Thread: Once upon a time in America...

90-year-old Florida man arrested for second time in a week after feeding the homeless again

"I think they feel a little guilty doing their job,' said 90-year-old Ft. Lauderdale man Arnold Abbott, who served more than 100 plates to homeless people on Wednesday with members of the charity he founded before he was issued another citation. Abbott potentially faces 60 days in jail or a $500 fine.

Monday, November 10, 2014, 9:56 AM



Arnold Abbott, 90, said he thinks the police 'feel a little guilty doing their job.'

When 90-year-old Florida resident Arnold Abbott said following his arrest on Sunday that police couldn’t stop him from feeding the homeless, he apparently meant it.

Abbott was charged again on Wednesday night for violating a new city law in Ft. Lauderdale that essentially prevents people from feeding the homeless.

“I expected it" he said in a Sun Sentinel report. “At least this time they let us feed people first.”

Officers lingered in the area for about 45 minutes during which time Abbott and volunteers with the Love Thy Neighbor charity he founded handed out more than 100 plates of hot chicken stew, pasta, cheesy potatoes and fruit salad to homeless men and women.

If he’s found guilty of violating city ordinance laws — his second in a week — he faces 60 days in jail or a $500 fine.

Abbott said he’s prepared to go to jail over his efforts.

“Why do I keep doing this?" he asked rhetorically. "Because these are my people and they deserve to be fed."

In a slightly more confrontational incident on Sunday, four police cruisers and approximately a half dozen officers with the Ft. Lauderdale Police Department descended upon an area in the city where Abbott, charity representatives and church members were handing out hot meals to local homeless people.

One officer demanded that he “drop that plate right now” as others picked up the trays off food and inserted them directly into the garbage with lines of homeless people looking on.



Abott and representatives from his charity handed out more than 100 plates to homeless people on Wednesday night before being taken in custody by Ft. Lauderdale police.

The new law in Ft. Lauderdale comes after the city announced in January that people are restricted from camping, panhandling, food sharing and engaging in other “life sustaining activities." The laws regarding food sharing where ironically enacted on Halloween when millions of people were out sharing candy.

Abbott applauded the officers for being more courteous in their enforcement of the law the second time around this week.
“They were very gentle," Abbott said. "I think they feel a little guilty doing their job."


Man, 90, arrested again this week for feeding the homeless - NY Daily News

all you have to see in that headline is FLORIDA... and you know its going to be a fucked up story!

arresting a good hearted guy for feeding the homeless.... welcome to the rethugliKKKlan amerikkka!!!!

if you don't feed them they may just crawl off in an alley and die! Look we solved the homeless problem!

rethugliKKKlans say the government based social welfare system should be abolished because churches should take care of this stuff... then a church does and they pass a law making it illegal....

American right wing hypocrisy at its finest!

and the people who elect these right wing jackoffs all love to say how much they love the baby jesus! Hmmm... what would jesus do?

last update from me: Judge orders Fort Lauderdale to stop enforcing homeless feeding law - Sun Sentinel

A judge ordered Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday to temporarily stop enforcing a new law than restricts the feeding of homeless people, intervening in a controversy that has brought the city a storm of negative international attention. (Ya think? )

Broward Circuit Judge Thomas Lynch told all sides to enter into mediation during a 30-day period when the city will be prohibited from enforcing the new law.

The decision came in the case of Arnold Abbott, the 90-year-old World War II veteran and retired jewelry salesman who has been feeding homeless people at the beach for years.

The law, which took effect Oct. 31, limits where outdoor feeding sites can be located, requires the permission of property owners and says groups distributing food must provide portable toilets

“We’re elated the judge has entered the stay,” said John David, Abbott’s attorney.

Mayor Jack Seiler said mediation could be a constructive route.

“We’ve been trying to find some amicable resolution,” he said. “We hope that Mr. Abbott meets us half way. We’ve asked him to meet us half way in the past.”

“We would prefer to enforce our municipal ordinances,” he said. “But whether the judge was trying to take a little steam off the kettle, whether the judge was trying to give a little period of quiet during the holidays, I’m not sure what was the logic behind his decision.”

Abbott’s group, Love Thy Neighbor, which has been feeding the homeless for 23 years, defied the ban as did other groups such as Food Not Bombs.

The Rev. Mark Sims, of St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Coral Springs, who has also been cited by the city for feeding the homeless, said the judge’s decision will allow all sides to work toward a solution.

“I’m very pleased,” said Sims, who has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the enforcement of the ordinance. “I think it’s a great first step for the city to sit down with a more varied group of people to work out a plan so we can provide food for everyone who is hungry in the city, not just those who are in the large shelters.”

At Stranahan Park late Tuesday afternoon, as downtown office workers drove past in the pouring rain, members of the Peanut Butter & Jelly Project pulled up in a Honda CR-V and prepared to hand out modest meals.

“A step in the right director,” said the group’s vice president, Micah Harris, of the judge’s ruling. “I believe the city was a little bit quick to fire on how they would do this ordinance and” – he paused as a man rode up in a bicycle, soaked to the bone in the rain – “You hungry, man?”

“Yes, I am,” said the man, John Campbell, 57, formerly of Hollywood, who now sleeps in a Salvation Army shelter.

He handed Campbell a plastic grocery bag containing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bag of pretzels, a banana and a bottle of water.

Campbell said it’s not easy to get enough food from the various sources available to homeless people.

“They give you very little,” he said. “It’s not enough. Maybe a sandwich. So you’re really hungry.”

Under pressure from residents and downtown businesses, the city has adopted a series of restrictions, banning people from sleeping on benches and other public property downtown, panhandling at busy intersections, storing possessions on public property outdoors and defecating or urinating in public without proper disposal.

City officials have said the law still allows the distribution of food but through institutions that can do it without degrading the quality of life in the city.

The Broward County Commission on Tuesday invited anyone interested to attend a meeting Wednesday of its advisory board on homelessness. The meeting will be at 10 a.m. at the Broward County Governmental Center Annex, Room A-337, 115 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale beginning.

County Commissioner Barbara Sharief, the commission’s liaison to the board, said the county has been working hard for years to end homelessness and that “media hype” over the feeding issue has painted an unfair picture of the region’s approach to the problem.

“The homeless ordinance in Fort Lauderdale is generating a lot of misinformation about addressing homelessness throughout the entire county,” she said.

video in the link above