What is our country coming to when perfectly kind and generous people cannot feed the hungry without the threat of being arrested? Please share this so people can see the contact information included in this article and get some answers to this atrocity. ~Cris
Raleigh, NC Police Threaten To Arrest Good Samaritans Who Feed The Homeless
Fresh on the heels of a law being passed in Columbia, South Carolina that makes being homeless illegal, we have yet another situation where the homeless and the downtrodden are basically being treated like savage animals and kicked to the curb.
In Raleigh, North Carolina, a group of good Samaritans from Love Wins Ministry, along with five other churches who contribute funds and manpower, have been going to a local park on virtually every Saturday and Sunday, bringing food to homeless people for years. They would bring breakfast sandwiches and coffee and give them away, for free, to anyone who wanted it. By all means, it has been a very kind and generous deed that these folks have been doing over the years. A true grassroots effort to help others who are in need, and a huge testament to human compassion and spirit.
By all means, this act of human kindness was not causing anyone any problems. Until one recent day when the group showed up with around 100 sausage biscuits and hot coffee. Some 70 people were waiting in line to be served their free meal. Also present were officers from the Raleigh Police Department, and they were not there for a free sausage biscuit sandwich. They told the group that if they served any of their food to the homeless folks who were waiting in the line that they would be arrested. Clearly, no food was going to be served today to those 70 people, and apparently not on any day going forward.
The group has never had any prior run-ins with the police. They were not allowed to use the park itself without paying for an expensive permit, so they have always set up shop on the sidewalk near the park, as long as they were not blocking it and cleaned up their messes.
The reason given by the cop for not being able to provide food to the homeless and the hungry was this: “I am just telling you what is. Now you pass out that food, you will go to jail.”
There were no apparent ordinance violations. Just a simple message from a cop that obviously came from someone higher up the chain of command. And the good Samaritans have every intention of continuing their good deeds, but have not yet determined the logistics of doing so.
And apparently, it’s still legal to feed animals at the park – just not humans.
On their blog, the Love Wins Ministry has posted ways that we can help with this atrocity. We are posting this information below. Please share this so that others who are willing to help can do so too! We can’t turn our backs on the needy and the poor – especially in this day and age where close to half the country believes that being poor, homeless, and jobless are to be treated as some kind of moral shortcoming.
1. Below are the email addresses and phone numbers of the Mayor and of the City Council members. We encourage you to email them and ask A) why organizations, such as Love Wins Ministries, are being prevented from feeding people in the park, when the City of Raleigh has no means of or plans to feed them and B) encourage them to allow said feeding to continue.
Keeping in mind that we win over no one with anger or rudeness. Anger does not cast out fear – only love can do that.
* Out of town folks, call any and all of the City Council members.
* Raleigh residents, call the City Council member representing your district. You can find your district by entering your address here.
City Council At Large
Mary-Ann Baldwin – Email – 919-996-3050
City Council At Large/Mayor Pro Tem
Russ Stephenson – Email – 919-996-3050
District A
Randall Stagner – Email – 919-996-3050
District B
John Odom – Email – 919-996-3050
District C
Eugene Weeks – Email – 919-996-3050
District D
Thomas Crowder – Email – 919-996-3050
District E
Bonner Gaylord – Email – 919-996-3050
Mayor
Nancy McFarlane – Email – 919-996-3050
2. Post the link to this post on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or any other social media outlets you have access to. Again, we have done nothing wrong, and have no desire to hide.
3. If you have contacts with people of influence (media, celebrities, etc.), please pass this story along to them or give them my email address – hugh@lovewins.info.
4. Stay up do date. The most current information will be on our Facebook page, which you can like to receive those updates automatically.
5. Pray for our friends who are hungry, and now have nowhere to eat. And pray for us, so that we do not lose our tempers and along with it, our soul. And pray for the officers and people in power, who are working against our goals.
Pray for all of us, in fact, because we all need it, and our liberation is bound up in each other.
