Arrested for Feeding the Poor
I kid you not.
Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs were arrested Wednesday when police said they violated a city ordinance by feeding the homeless in Lake Eola Park.
Jessica Cross, 24, Benjamin Markeson, 49, and Jonathan “Keith” McHenry, 54, were arrested at 6:10 p.m. on a charge of violating the ordinance restricting group feedings in public parks. McHenry is a co-founder of the international Food Not Bombs movement, which began in the early 1980s.
The group lost a court battle in April, clearing the way for the city to enforce the ordinance. It requires groups to obtain a permit and limits each group to two permits per year for each park within a 2-mile radius of City Hall.
Arrest papers state that Cross, Markeson and McHenry helped feed 40 people Wednesday night. The ordinance applies to feedings of more than 25 people.
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ADDED LATER: Prestor Scott links to the same story, and adds: There is a lot of history behind this that the article does not provide. They are radical agitators, and they like setting up right next to an expensive restaurant that overlooks the park; i.e. they are a nuisance. The Orlando Union Rescue Mission and the Christian Service Center do much the same work without the politics.
My comment: Why not food AND bombs? Food to feed the poor, and bombs to destroy the enemy?
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
