disobey rules.  This is the just alternative to what they are now doing.

By punishing all people wanting and needing to get into the Park when it is scheduled to open, it delays homeless people at getting ready for and to work. Too, it prevents homeless people from otherwise “getting their day on” to take actions to get employment, or get to their appointments, or otherwise do something with and in their lives. A primary reason this is so is because people's lockers are in the park! People are denied access to the things they need that can include documents, food, and a warm coat -- for crying out loud!

In the fairly recent past, Loaves & Fishes has closed its Park for days without giving notice of what it is doing in Collective Punishment because of empty alcohol bottles found in the men’s restroom, or somesuch.

For the actions of a few, all were punished. That is grotesque and if the Loaves & Fishes Board of Directors wasn’t by all indicators comatose, I would hope they would stop the nonprofit's terrible, primitive behaviors.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

More obstacles revealed in effort to make Mather cottages habitable

Mold, asbestos and lead paint, oh my! The 35 cottages out at Mather Community Campus seem closer to being condemned today than ever again being inhabited. But the expectation that some of the cottages can and will be restored to house homeless families before spring abides. A report in the Sacramento Bee tells us ... Some [of the cottages] have extensive mold, a county analysis showed. It's not clear how the county planned to deal with lead paint and asbestos, [Rancho Cordova] Councilwoman Linda Budge said. Still, hope of getting some of the cottages in shape such that homeless families can move in is in play, though not before New Year's day.  Word of where the money might come from to make needed restorations has not been forthcoming, though it is known that the Winter Shelter Task Force hopes to hold a fundraiser to boost the pool of funds to meet the need to keep homeless people warm and safe. At the end of October, placing families, totalling 105 individuals, was

Ron Russell and Summerhills Realty

Readers of this blog should be aware that I am receiving some information that Summerhills Realty and someone named Ron E. Russell is using this blog as a reference in an effort to scam homeless people.  Be aware that Mr. Russell and his business is cited as a possible perpetrator of fraud by a website called Ripoff Report .  See this webpage .  Also, there is this claim of fraud against Ron Russell Properties at the website BizClaims - Latest scams, frauds and complaints . Please be aware that the information of being 'ripped off'' may be coming from only one source is coming from multiple sources, with perhaps as many as twelve persons/couples now pursuing legal action after paying thousands of dollars for services and receiving none of the services that were promised/contracted. While I know neither Mr. Russell nor Summerhills, I do know that an inordinate number of “in links” from readers of this blog have come via summerhillsrealestate.com for quite some time.  I

Loaves & Fishes implicates Buddhism and Jack Kornfield in its June Donations Plea.

The Sukhothai Traimit Golden Buddha was found in a clay-and-plaster overlaid buddha statue in 1959, after laying in wait for 500 years. It's huge and heavy: just under 10 feet tall and weighs 5 1/2 tons. At the beginning of their June newsletter , Loaves and Fishes relates a story, taken from the beginning of renowned Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield's 2008 book The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology . The first part and first chapter in Kornfield's book is "Part I: Who are you really?" and chapter 1 is called "Nobility: Our Original Goodness," which ought to serve as a clue to what the beginning of the book is about, not that that sentiment isn't strewn through-out the chapter, section and book such that what Kornfield is telling us should be crystal clear. Somehow, the not-ready-for-primetime management at Loaves & Fishes have managed to use Kornfield's wise and kindly words in a way that mangles th