Food Not Bombs: Free meal, event and overnight vigil!

A Day Without Food - Fast and call- in Wednesday, June 29, 2011

FOR ONE BILLION PEOPLE JUNE 29th WILL BE A DAY WITHOUT FOOD Join our fast, join us at Lake Eola Park and call Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer at 407.246.2221
Nearly 1 billion people face a day without food every day. Over 25,000 die each day from hunger. Hunger is not limited to less developed countries, with over 15 percent of Americans going with out food each month. Federal authorities report that 387,849 new recipients were added to the food stamps program in March 2011. Over 44 million Americans rely on food stamps to feed their families. The City of Orlando started arresting people for sharing meals with the hungry on June 1, 2011. The city arrested 12 volunteers by June 8th. The 11th Circuit Court ruled that the city could restrict Food Not Bombs to sharing only twice a year per park. The law is not limited to Orlando, Gainesville, Fort Lauderdale, Saint Petersburg, and other Florida cities are also introducing laws restricting the sharing of food with the hungry. We encourage you to participate in these three actions in Orlando. If we defend the right to share food in protest to war and poverty in Orlando other cities will withdraw their anti-feeding laws.

http://foodnotbombs.net/fnb_resists.html


Response to Orlando Mayor Dyer

Food Not Bombs is an all volunteer movement seeking to change society so no one needs to stand in line to eat at a soup kitchen.

http://foodnotbombs.net/orlando_response_to_mayor_buddy.html


Photos of the arrests of volunteers sharing meals with the hungry in Florida
http://foodnotbombs.net/orlando_photos.html

ORLANDO WALL OF COMPASSION
http://foodnotbombs.net/orlando_wall_of_compassion.html

Since August of 2010, members of Food Not Bombs and Copwatch of East Atlanta began documenting incidences of Georgia State University (GSU) police in Hurt Park telling homeless people that they are not allowed to lie down and sleep, and then telling them to leave. After several incidents being documented, and upon interviews with some of the sleepy offenders, it became clear that this was a pattern and not a few isolated incidences. Police repeatedly stated that it is against the rules to sleep in the park.

http://atlanta.indymedia.org/local/sleep-not-crime-police-harass-homeless-hurt-park
http://youtu.be/8TL7E9xQ0pE

Hacker group Anonymous attacks more Orlando websites over Food Not Bombs dispute
Group may target Orlando police and Florida politicians

By Mark Schlueb, Orlando Sentinel

6:22 p.m. EDT, June 28, 2011

The computer hacker group Anonymous — credited with crashing the websites of Visa and MasterCard in support of Wikileaks — launched what it called "Operation Orlando" on Tuesday.

In news releases and emails to the Orlando Sentinel, the loose-knit group issued a "declaration of war" and promised to bring down a different Orlando-related website every day. One hacker told the Orlando Sentinel the group may target Orlando police officers, state lawmakers and the Florida Democratic Party.

Tuesday, the group chose an odd target: orlandofloridaguide.com, an unsophisticated, privately owned tourism site that has no apparent affiliation with City Hall. That website went offline shortly before 10 a.m. and remained down through the day.

Related
Hackers crash web sites to protest Orlando's homeless feeding restrictions Hackers crash web sites to protest Orlando's homeless feeding restrictions
Food Not Bombs activist accuses Orlando mayor of defamation Food Not Bombs activist accuses Orlando mayor of defamation
Food arrests lead to war of words and cyber-threats Food arrests lead to war of words and cyber-threats
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Crimes
Computer Crime
Anonymous (internet groups)
See more topics »

The attacks are in retaliation for the city's arrest of members of Orlando Food Not Bombs, an anti-poverty group that has been feeding large groups of homeless people in Lake Eola Park.

The food distribution is in defiance of an ordinance that requires permits to feed large groups in downtown parks and limits any group to no more than two permits per year, per park. Food Not Bombs has refused to move its twice-weekly feedings to nearby alternative sites.
Raw video: Did you see that? A shark just jumped over a surfer

The cyber attacks follow the hacking last week of websites for the Orlando Chamber of Commerce and Universal Studios. Mayor Buddy Dyer said both the Orlando Police Department and the FBI are investigating.

"It's extremely unfortunate," Dyer said. "Just like the Food Not Bombs group, it's misdirected. The whole circumstance is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars."

A news release from Anonymous said the group had offered a "cease-fire" but the city violated that offer with last week's arrest of Keith McHenry, founder of Food Not Bombs. McHenry was ordered to stay out of Lake Eola Park after an arrest there this month, and when he showed up to protest on June 22 he was arrested again and charged with trespassing. He remains in Orange County Jail.

