.....Church Group Members Threatened With Arrest for Handing Out Biscuits, Coffee to the Homeless
By ALEXIS SHAW | Good Morning America – Mon, Aug 26, 2013 12:11 AM EDT
......Good Morning America - Church Group Members Threatened With Arrest for Handing Out Biscuits, Coffee to the Homeless (ABC News)

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5579Tweet0Share0Print......A North Carolina church group said they were prevented from handing out food to the homeless after police threatened them with arrest, according to their website.

For the past six years, volunteers from Love Wins Ministries frequented Moore Square in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturdays and Sundays to give out hot coffee and a breakfast sandwich to those in need, according to the church group's website.

But when volunteers went down to their usual weekend spot to dole out the 100 sausage biscuits and the gallons of coffee they had brought to feed the crowds who had gathered Saturday morning, they were also greeted by officers with the Raleigh Police Department, according to a statement on the church group's website.

"An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested," the Rev. Hugh Hollowell wrote on the group'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."

The Raleigh police were there to enforce a city ordinance that bans the distribution of food in any of the city's parks, ABC Raleigh, N.C., station WTVD-TV reported.

While the group said it was aware they could not use the park itself, they had set up on the sidewalk for the past six years without issue, their website said.

"No representative from the Raleigh Police Department was willing to tell us which ordinance we were breaking, or why, after six years and countless friendly and cooperative encounters with the Department, they are now preventing us from feeding hungry people," Hollowell wrote.

In addition, the group learned it would need to apply for a permit to use the park, which costs $800 a day, their website said.

No arrests were made in connection with the food distribution, Raleigh Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue told WTVD-TV.

"People were simply informed the ordinance prohibits the kinds of actions some groups have been engaged in at the park," he said.

Despite the off-putting encounter, Hollowell wrote that the group plans to find a venue in downtown Raleigh to carry out their mission.

In the meantime, they are seeking out owners of private buildings or parking lots to allow them to continue to bring biscuits to the hungry, the website said.

Love Wins Ministries did not immediately return ABC News' requests for comment.

http://gma.yahoo.com/church-group-members-threatened-arrest-handing-biscuits-coffee-041141792--abc-news-topstories.html

This is an example of official hostility to the poor that is truly offensive to God.

I could be wrong, but this may just be an issue of codes having to be adhered to.  There may be a code having to do with serving food on a sidewalk ... an ordinance about how a food establishment must meet certain conditions.  Or the fact that feeding folks in this matter created a crowd condition on a public sidewalk.  

The charity may be able to locate place to provide this food and have the people come indoors to eat it.  We have a little coffee shop in town that has a soup kitchen one day a week and they give food and drink away to whomever wants it.  Maybe someone can donate a space to the charity for this purpose.

I could be wrong, but this may just be an issue of codes having to be adhered to.  There may be a code having to do with serving food on a sidewalk ... an ordinance about how a food establishment must meet certain conditions.  Or the fact that feeding folks in this matter created a crowd condition on a public sidewalk.  

The charity may be able to locate place to provide this food and have the people come indoors to eat it.  We have a little coffee shop in town that has a soup kitchen one day a week and they give food and drink away to whomever wants it.  Maybe someone can donate a space to the charity for this purpose.

The code refered to giving out food to people in the park. The police were unable to identify the exact code they would be in violation if they gave food out to people on the sidewalk.

Quote from: Capt McQuigg

I'm sure there are plenty of soup kitchens, social service agencies and the like in Raleigh, NC.

Protestant do-gooders may occasionally give a man a bite to eat but they starve his soul because the faux kindness of protestants leads hopeless people to follow them.  

This is a Catholic group.

Sickening.  I'm sorry to hear that.

The government wants to keep up the illusion that the people should depend on the government for absolutely everything.  This group is on their "turf", so to speak.  So they send out the police to stop it at all cost.