Reality Check: Poverty Is Not A Crime!

On April 2nd, 2012, in downtown Rochester, NY, activists held a rally to call attention to the criminalization of visible poverty. Instead of the city, county, state, and federal governments tackling the root causes of poverty and homelessness in our communities, they would rather rely on the prison industrial complex and punish people for being poor through ordinances that outlaw panhandling, loitering, and, among so many others, sleeping in a public space. Slapping fines on poor and homeless people that they cannot pay leads directly to their imprisonment. It's time to put an end to the injustice.