An Episcopal clergyman Mark Sims, a Pastor Dwayne Black and a Ninety year-old World War Two veteran Arnold Abbot were arrested on November the first for feeding homeless individuals in Florida, at a Fort Lauderdale public park. They could spend up to sixty days in jail and pay a hefty $500 fine.
Fort Lauderdale city had enacted an ordinance restricting the use of outdoor feeding sites for the homeless on public property, and its Mayor Jack Seller has warned that the ordinance will be enforced now that it has been passed. It is his belief that the growing homeless population is overrunning local parks, preventing locals and businesses from accessing them. He claims that he wants to ensure that public places are open to all (other than the homeless). Local politicians back him up, as they feel that homeless feeding programs encourage homelessness and that such spaces require more supervision (I’m sure that everyone wants to get on that homeless bandwagon because of the benefits of stale food, the fine accommodation of a cold bench, the best health insurance plan ever created, guaranteed to work, called “death” and a luxurious newspaper blanket to tide the next polar vortex…. But I digress). 
Reverend Sims of Saint Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Coral Springs, Florida stated: “We are simply trying to feed people who are hungry and to criminalize that is contrary to everything I stand for as a priest and as a person of faith”. Pastor Black said that he was even willing to be arrested in taking a stand for his principles. Abbot, who is the director of Love Thy Neighbor, Inc., has been feeding the homeless for about 20 years and feels that it is his life’s mission.
Although they were arrested, Abbott returned to the park just three days later and began serving food to the homeless once more. There, he was greeted with the cheers of almost 100 homeless persons and volunteers. The police had videotaped his actions and then proceeded to call Abbott over to their police vehical where they handed him a citation for violating the ordinance.
In 1999 Abbot had won a lawsuit against the city’s ban on feeding the homeless on public beaches, and stated that he would probably have to go to court once more. Let’s hope that he wins this one too and we seek to solve the real problems CAUSING homelessness, instead of paying politicians to persecute them.
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Sources:
http://politicalblindspot.com/priest-arrested-for-feeding-the-homeless/
se os alimentar,vao demorar pra morrer…humanos…
It’s sad that some individual are forced in to homelessness and when other try to help they are criminalized for there actions.
my jaw dropped when I first read about Mr Abbot. What I would like to see happen is for every homeless person in America to receive food in the “legal manner” and go and have the worlds biggest picnic in the public grounds of Florida.
Fuck you big time Jack Seller!
So basically the mayor and politicians think homeless people are pigeons …? I think they just don’t like getting asked for money by homeless people (even though they clearly have spare money to give) and don’t like looking like a**holes when they don’t do it. The Solution? Get rid of all the homeless people! That’ll sort it. What’s next? Calling open season on homeless people? Shame on you Jack Seller! Many homeless people come from very difficult circumstances and many are in fact war veterans struggling with their return to civilian life!
Shame, shame shame!!! What is happening to the land of the free, the country that boasts opportunity? It’s got to only happen in the so called land of the so called free. In Europe they would be saluted and hailed heroes. Just shows the difference in mentalities. I feel sorry for the USA. Truly, we look at Africa and think third world country, well sorry folks but the good old USA is now becoming so divided by the rich getting richer( 1percent hold the most wealth, ) and the poor ( thirty percent) getting poorer. USA is now seen by the rest of the world as very poor and worse off than so called developing countries.
These goddamn retarded politicians…HOW DOES FEEDING PEOPLE THAT HAVE NOTHING BE AN INCETIVE FOR HOMELESSNESS?(LIKE THEY WANT TO BE FUCKING HOMELESS!!)