[diggers350] Giving away food is a criminal offence

[Tony Gosling]

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 12:49:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: <sffnb at iww.org>
To: News Media <sffnb at iww.org>
Subject: POLICE ARREST FOOD NOT BOMBS ACTIVISTS IN SAN FRANCISCO, USA !


> 
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 20,1999
>
> Food Not Bombs Voicemail: + 1-415-675-9928
> 
> TWO FOOD NOT BOMBS ACTIVISTS ARRESTED FOR SERVING FREE FOOD!
> 
> San Francisco- Police arrested two Food Not Bombs activists, Oct. 20th at 
> 6pm in United Nations Plaza.  FNB volunteers were distributing free food to 
> low-income and no-income people in the plaza when the police arrived.  The 
> police surrounded the food and prevented homeless people from getting bread 
> and hot soup.
> 
> Food Not Bombs is a non-violent direct action group that shares free food
to 
> poor and hungry people around the world.  FNB groups collect donated food 
> and prepare meals in volunteers' kitchens.  The meals are shared in public 
> spaces to draw attention to the crisis of homelessness while an enormous 
> amount of money and resources goes to military investment.
> 
> In San Francisco, Food Not Bombs has experienced police harassment and 
> political repression from the City government.  FNB has shared hundreds of 
> thousands of vegetarian meals with poor and hungry people since 1988.  Over 
> the years we have been arrested at least 1,000 times.  In the last 
> elections, the current administration of Mayor Willie Brown promised voters 
> that he would cease arresting FNB members. Homelessness is the central
issue 
> in the upcoming mayoral elections; with this increasing harassment, Mayor 
> Brown is demonstrating his approach.
> 
> The arrest of the two food servers tonight, October 20th, is a clear 
> indication of the basic disrespect of human and civil rights in San 
> Francisco.
> 
> An account from two eyewitnesses who were also serving food:
> 
> FNB volunteers Jeff and Sasha were handcuffed together and arrested for 
> serving food to hungry people without a permit after Officer Banta told
them 
> to stop serving and they continued. The large amount of soup and bread
still 
> remaining was also carted off by the police. People who were there to eat 
> questioned the police on why the servers were being arrested, and the
police 
> said "for serving food without a permit." (The permit in question is no 
> longer issued by the city, and has been used for years as a political tool 
> for selective enforcement.) As legal observers, they took down the
officers' 
> names in order to contact their supervisors and file complaints about the 
> ridiculousness of arresting people for serving free food.
> 
> FNB members were able to serve food for ten minutes before police officers 
> came to arrest us. There were about eight cops there, none of whom seemed
to 
> know why they were there or understand the situation. The police were 
> roundly disrespectful to the community being served as well as the food 
> servers, but their anger was met with a calm and nonviolent response. The 
> police confiscated and photographed the soup and bread as evidence after 
> arresting the servers.
> 
> 	Food Not Bombs is continuing to build community support to end the 
> political harassment of those who support the homeless community, and to 
> make criminalization of poor people unacceptable.  FNB will not reduce or 
> restrict our servings, and we will not compromise our advocacy of the
people 
> who are under constant attack by the government of San Francisco.
> 
> 
> 

*****************************************************************************

<sffnb at iww.org> Signature File Of Thursday 17 September 1998

Communications from this e-mail address <sffnb at iww.org> DO NOT necessarily
reflect views of the San Francisco Food Not Bombs organization, unless it
is otherwise indicated. The information content and opinions expressed in
this communication are from individual members, allies and affiliates of
San Francisco Food Not Bombs.

San Francisco Food Not Bombs
P.O. Box 40485
San Francisco, California 94140
USA

Phone:      + 1-415-675-9928

E-Mail:     < sffnb at iww.org >

Web Page:   < http://www.foodnotbombs.org >


--
Tony Gosling
tony at gaia.org

"Capitalism is Institutionalised Bribery. Homelessness kicks people into
wage slavery."

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