Local Governments, Continuing To Bar Us From Feeding the Homeless

I've blogged about this kind of cruel foolishness before, arresting or ticketing people for publicly feeding the homeless, out of cities like Dallas and Ft. Lauderdale.

This week MySanAntonio reports on a fully licensed food truck operator arrested   cited because  they used a vehicle other than their licensed one to give food away to hungry homeless in San Antonio's Maverick Park:

Chow Train Facebook

Joan Cheever, founder of the nonprofit mobile food truck known as the Chow Train, was cited last Tuesday by San Antonio police officers for feeding the homeless in Maverick Park.

Cheever has been serving restaurant-quality meals to the city's homeless population for the past 10 years, and has been profiled on Rachel Ray's cooking show for her charitable efforts.

Over the years, police officers have passed by and waved as she fed homeless people, but last Tuesday night four bike-patrol officers stopped in the park and gave Cheever a ticket that carries a potential fine of $2,000. Cheever has a food permit for her mobile truck, but she was cited for transporting and serving the food from a vehicle other than that truck.

Cheever wants to use the argument that had been successful for Don Hart in Dallas: that the citation violates a state-level religious freedom act. I hope she wins, though it's too narrow a victory for the freedom to do good for your fellow man.

Comments

[Almanian!]

Put out a saucer of milk, you're gonna bring in stray cats! Can't have that.

/City Council Member, Yourtown, USA

[Hamster of Doom]

Exactly. The move-along laws have returned.

[sarcasmic]

...a fully licensed food truck operator arrested...

....gave Cheever a ticket....

Which is it? Those things are not the same.

[Swiss Servator...burn B??gg!]

Tulpa votes arrested!

[Porque Pig]

I'm fine with feeding the homeless. On your own property or with the permission of the property owner, and as long as it's not interfering with other people's ability to use areas that are not your property.

[Brian Doherty]

My error, no arrest involved, just citation. Been fixed.

[Paul.]

Alt-text:

How 'bout you get your Tom-of-Finland ass back on your big gay bike and go home!

[kinnath]

Teach that bitch a lesson she won't forget anytime soon.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Looks like local governments should bar people from feeding cops.

[Xeones]

He must not have been a bike cop for very long.

[Paul.]

That's Chris Christie, pressing the flesh. Pressing it hard.

[Hamster of Doom]

Clark County, WA recently outlawed panhandling. Every time I leave the grocery store and someone shoves in my face how much I really need to sign up for their electric/cell phone/cookie/charitable service, I remind them panhandling is illegal in Clark County. It's a source of great tongue-in-cheek enjoyment.

[Hamster of Doom]

OT:

Soldier sues IT company for discriminating in favor of foreign workers.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Since the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act worked in a previous feeding-the-homeless case, perhaps it will work here.

Then, of course, someone who's cited for feeding the homeless out of their food truck for non-religious reasons can sue for discrimination, because he shouldn't have to believe in a Sky Daddy to engage in Christian charity...oops, I mean charity.

[Invisible Finger]

Local governments CREATED the homeless and they don't like you undoing their work.

[Real American]

Don't feed the animals.

[Hank Phillips]

That ain't all the GOP plans to ban in Texas. A statehouse republican from between Lubbock and Okla City wants to get rid of them pesky small parties that give people a choice in voting. See HB 464.

[__Will__]

San Antonio is hardly a stronghold for the GOP. Liberals lives their intrusive government as much as any Republican.

[MC Guru]

when I tell my friends / family members that many cities across the country especially concentrated in the area where I live are enacting laws to penalize / criminalize feeding homeless people, they usually look at me as if I were an insane person and refuse to believe it. the idea that their precious State actually acts to prevent private charity is just unfathomable to them

most of them are proud TEAM members and they all vote.