"Henceforth there will be no more cease-fires, no more attempts to get you to resolve this issue with human decency. We will now treat you like the human-rights abusers that you are," the Anonymous news release says. "Anonymous will now begin a massive campaign against you and your city Web assets. Every day we will launch a new DDoS attack on a different target. We will continue to email millions of people in 50 countries with the 'Boycott Orlando' campaign message."

A DDoS, or distributed denial of service, is an attack that is meant to disable a website or network, either by bombarding it with an overwhelming number of communications requests or through the use of malware.

Another hacker group allied with Anonymous, the People's Liberation Front, had threatened only official city websites. But Tuesday's attack apparently abandons that strategy.

In a statement last week, Orlando Food Not Bombs condemned the cyber attacks as counterproductive and urged people to contact city officials. "That, we feel, will do more good than targeting the websites of organizations that have not even taken a position on the anti-food sharing ordinance or related issues," the group said.

Orlando officials have refused to say whether its website has been attacked, but if it was targeted by hackers, they apparently weren't successful. It hasn't appeared to be disrupted in recent weeks.

A hacker who identified himself as a member of Anonymous wrote in an email to the Orlando Sentinel that the group is considering other targets, including the police officers who arrested the homeless activists. The hacker, whose email originated in Stockholm, Sweden, referred to a hacker group's release last week of confidential cellphone numbers and addresses of Arizona state police workers.

"We are also entertaining the idea that maybe what Mayor Dyer needs is a bit of motivation from the people above him," the hacker wrote. "That is why whatever we do, we will be targeting state legislators and even higher ranking members of the Florida Democratic Party and obviously many sites will be crashed."

mschlueb [at] tribune.com or 407-420-5417.

FOR MORE COMMENTS, GO TO: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-hackers-attack-orlando-20110628,0,3872452.story

For an earlier statement by the hacker group: http://www.vimeo.com/25425654

Photos of the Orlando arrests and other solidarity actions: http://www.foodnotbombs.net/orlando_photos.html

FOOD NOT BOMBS IN THE NATION MAGAZINE
Food Not Bombs Members Arrested for Feeding the Hungry | The Nation

by Kevin S. Donohoe, thenation.com
June 27th 2011

This post was guest-written byNation intern and freelance writer Kevin S. Donohoe.

Since the beginning of June, more than twenty members of the anti-hunger organization Food Not Bombs have been arrested in Orlando, Florida for the "crime" of providing free meals to the homeless and working poor.

Food Not Bombs has long been serving free, vegan food in Orlando’s public parks. That all changed last month, when the city began enforcing a 2006 ordinance limiting groups who feed more than twenty-five people in parks to only two permited events per year. Food Not Bombs unsuccessfully appealed the decision in federal court and its members are now refusing to obey the law.

As tensions escalated between the police and FNB, city officials took to the press to vilify the group's members and recipients. A spokesman for the city says that FNB recipients have been responsible for trash, public urination and crime in city parks. The mayor of Orlando, Buddy Dyer, went even further, calling the organization's members “food terrorists” and accusing the group of having “different purposes” than helping the homeless.

FNB activist Benjamin Markeson is filing a defamation lawsuit against the Mayor for his terrorist comments -- and said that the real terrorist acts are being committed by government officials. “We think that it is terrorism to arrest people for trying to share food with the poor and hungry in the community,” Markeson told Democracy Now!.

The arrests have received international press coverage and solidarity rallies have been staged at local universities as far away as Michigan. On June 20th, hacktivist group Anonymous shut down the Orlando Chamber of Commerce’s website and posted a “boycott Orlando” message on the site of Universal Orlando Resorts. Now, local officials from across the state are watching the standoff between FNB and the city closely as they consider imposing similar permit regulations in their own communities.

This is not the first time a Food Not Bombs chapter has been targeted by local government officials. Last year officials in Middletown, Connecticut tried to shut down a chapter of the group for lacking a license. The dispute ended after Attorney General (now US Senator) Richard Blumenthal changed the state's law to accommodate food sharing. In February, Fort Lauderdale Police twice raided a home shared by local FNB activists.

