Members of a church from Raleigh, N.C., were shocked when they participated in their weekend ritual of handing out coffee and breakfast sandwiches to the homeless and were told by police that they would be arrested if they distributed the food, according to ABC News.
Every Saturday and Sunday for roughly six years volunteers from Love Wins Ministries would bring the food to grateful crowds. This time they were greeted not by the hungry but by police officers threatening to arrest them, according to the Huffington Post.
"An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested," Rev. Hugh Hollowell wrote on the church's website. "We asked the officers for permission to disperse the biscuits to the over 70 people who had lined up, waiting to eat. They said no. I had to face those who were waiting and tell them that I could not feed them, or I would be arrested."
A Raleigh city ordinance prohibits serving food at a public park without a permit and for the past month or so police officers have been cracking down and enforcing the law. Mayor Nancy McFarlane and City Council member Mary-Ann Baldwin said that the police action was not ordered by city leaders and that they were working to find a compromise, according to the Raleigh News and Observer.
"I feel horrible that this happened," Baldwin told the Raleigh News and Observer. "I want to find a solution that is collaborative so that we're doing the smart thing as well as the right thing."
While there was the threat of arrest it appears as if none of the volunteers were taken into custody.
"No arrests were made in connection with the feeding activity; people were simply informed of a city ordinance that prohibits the actions some groups have been engaged in at the park," Jim Sughrue, a spokesman for the Raleigh police department, said in statement. "Work is ongoing with those involved, some of whom are developing alternative sites."
Raheem Andrews has been getting breakfast from the church group every weekend for the past four years. He told the Raleigh News and Observer that he thinks the police are trying to force the homeless out of downtown.
"Personally, I have somewhere to lay my head, but that doesn't mean I have food in my kitchen all of the time,"Andrews said. "I understand downtown is getting bigger. I feel like they are trying to flush us out and get rid of the riff-raff. I don't know where they're going to run us to."
The groups could continue to serve the food in the park if they chose to obtain a permit, although that seems highly unlikely. The permit costs $800 per day, according to the Huffington Post.
