Audio By Carbonatix
Food Not Bombs, the activists organization that feeds vegan food to homeless people to protest war, had a grand plan for a protest Wednesday. They’d protest all night to stand up against what they called the increased proliferation of Florida anti-homelessness ordinances.
By the 5:30 p.m. start time, the plan didn’t seem so sure. Four homeless people waited for the protest — and related feeding — to begin.
The
Fort Lauderdale group finally arrived around six and unloaded clothes,
signs, and food — but no utensils. People just stared at the food for
several hours while waiting for someone, it’s not really clear who, to
bring utensils.
The disorganization seemed somehow appropriate for a group that has been mired with problems since it started feeding homeless people in downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Stranahan
Park. Food Not Bombs members claimed police harassment, but their game of capture the flag was what got members arrested for trespassing.
The group
said the protest Wednesday was the first of what they said would be monthly events
coordinated with other Florida chapters. Three people were arrested at an Food Not Bombs event in Orlando yesterday, including organization co-founder Keith McHenry, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The
first police officer arrived
about 45 minutes after the Fort Lauderdale protest was supposed to
begin. A Food Not Bombs member sitting on the sidewalk sarcastically
offered him some soup
before four more officers arrived.
Haylee
Becker was the de-facto leader of the event, despite the group’s
insistence that they don’t have a power structure. Becker, a soft-spoken
19-year-old, said that no one could eat the food until
sanitary utensils arrived, and no one ate. And they waited more than two
and
a half hours, fighting with each other occasionally.
Food Not Bombs member David Hitchcock was the only one to start an argument
with an otherwise friendly police sergeant within seconds of the
officer’s arrival. It started with the sergeant looking for someone who
was in charge and ended with yelling, the officer walking away, and
Hitchcock heckling him by yelling, “That’s a nice-looking badge.”
By 9 p.m., the “all night” protest disbanded without incident.