The organization was founded by eight anti-nuclear activist thirty years ago, as Jennifer O'Mahoney explained in this space last September, and now has 1,000 chapters across the country. Members collect surplus food from bakeries, restaurants and grocery stores and prepare vegan meals, keeping regular hours in the same locations so that community members in need know when, and where, to find them. Although local chapters vary in organization and orientation, all are bound by a shared commitment to nonviolent social change, economic equality and the idea that access to food is an inalienable right.

You can sign the Food Not Bombs online petition asking the city of Orlando to stop arresting people for sharing food with the hungry or a petition on Change.org calling for an end to the arrests. If you would like to get involved with or support Food Not Bombs, this list will tell you if there's a chapter near you. If not, you can start your own group by e-mailing menu [at] foodnotbombs.net. Money is also desperately needed so, if you can, please donate a dollar for peace here.

Original Page: http://www.thenation.com/blog/161677/food-not-bombs-members-arrested-feeding-hungry



FOOD NOT BOMBS ON DEMOCRACY NOW!

Democracy Now! Mobile

m.democracynow.org | Jun 24th 2011

The City of Orlando, the home of Disney World in Florida, is being sued in court today over a city law that has effectively made it illegal for any group to feed more than 25 people at a time in downtown parks without a permit. It also limits groups to no more than two permits per park, per year. The group Food Not Bombs has refused to obey the new law—saying food is a right, not a privilege—and has continued to serve free meals to the poor and homeless.

However, over the past month more than 20 members of the organization have been arrested. Keith McHenry, who helped found Food Not Bombs over 30 years ago, was arrested Wednesday and remains in jail. We speak with Benjamin Markeson, an activist involved with Food Not Bombs for several years who was arrested earlier this month, and the group’s attorney, Shayan Elahi. [includes rush transcript]

JUAN GONZALEZ: The City of Orlando, Florida, the home of Disney World, is being sued in court today over a city law that has effectively made it illegal for the group Food Not Bombs to serve free meals to the poor and homeless. Over the past month, more than 20 members of the organization have been arrested. Keith McHenry, who helped found Food Not Bombs over 30 years ago, was arrested Wednesday and remains in jail.

The City of Orlando recently began enforcing a law that makes it illegal for any group to feed more than 25 people at a time in downtown parks without a permit. It also limits groups to no more than two permits per park, per year.

AMY GOODMAN: Food Not Bombs members have openly resisted the law by continuing to feed the homeless and poor without a permit.

Joining us from Orlando is Benjamin Markeson, who has been involved with Food Not Bombs in Orlando for years. He was arrested earlier this month. Also with us is Shayan Elahi, an attorney for Food Not Bombs.

Can you lay out the lawsuit that you are filing today, Shayan?

SHAYAN ELAHI: Well, Amy, this morning I’m filing an injunction against the City of Orlando. Our goal is to basically have them follow an administrative order, signed by Judge Belvin Perry, which basically says that anyone who violates a municipal ordinance can be just given a notice of appearance instead of showing up or being arrested and hauled off to jail. That’s one component of it.

The second component, and a very essential one, is that this mayor has decided that he can actually suppress dissent by deleting a First Amendment exemption from the trespass warnings. So, you just mentioned—Juan just mentioned that Keith McHenry is in jail right now. He’s in jail because what this mayor did was he deleted a First Amendment exemption that was on the trespass warning, and so he was able to basically rearrest Keith and put him in jail without bond at this point. So I think it’s a very troubling development in this nearest struggle against Food Not Bombs, that he’s taking it very personally. So, I’m moving the court to stop him from doing so.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Benjamin Markeson, the Mayor of Orlando has labeled you and others "food terrorists"?

BENJAMIN MARKESON: That’s right.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Can you explain the Mayor’s logic, as best as you understand it, and what precisely were you doing when you got arrested?

BENJAMIN MARKESON: Well, I don’t know what the Mayor’s logic is. All I can say is that we think that it’s terrorism to arrest people for trying to share food with poor and hungry people in the community to meet a community need. And all we do is we come to the park and we share food with poor and hungry people. I don’t know how that qualifies as terrorism.

AMY GOODMAN: When you were arrested, what were you doing, Benjamin?

BENJAMIN MARKESON: Well, I wasn’t actually in the park. And that day, I hadn’t actually ladled out any food. I was on a sidewalk adjacent to the park.

AMY GOODMAN: And what happened?

BENJAMIN MARKESON: The police came up and arrested me and charged me under the City of Orlando’s Large Group Feedings Ordinance, the one that requires a permit.

AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of Keith McHenry being arrested? Keith, who comes from the Bay Area, founded Food Not Bombs 30 years ago—

BENJAMIN MARKESON: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: —came down to Orlando. Is he still in jail?

