Arrested for sharing food
with the homeless
Orlando police escort Eric Montanez from Lake Eola Park after his arrest.
Photo by Rayma Jenkins
A member of Orlando Food Not Bombs was arrested this evening while he was feeding homeless people downtown.
Police said Eric Montanez violated a controversial city ordinance that restricts food-sharings in Lake Eola Park and other downtown parks. The ordinance prohibits participating in a "large group feeding" that attracts 25 or more people, including distributors and servers. Undercover officers said Montanez served food to 30 people, said a police spokesman.
Violation of the city ordinance is a misdemeanor.
Food Not Bombs and Montanez are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against the city challenging the ordinance as unconstitutional.
I just got home from bailing Eric out of jail. I'm tired and angry.
posted by Jacqueline Dowd @ 11:54 PM
3 Comments:
Those undercover cops: Imagine that.
They never stop serving and protecting.
Was there nothing more compelling for them to do?? They serve a harsh master.
I'm sorry. Tell Eric others are on his side. Sorry you were forced to do all this due to people being cruel and ignorant.
I just wanted to drop by and make an anncouncment then I read about this arrest. My gut reaction is WTF? Since when is serving hungry people a violation of law? I hope this works out for him. What a world. Now that my blood pressure is up a couple of ticks [and I already suffer from hypertenion now as it is] I'll go ahead and make my announcement:
Jacksonville Welcomes John Edwards
The DCDEC is reporting via the new Duval Demomcrats official blog that former V.P. candidate and current 2008 candidate for President John Edwards will be in town this coming Wednesday, April 11th at the FCCJ South Campus, in the Lake Room of the Wilson Center at 7:00 PM. Though I am an Al Gore supporter waiting to see if he can be drawn into this race, my second choice is the former NC Senator John Edwards. I couldn't be more thrilled at the prospect of seeing him in town. When Gore had whittled down his VP choices to two candidtates in 2000, the NC Senator was the other. What could have been.
The contrast between this visit and Sen. Barak Obama's visit last week is striking for two reasons. First, as he did last week here in Jacksonville, Sen. Obama still uses the tired old habit of expensive local fundraiser visits at the expense of working middle & lower class voters having an opportunity to see the candidate for themselves on a personal level. I'm sure Mr. Edwards has these same fundraisers, but last time when he was a POTUS candidate I did not notice one time on his political calendar where he did one at the expense of a local meet and greet for the general public. Secondly, though I'm a fan of Sen. Obama and see a lot of promise in him, I'm still waiting for him to take a stand on something.......anything. So far, I've watched Mr. Edwards lead the way in deciding not to participate in the Nevada FOXNews sponsored debate helping to delegitimize that network which is nothing more than a propaganda arm for the WH and the GOP. This is followed by his leading the way saying how wrong he was for his Iraq war authorization vote.
Watching Obama waffle recently on the supplemental funding bill and Hillary doing the triangulation dance on her Iraq war vote and abortion leaves me wanting in the current crop of candidates with the exception of Edwards. I'm delighted at the opportunity to see him again.
Truman's Conscience
Jacksonville's Premier Liberal/Progressive Blog
http://trumansconscience.blogspot.com
"no law is law that serves a purpose. When a law makes a good deed bad it fails in its purpose"
- W. Downing
the above applies here
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