Leo, a homeless New York City man, who is learning to code, was
arrested by New York City Police overnight for trespassing. Patrick McConlogue, a 23 year old self-described entrepeneur is teaching him how to code. He offered the homeless man a choice between $100 or continuing coding lessons. Leo chose to learn to code. The experiment has been highly publicized and the two were scheduled to appear on the Today Show, tomorrow.
The homeless man participating in a highly-publicized software coding tutorial was arrested earlier this morning by the NYPD. According to NYC programmer and self-proclaimed entrepreneur Patrick McConlogue, "Journeyman" Leo was arrested for trespassing in a city park within the confines of the 10th Precinct, which includes Chelsea. McConlogue tells us Leo was "picked up for sleeping on a bench that he normally doesn't sleep on." NYC Parks are closed from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.
Early reports sounded grim, with McConlogue being told Leo could be held for weeks before being released. The police also would not give back the laptop McConlogue purchased for Leo even though he had the receipt for it. So in a bit of a surprising turnaround, Leo has already been released from jail. A bit of activism seems to have helped.
Leo was released early this morning, in an incredible turn around time. He was taken to the hospital in the middle of the night for throwing up (sounds like stress) but the hearing after went quickly. Leo said, "The Police were doing their job, the officer who arrested me was just following orders and was very polite."
The pair will appear on the Today Show tomorrow as scheduled so if you are able to watch TV in the morning you might want to try and catch the show.
The 'experiment' has been well documented and criticized:
The Internet was quick to pounce on McConlogue—for objectifying the homeless man, for employing icky language like "unjustly homeless," for the presumptuousness of seeing coding as some kind of universal cure. If we can set aside for a moment McConlogue's awkward prose and seeming pompousness, however, what he's also done is raise an important question: in an age when tech ingenuity is fueling so much productive change, does it have a responsibility to help solve decidedly less flashy societal ills as well?
McConlogue set up "Journeyman," a Facebook page to document the process. Two days after announcing his plan in late August, McConlogue dropped off overnight shipments of a 3G-equipped Samsung Chromebook and a Javascript for Beginners book with Leo. In that first week, the pair covered functions and variables in Javascript, Leo wrote his first function and shared on Facebook his goal of creating a website or mobile application for environmental change. Now, Leo has opened two accounts on GitHub to store his code, one of which will be dedicated to his upcoming app. McConlogue writes via email that last week, Leo started a project that covers "Terminal commands, objects, classes, and variables."
It's certainly more than most people can say they have done (certainly I'm in that group). Leo, who lost his job at MetLife in 2011, is almost ready to lauch his app that will calculate the CO2 savings of carpooling.