BENJAMIN MARKESON: Yes, he is. He may be there until July 5th, when he has his first appearance on his food sharing arrest.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And precisely what argument was used when this ordinance was passed?

BENJAMIN MARKESON: Well, they were contending that the food sharings caused problems with cleanup, and I think they also were concerned—I think their basic logic was that the food sharings cause problems with cleanup and attract too many people to the park. But we share in the Lake Eola Park picnic area, which is the area that was designated for food sharing and food consumption. And when we first started sharing at Lake Eola Park, we were in a different part of the park, and we cooperated with the city and the police and the park rangers by moving to the picnic area. And less than a year later, they pass this ordinance to essentially shut down all food sharings at Lake Eola.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, a case that is getting a tremendous amount of attention is the case of Casey Anthony. Shayan Elahi, this is happening in the same courthouse, your filing of the lawsuit, and it involves the same judge?

SHAYAN ELAHI: Well, it is happening in the same courthouse, and it involves the same judge in the sense that he’s the chief judge of the circuit. And he’s the one who signed that administrative order that I’m moving the court to enforce. So, basically, I don’t know if the case will land in front of him. We hope that it does. But he is a crucial part of this.

Amy, I would also point out that a lot of this battle that happened six years ago, when [inaudible] was coming through, was about gentrification of downtown. The downtown started to—the Mayor started the development board for downtown Orlando, and his whole goal was basically to push everybody who was, you know, the other, according to them, out who was not—you know, who didn’t fit their idea of who should be in downtown.

And we’re trying to point out to the Mayor that times have changed, that now everybody is hurting, and a lot more people who come to Food Not Bombs food sharing are working poor. And this mayor just doesn’t seem to understand that. By the way, I will add that I am filing—

AMY GOODMAN: Shayan Elahi, we’re going to have to wrap there, but I want to thank you for being with us, attorney for Orlando’s Food Not Bombs, and Benjamin Markeson, an activist with the group.



Original Page: http://m.democracynow.org/stories/11963

Back in the early '80s I converted an old school bus into an RV. My plan was to travel across America, live cheaply and pick up work where I could. It was the only way in which I could see the U.S.

That dream died when the brakes went out and I was told that it would be $5,000 to replace them [I bought the bus for $500]. I had a lot of money invested in carpentry, generator, air-conditioning, etc., so I decided to give up my tiny, one room with bath attached, and move into the bus.

Though it was extremely dangerous, I would wait until the early morning hours and move the bus to a new location every few days. Wherever I parked, it wasn't long before the cops were at my door harassing me -- I never did get a full night's sleep. I was treated like an infectious disease, as these people who "serve and protect" attempted to strip me of every last dignity. While I was laughed at and contemptuously bullied by no less than a bunch of unfeeling sociopaths, it fell upon me to keep my sense of self-worth, regardless of what was being done to me.

And that's what the poor and homeless in American society need to constantly remember -- you may have nothing, but that doesn't mean you ARE nothing. The real criminals and psychopaths are those who treat the powerless like trash. Never give up and never let the real trash win!!

Citing Homeless Law, Hackers Turn Sights on Orlando
Joshua C. Cruey, Orlando Sentinel

By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: June 30, 2011

MIAMI — The hacker group Anonymous has declared a cyberwar against the City of Orlando, disabling Web sites for the city’s leading redevelopment organization, the local Fraternal Order of Police and the mayor’s re-election campaign.

Volunteers from Food Not Bombs were arrested at Lake Eola Park in Orlando, Fla., last month after feeding homeless people without a permit.

Anonymous, a large yet loosely formed group of hackers that claimed responsibility for crashing the Web sites of MasterCard and the Church of Scientology, began attacking the Orlando-based Web sites earlier this week.

The group described its attacks as punishment for the city’s recent practice of arresting members of Orlando Food Not Bombs, an antipoverty group that provides vegan and vegetarian meals twice a week to homeless people in one of the city’s largest parks.

“Anonymous believes that people have the right to organize, that people have the right to give to the less fortunate and that people have the right to commit acts of kindness and compassion,” the group’s members said in a news release and video posted on YouTube on Thursday. “However, it appears the police and your lawmakers of Orlando do not.”

A 2006 city ordinance requires organizations to obtain permits to feed groups of 25 people or more in downtown parks. The law was passed after numerous complaints by residents and businesses owners about the twice-weekly feedings in Lake Eola Park, city officials said. The law limits any group to no more than two permits per year per park.

