News & Blogs Homeless Man Arrested For Charging Cellphone At Public Park

[MolotovMocktail]

http://alternativemediasyndicate.co...rested-for-charging-cellphone-at-public-park/

Homeless Man Arrested For Charging Cellphone At Public Park
POSTED ON JANUARY 15, 2015




A homeless man was just arrested and spent the night in jail after police claim he was charging his cellphone in a public picnic shelter. That, apparently, is a serious, arrestable crime in Sarasota, Florida.

Darren Kersey, 28, was charged with “theft of utilities” after he was spotted charging his cell phone at Gillespie Park by Police Sgt. Anthony Frangioni.


Since he was unable to come up with the $500 bail, Kersey had to spend Sunday night behind bars.

Frangioni claims that he told Kersey that the “theft of city utilities will not be tolerated during this bad economy.”

Circuit Judge Charles Williams threw the case out first thing Monday morning, allowing Kersey to walk free. The judge said the cop basically made the law up and that he lacked any legal justification to make this arrest.

But Frangioni is no rookie. The Sergeant is a 14-year veteran of the Sarasota Police Department.

Captain Paul Sutton is said to be reviewing the arrest, which the American Civil Liberties Union appears to now be interested in.


Michael Barfield, heads the legal panel for the Sarasota chapter of the ACLU. He said, “we have been monitoring the efforts to root the homeless out of the parks, and have several actions planned against the city. So much happens on a daily basis, it’s hard to keep up with it. Every day there’s something new.”

The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports that in 2006, the city was deamed the “meanest city” by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless.

 

[Odin]

I can charge my laptop at the public library while siting at a desk and using free library wifi. Would you arrest me there?

How is a public picnic shelter different from a public library officer?

How about if I was using the outlet to charge a phone... but I was with my trophy wife and two and a half kids with my hibachi grill having an outing... would you have arrested me then??

FUCK... this is primo example of stupidity programed by dumb ass officers that probably pay more attention to dancing with the stars then law... or even the philosophy and concept of justice.


Someone arrest this cop for being a fucking dumbass.

 

[Tude]

I know @Odin - they are that much of a prick there then put a lock over their darn public facilities so that only the people who rent that shelter can use it. Good grief - right now it's like setting a trap or something. Like you have a wifi that is available - but only for certain people? That whole thing is bogus!

 

[Art101]

ACLU going to have a field day with them down there from the sound of it.Get some.

 

[beginnavagabond]

I live near there and have been there plenty of times. Last time I went there was in January and I am not going back. They have so many signs encouraging people NOT to give money to homeless people, it's ridiculous. I guess the only reason they stay is because there are rich people and they get more money. The city needs to find something else to do other than arrest homeless people for the dumbest of reasons.

 

[Kim Chee]

I know @Odin - they are that much of a prick there then put a lock over their darn public facilities so that only the people who rent that shelter can use it.

That's what I told 'em. They already lock the barbecue, they can lock the outlet as well.

Anyway, they liked me there. I helped clean up trash and they even brought up the subject of me working for the city ($25/hr isn't bad).

 

[Odin]

Why would you lock an outlet just to keep someone from charging a phone?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christo...nd-other-devices-use-and-what-to-do-about-it/

To be specific, your iPhone battery holds a charge of 1,440 mAh, or about 5.45 watt hours. If you fully drained and recharged your phone everyday, then over the course of a year you would have to feed it about 2,000 watt hours, or 2kWh. At an average price of 12 cents that means that your phone uses about one quarter’s worth of electricity per year.

Thats per year... so take 25 cents and divide it by 365 days.... 0.068493151 cents officer. Holly shit... I just fucked the municipal parks and rec budget.

Hell the taxes on one fucking paycheck should cover a lifetime of me charging my phone.

Now say someone were to come by plug in multiple power strips... then plug in a mini fridge, desktop gaming computer, electric heater... power tools... and an array of flashing neon lights. All while setting up hobo camp.

Then you might have a case.

Charging a cell phone... ridiculous.

 

[Kim Chee]

Why would you lock an outlet just to keep someone from charging a phone?

It's to keep people from using the outlet at all.

It isn't about how much electricity a phone uses. It's more about making accommodations for somebody who isn't working, paying taxes, leaving cig butts and beer bottles lying around all awhile keeping the people whose taxes pay for the facilities from using them.

If somebody wants to bash me for this, go ahead. But in the meantime, don't leave your trash laying around...it speaks about you long after you've moved on to trash another place.

