Michael Stoops Quotations

Whenever you see a guy by the interstate ramp with a sign, that guy is the tip of the iceberg. There's another population you don't see.

Las Vegas needs to move forward on this quickly ... because the issues are still out there.

Las Vegas has always gotten an F (in those areas). Someday I hope the city will quit criminalizing homelessness and they'll get off the list.

The overwhelming majority of perpetrators are teens and young adults. We need to start with young people in public and private schools.

It hurts everyone, worst of all homeless people. Criminalizing homelessness is a waste of time and resources.

Just because there aren't official reports doesn't mean attacks don't happen. This sort of attack needs to be classified as a hate crime, so statistics can be compiled, but nobody does that.

We definitely feel that it's a widespread epidemic around the country. It seems like there's been a spike in incidents. We're not sure if it's copycat attacks or open season on the homeless population.

When people see the guy with the panhandling sign, that's the tip of the iceberg.

The government is talking about ending homelessness, but it is creating it at the same time.

What happened in Holly Hill and what happened in Fort Lauderdale will happen again. It's just a matter of when and where.

What happened in Fort Lauderdale will no doubt happen again. It might not be caught on videotape the next time, but I can assure you it will happen again.

The videotape is our dream come true. It's putting a face to the issue. What happened in Fort Lauderdale will happen again in other parts of the country, and we know that it will happen again.

Rather than arresting and jailing homeless people for violation, let's find out why they're homeless in the first place. There's a lack of day shelters, and affordable housing.

People think that homeless people are not human beings and that it's OK to hurt them and, most importantly, they think they can get away with it.

That's like a form of social Darwinism, if you cut off food to force people to get help, and it really doesn't work that way.

This is not comprehensive; this would not be an accurate portrayal.

They (Sarasota) could have been taken off the mean list if they would have just done away with that ordinance. They continue to push and push and push, and push homeless people out of the city.

They do this because they think they can, that they can get away with beating a homeless person and nobody will care, and the homeless won't be able to fight back.

There's been a trend with a few police departments becoming more sensitized toward the needs and issues that the homeless population face. These are the kind of partnerships we support.

The most common law that targets homeless people is some version of a panhandling law, whether it's aggressive panhandling or saying you can only panhandle in certain areas of a city.

It's a good time of year to raise awareness, when it's real cold out. More Americans are thinking about poverty and homelessness this time of year.

It puts pressure on cities to rethink their criminalization strategies. No city should want to be labeled a mean city.

It just means other cities are now being meaner than Las Vegas.

No area of America is immune from homelessness.

The Atlanta ordinance says this is how Atlanta is solving Atlanta's homeless problem. You're not aloud to say anything. You're not allowed to ask what time it is; you're not allowed to ask for directions. You're not allowed to ask for food. We don't consider that to be a model ordinance.

They could have been taken off the mean list if they would have just done away with that ordinance.

In many of the cases, it's a crime of opportunity. A group of teenagers is roaming the street on a hot summer night and they come across a homeless person who might be mentally ill or alcoholic. When they hurt a homeless person, they think they can get away with it -- and they think they won't be hurt in return.

I'm not surprised by Mayor Goodman's reaction. I respect the mayor. I think he's a good guy, but he has always had an anti-homeless bent and he revels in name-calling. We didn't delight in ranking Las Vegas as a mean city again. We're just trying to put the spotlight on the city and let the mayor know that Las Vegas will never get off the list as long as he continues to declare war on the homeless.

If you die homeless, your death goes unnoticed, just like your life. This is a way for us to notice.

Homeless people just take it on the chin and move to a more secluded area. We know that this is underreported.

The truth is that these are not unusual.