Since June 1, the city police have arrested 25 Orlando Food Not Bombs volunteers without permits as they provided meals to large groups of homeless people in the park. One of those arrested last week on trespassing charges was Keith McHenry, a co-founder of the first Food Not Bombs chapter in 1980 in Cambridge, Mass. He remained in the Orange County Jail on Thursday awaiting a bond hearing.

This week Anonymous offered a “cease-fire” if no volunteers were arrested during Wednesday evening’s feeding of the homeless. But the police arrested two volunteers, and on Thursday morning Anonymous disrupted the Web site Downtown Orlando, which promotes redevelopment there and is run by the city. An organization spokeswoman confirmed the attack but declined to comment, referring questions to the mayor’s office.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Buddy Dyer, whose re-election campaign site was disabled on Tuesday, called the attack on the Downtown Orlando site an “inconvenience.” She said the city would not change its policy of arresting volunteers who feed homeless people without a permit.

“We will continue to enforce the city ordinance,” said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be identified out of a concern she would become a target of Anonymous. “We must continue to focus on what our Orlando residents want and not the desires of others from outside the community.”

The attack on the Orlando Web sites was the second on a city or state government in two weeks. Last week, hackers gained access to the computer system of the Arizona Department of Public Safety and released law-enforcement records.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Orlando Police Department are investigating, officials said.

Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs condemned the cyberattacks. “We have absolutely nothing to do with Anonymous or any other group that is doing this kind of thing,” said one member, Ben Markeson. “And what Anonymous is doing is a distraction from the real issue at hand.”

Mr. Markeson said the Orlando mayor and City Council members had attempted to “criminalize poverty” by passing a series of ordinances intended to “hide the homeless.”

“Mayor Dyer wants to hide the poor and the hungry people living in our community,” he said.

The mayor’s spokesman denied the allegation, saying: “Nothing could be further from the truth. The city has a strong relationship with our region’s homeless providers and will continue to dedicate resources and services that assist our homeless population.”

Anonymous has become known for prominent denial-of-service attacks on high-traffic Web sites. A denial-of-service attack takes place when an overwhelming crush of Web traffic is intentionally sent to a Web site until it is incapacitated and knocked off line.

Anonymous members rallied a call-to-arms against the city as part of a campaign it dubbed Operation Orlando. Its members promised that future arrests of volunteers helping the homeless would be met with fresh attacks. “For every arrested person,” the group said on Twitter, “Anonymous will deface or assault TEN websites in Orlando.”

Nick Bilton contributed from New York.

Hats off to activists who held a Feed-In and Sleep-Out last night at City Hall in spite of the City's anti-homeless Sleeping Ban (MC 6.36.010a), its "forbidden zone" edict making Santa Cruz unique in denying the public access to the City Hall grounds after 10 PM, and D.A. Bob Lee's vindictive campaign against PC2010 protesters with 6 month jail sentences (currently on appeal).

A salute to Jumbogumbo Joe Schultz who supplied a tasty vegan brew and to KCL who organized an impromptu Orlando Food Not Bombs chapter and cooked up four pots of vegetable soup to support Orlando's twenty-plus jailed and arrested food servers. The Santa Cruz demo boasted at least seven sleepers (including me) outside City Hall, after reportedly serving 30-50 people. Catseat Crow, who organized the two-week long protest that pressured the courts to free Ed Frey and Gary Johnson, was also major support for this rally.

Housing Now! activist and PeaceCamp2010 backer Linda Lemaster (who faces six months in jail for peaceful sleepprotest last fall in front of the courthouse), attorney Ed Frey, and HUFF activist Gail Page were also seen chatting with hungry folks--eager to chow down at a lean time (which the end of the month always is for poor people).

At one point during the night, I woke from my troubled slumbers to see a police car pausing nearby, but after a brief surveillance, it moved on.

Sub Rosa supporters provided morning coffee for those who spent the night (and others walking by).

One sign proclaimed "Sleep is not a crime" (apparently a hope rather than a statement of current Santa Cruz policy).

Bradley of S.C. Indymedia was there taking pictures and chatting with participants, so perhaps some of his reportage will be posted soon.

Ed Frey's (and perhaps Gary Johnson's) next court date for checking on appeal of the "lodging=sleeping" verdict by Judge Gallagher is August 1 or thereabouts. Linda Lemaster has a pretrial around then, charged with the same "crime" as Johnson and Frey. Frey and Johnson, Frey tells me, have no conditions except going back to court to show progress on the appeal papers, so they can return to the scene of their "crimes" (from which they were previously barred).

