I was reviewing the news on Digg today, when I came accros an article about how a guy was arrested for feeding the homeless in Orlando.
This has to rate as one of the dumbest laws I’ve ever seen. The government and the police gotta have better things to do than to arrest people for feeding the homeless.
A few months ago I gave food to lots of homeless people in San Francisco…and never even would have thought that something like that would be against the law…I don’t want to get all political on ya, but I’ll say that I agree with most of the comments I see on Digg about that story.
rrrrrrrr…….
19 Responses
Seems to have been a strange day yesterday for “feeding hungry people”-related news. I saw this one on Fark… Zimbabwe is starving, so what’s the solution? Prosecute farmers for growing crops on their land.
I don’t think you’re getting too political there, Jim. It’s kind of hard to imagine how that could be against the law.
Wow, that is a really hard one to look at… I would really have to look at the actual law to see what it says. This group purposely violated the city law to get arrested and they obviously have some of their own motives.
I am not saying the law is good, just that I don’t know what the law says… and I too have given food to someone in need (don’t know if they all were “homeless” or not, but they had a need).
Thanks for bringing something different to our attention in your post. Scott
Crazy whats the world coming to first it was Google penalizing sites for people trying to make money, now its the law arresting people for trying to help the homeless out.
But…but…what was the basis of the arrest???
For those who are asking about the ordnance, you can read the relevant section here:
http://orlandofoodnotbombs.org/ordinancetext.html
He wasn’t arrested for feeding homeless. He was arrested for a mass event, in a public place, which involved feeding the homeless. Almost every town has a law saying you need a permit for any public event.
So, feeding the homeless isn’t illegal. It’s illegal to have a public event for feeding the homeless, without a permit. Why should a feeding the homeless public event be excluded from permit laws?
Jim, thought you might be interested in a follow-up… he’s been acquitted (thank god).
I think there’s a reason behind the law, only that we can’t be sure to whatever that is.
Well, how can it be that people be punished for feeding hungry homeless folks? If social welfare budget allocation is sufficient enough, then, we’ll not find the need of feeding these people on our own. Our legislators should revisit the law on social welfare rather than sanctioning benevolent people.
a perfect reason for breaking the law!
(mm..did i just hear judas prisets in the back of my head?) … 🙂
crazy law!
Some of these laws (they’re more common than you think) are there because these towns want to treat the homeless (many of whom are vets and the mentally ill released from federal institutions by Reagan) like pigeons: if you don’t feed them, they won’t show up.
It’s another example of my favorite quote: “We are living in an interminable succession of absurdities imposed by the myopic logic of short-term thinking.”—Jacques-Yves Cousteau
We spend a fraction on welfare that we spend on a cold war military budget full of waste and graft. We could provide universal health care for what we spend on Iraq alone. And all we’re doing over there, for our billions, is creating more enemies.
Unbelievable.
Yes i saw the TV interview and the problem was not that he was feeding the homeless. He was trying to get the press to rasie the awarness of the issue. Well i think he got it, Digg, Jimboykin.com, TV interveiw on National TV. So Go feed the homeless some place that is not legal and do something good and put on a shirt with your URL and get arrested. Maybe you’ll get on Opra, WOW i wonder how much traffic that would be worth. I know how much traffic Rachel Ray doing a show on Gumbo is worth to one of my sites.
We’re seeing stupid stuff like this in our city. Laws like no spitting, sitting on sidewalks, etc. – obviously aimed at running off the homeless or down on their luck.
Whoever reported him deserves to be hit with can food…
That has happened in Las Vegas as well. There was a lady who would feed the homeless in a public park where a lot them congregated. The city wanted them gone and put in an ordinance making it illegal to feed them. She did it anyway and was arrested, then released when public outrage peaked. Like most vacation destinations, our city councilors just want the homeless to disappear without them having to do anything to help them.
That is the most absurd thing I have heard in awhile. Arrest someone for giving to the less fortunate. What is this society coming to?
That’s almost as dumb as some of those laws that somehow got on the statute book 200 years ago because of some powerful moron – you can’t take lions to the movies, giraffes should not be tied to phone poles. And make sure you don’t feed the hungry people.
Why do states require a permit for mass feedings?
That’s definitely messed up. There are still some really outdated laws around and I hope they get abolished sooner rather than later
Yes, it is a ridiculous law.. it was designed because the city wanted to make it’s park more of the “CITY BEAUTIFUL” this mean no homeless people allowed to be feed or given food within the parks any parks.. granted parks are funded by government funds which means everyone has a right to be there.. but basically now 1 person must have a permit to feed 25 people within any park in Orlando…
now keep in mind they hold weddings and craft shows in this specific park know as Lake Eola… now the property many years ago was donated to the City with conditions that no businesses may be lake side or built lake side… this agreement has well past been blown out.
The Lake itself has been known for many years to have homeless people sleeping around or near it. This is nothing new. They decided they wanted all the feeding and homeless people out… I physically watched when the relocated to another Park before the law took affect… the police harassed them there as well even though it was not a park frequently by anyone…
Church groups would bring them food, and say prayers with them, the Parks services whinned that they had to empty the trash can more frequently because the homeless filled the cans every days… I’m thinking this is a good thing… but heh that’s me… there were a few pieces on the ground but not much really just maybe over flow. So yes there is a huge homeless problem here.
There is an estimated 7,000 on any day and growing… Most would work if they could get a job. No one wants to hire a stinky person who hasn’t taken a bath in days… it’s a simple fact.
but, to sum it up this is going to trail this year very soon… basically the person was followed by police using undercover video of him giving away food in a park… btw supposedly this was not supposed to happen because the court case was this year and nothing was supposed to be enforced until they found out if it was legal or not to have such a law. He is such a bad boy feeding hungry people.. we need to lock him up for life for having such a big heart and showing so much love!!! How dare he!!!
LoL, they wasted thousands of man hours and dollars doing undercover video of him feeding… now a few years back a mayor named Glenda hood withdrew money from social services account to help needy people.. had about 12 fiberglass lizzards made and auctioned them off saying the extra money would be placed into the account.. don’t you know that money just never seemed to appear anywhere.. hmm wonder why imbezzlement wasn’t looked into… Yup you guessed it Florida is Crooked as the day is long!
The Orlando Navy base was sold 1 day prior to the end of it’s auction thus removing the chances for any non-profit to establish a homeless help community or shelters it had state of the art dorms perfect for helping transsitional people… buuut nope! it was sold to a contractor 1 day prior to the end of auction for $1 an acre. Outrageous! It has now been developed into a High class million dollar community only ment for the rich. the lowest house cost $600,000. That just another example of the homeless getting screwed!
Apparently one organization named the coalition for the homeless recieved $3,000,000 to drop their bid as per the Mckinney Act. When asked what they did with the money that was supposed to go toward buying a hotel and utilize it.. for the homeless.. duuhhhh you guessed it… what 3,000,0000? they can not account for it… it is simply gone!
Yeah the homeless here are getting a raw deal, I’m trying to change that with my Organization and so far i’m being fought tooth and nail…. I have all the proper paper work for the grants and places that have none are getting those grants which goes agaisnt their guidelines… go figure right!
I’ll try and remember this site and post the outcome of the trial…. I wonder if the Constitution is gonna protect him from crooks and police officers with no honor and or integrity…
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