As for not having a job or paying taxes, that is indeed your right and even a form of protest.

 

[SnakeOilWilly]

American "justice".

 

[Odin]

@7xMichael I'm not addressing the trash, cigarettes, and beer bottles.
If that was the case then by all means ticket or arrest the person for littering and destroying public property.

That figure I put up is my argument. Backed by the Forbes article. ONE days charge is 0.068493151 cents.
Thats a fraction of a fraction of a penny!

As for taxes... I'm sure most homeless people at some point have earned a check and paid into it. and Even not counting the taxes you pay on goods and services even if you are homeless...
That penny of tax on gas... or on your Walgreen burner phone you bought?? or whatever. they all go somewhere. I'm sure somewhere in my lifetime I have contributed to the community coffers.

To be arrested on 0.068493151 cents of public utilities at a public outlet is a farce.

I understand your concern about people wrecking and trashing the park but that is a separate issue.

I have respect for officers upholding the law justly.
In this case... there was something more going on. . . perhaps.

But you need to draw the line.

Whats next being arrested for drinking from a public fountain??

 

[Kim Chee]

@Odin I'm sure your figures are accurate. As you mention, a line has to be drawn somewhere.

I bet my 1000W George Foreskin grill running for 20 minutes equaled 1/2 year's worth of cell phone charges.

I freed myself from the outlet with a Goal Zero solar charger

Anything to make people who are homeless less welcome is becoming a nationwide mantra, Florida seems to be leading the way.

 

[Odin]

It's more about making accommodations for somebody who isn't working, paying taxes, leaving cig butts and beer bottles lying around all awhile keeping the people whose taxes pay for the facilities from using them.

This I agree with mostly... if you have a cluster of folks just hanging out charging phones and a family can't enjoy a picnic at the public bbq/ table gazebo... whatever it is... then schedules... time limits and regs would need to be enforced.

By a park Ranger... (I volunteer...never was a hallmoniter in jr high)

I'm not for people messing up the use of public places for everyone... those kids with they're ma and pop deserve to have a clean place to eat pops burnt hamburgers and hotdogs as much as a traveler should have aright to take a rest on a park bench and charge a phone.

 

[Preacher]

Last time I went there was in January and I am not going back.

Exactly their point. If hiding the homeless/houseless didn't work
"let's try just shipping them somewhere else. Oh dam, that fricking ACLU and the other busy-body rights groups got the courts to put a stop to that. I know, lets just make their life a never ending hassle so they don't come here to begin with. The word will spread........"
And it is. How many of us don't even want to go to the whole state of Florida now, let alone just Sarasota?

 

[creature]

this came up in the Similar Threads... fucking florida *again*..

Three arrested, accused of illegally feeding homeless
https://squattheplanet.com/threads/three-arrested-accused-of-illegally-feeding-homeless.11543/

 

[iamwhatiam]

Why would you lock an outlet just to keep someone from charging a phone?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christo...nd-other-devices-use-and-what-to-do-about-it/



Thats per year... so take 25 cents and divide it by 365 days.... 0.068493151 cents officer. Holly shit... I just fucked the municipal parks and rec budget.

Hell the taxes on one fucking paycheck should cover a lifetime of me charging my phone.

Now say someone were to come by plug in multiple power strips... then plug in a mini fridge, desktop gaming computer, electric heater... power tools... and an array of flashing neon lights. All while setting up hobo camp.

Then you might have a case.

Charging a cell phone... ridiculous.

Actually..Its less than that. add 2 more zeros before the 6

 

[Kim Chee]

Actually..Its less than that. add 2 more zeros before the 6

He quoted the amount as .06 cents which is .0006 dollars

 

[Odin]

0.068493151 cents PER day.... is a figure measured in cents... since I divide 25 as a whole number measured in whole cents by 365 days

if you add two zeros... you take the whole of cents and convert it to a decimal of 0.25 or (interchanged with a fraction one fourth... 1/4) i think...

and get

0.00068493151 then that is a decimal measure of dollars per 365 day a year...

two different scales based on powers of ten.

I think.. >.< woo woo

 

[creature]

i won't chime in, except to say that if the energy the cop expended & caused the court to expend were how much electricity costs, then..
shit..
i just got an idea...

could we put the cops in hamster cages, geared to generators???

 

[kaichulita]

So if that guy wasn't homeless, he wouldn't be arrested....

 

[creature]

society:

a place where everyone else arrests everyone else..

ya think?