To listen to Ed Frey and Orlando attorney Shayan Elahi go to http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/06/30/18683340.php for the archive links.

Continued protest around Santa Cruz anti-homeless laws was the subject of spirited discussion between activists at the Sleep-Out. Food Not Bombs groups continue to urge monthly protests at City Hall demanding an end to austerity measures world-wide, anti-homeless laws locally, and freedom to feed nationally.

July 1, 2011

I went to the Food Not Bombs solidarity meal, at a quarter of 8 pm last night. I was already a full fledged success -- having fed about three dozen folks, and several volunteers were beginning to talk about a sleepover.

Crow and Casey were the hosts and cooks and very remarkable energy centers for this event. A number of HUFF activists, and at least five survivors from last summer's PeaceCamp2010, including Ed Frey fresh from jail for Lodging, attended the event. HUFF's Norse provided signs linking both sleep and eats as human rights, and the blue lettered FOOD NOT BOMBS' twenty-foot long banner could be seen halfway down the block.

India Joze, longtime food ally of poor and homeless locals, contributed hearty vegetarian stew to the fare Food Not Bombs organizers had prepared: soup in clear broth, tons of fresh salad, and loaves of sourdough french bread. Somebody drove by to drop off a bag of fruit.

After eating and catching up with folks at the event, I spent the night nearby in a car I get to use, and there was at least one other car-sleeper. Seven other people spent the night at City Hall on the brick plaza that links this governmental center's garden campus with Center Street, wrapped illegally in sleeping bags and blankets.

I came back by at 7:30am, to find fresh coffee from a SubRosa collectivist and most of the sleepers making plans for the day and for a month from now.

Keith McHenry is my "stone soup" man. He's one of my major heroes, similar to 'India Joze'. He got me to stop whining and showed me I can make soup in almost any setting, as we joined energies and borrowed an old-fashioned coffee percolator from the City-County Library, across the street from another demonstration at same City Hall in the 1980s.

McHenry had a huge impact on this movement offering food to hungry people in the US of America, but it really IS a movement actually, and putting him in jail now cannot stop this movement. en it is so essentially simple to prevent; we all need to wake up and realize what's going on -- starving and criminalizing people for natural and unavoidable functions -- in our names and with our taxes.

The city of Orlando is an 'invented' city, built over the Everglades in the late 1960s and early 1970s, advertising jobs all over the state of Florida for their soon-to-materialize DisneyWorld. This shame of Orlando's government seems a microcosm of our economy. Starve them -- redistribute the now-unemployed victims of our Nation's entertainment addiction industry.

Last night I was very proud of Food Not Bombs.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/01/anonymous-activists-to-test-orlando-police-by-feeding-homeless-on-monday/

What an awesome event! Thanks to all who participated. I had an unexpected situation which prevented me from attending at the last minute, but I'm on board for July 31st-Aug 1st. Thanks to Food Not Bombs, Joe Schultz, Casey, Crow, Robert Norse, Linda Lemaster, Ed Frey and all who participated.

Sharing free food among ourselves should never be a crime!
Sleeping at night bothering no one should never be a crime!
And the 'no trespassing' restrictions at City Hall should be lifted
as they were improperly installed in the first place JUST to
remove a LEGAL demonstration of citizens peaceably assembled
attempting to redress government grievances using the 1st amendment.

For shame on DANNETTE SHOEMAKER--the Czarina of Parks and Rec who testified that making City Hall
"off limits" for the first time in 150 years was "an oversight."

KC reported this afternoon he slept for a second night in front of City Hall and got at ticket at 3 AM this morning. The cop suggested he either leave town or go into the woods when KC asked where he might sleep legally.

KC also reports the arrival of "Imagine Change" anti-homeless Panhandling Meters--or one that has been placed in front of the former Borders building. Authorized over a year ago, the meter encourages people to donate to the meter not to the poor person in the street with a sign.

Some of us didn't think the city had the nerve or shamelessness to put these meters in. Under Mayor Ryan Coonerty, I guess he showed he wanted to keep up with Orlando, FL (which, I believe, has installed such meters already).

Casey and Joe Shultz were the people responsible for the vigil... The "Thanks" list is simply a list of people associated with HUFF in various ways. How elitist, as can always be expected from HUFF... "The housed 'leading' the homeless".

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/6/29/food_terrorism_next_door_to_the_magic_kingdom