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Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Police Cite, Threaten Arrest of 90-Year-Old Volunteer For Feeding the Homeless

Police in Fort Lauderdale, Florida cited and threatened to arrest a 90-year-old man along with other volunteers for violating a new law that makes the sharing of food a criminal offense.

Video footage shows uniformed officers apprehending Arnold Abbott, who heads the group Love Thy Neighbor, as he and other volunteers handed out food to the homeless in Stranahan Park on Sunday.

“Drop that plate right now,” barks the cop before he leads Abbott away, where he is subsequently issued with a summons for a court date.

Abbott, along with Rev. Canon Mark Sims of St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church and Rev. Dwayne Black of the Sanctuary Church, face up to 60 days in jail for violating a controversial new city ordinance that bans the sharing of food, a law the city claims is necessary to to crack down on the area’s growing downtown homeless population.

Four police cars and six uniformed cops showed up at the weekly food sharing event to threaten Abbott and other volunteers with arrest if they continued dishing out food. The 90-year-old has been feeding the homeless for 23 years.

“We are simply trying to feed people who are hungry,”Sims told the Sun-Sentinel. “To criminalize that is contrary to everything that I stand for as a priest and as a person of faith.”

“I don’t think the city has a right to tell us we can’t feed the homeless,” the Rev. Dwayne Black told the Broward Palm Beach New Times. “This is breaking my Christian vows.”

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is really unbelievable! I think I would be going to jail just to have my day in court.

lmclain said...

Christ is SO proud of the Gestapo and the selfish "I got mine, you lazy bastards" who sent them.
When our "leaders" get down to CRIMINALIZING the sharing of FOOD, its a sign of things to come.....
It took SIX cops to break up a gathering of homeless people and a 90 year old man?
Did they wipe out seat belt violators and run out of old ladies to beat up? No bad little kids running around needing a AR-15 clip emptied into them for carrying a BB gun?
How do they go home at night and sleep? What do they tell their boyfriends, "man!! that 90 year old man was one tough son of a bi**h!! It was a good thing my buddies showed up or he would have probably fed another 6 or 7 people!!"
I'm thinking the 'freedom of religion' thing would have stopped any of that stuff, but then I remember --- you idiots have completely cheered away any pretense of "rights" for Americans.
Soon, you're going to feel just like the Germans (who survived) did in 1946. Which, just for your information, was "who in the hell thought THIS was a good idea?", as they begged for food and watched their families starve.
History DOES repeat itself - over and over -- because lemmings and sheep ALAWAYS think it won't happen to THEM. Not now. Not in this place. Not in this time. Then, it happens AGAIN and they are surprised!!!
Keep cheering......

Anonymous said...

This is the liberal democratic way of life. People better wake up and get these socialistic communists out of office! Go vote!!!

Anonymous said...

You can blame the police all you want, but the problem lies with the elected officials and their wish to protect their financial well being. Guaranteed the people in charge are vested in the businesses in the area and the homeless situation brings down the values, so pass a law and make the police do the dirty work.