 This is a video from the Institute for Justice and this story made me rage because it is so egregious, it's such an abuse of power and it speaks to how far we've fallen as a Society, so this is going to be the story of a woman right here. She's an elderly woman and she's being arrested by police Because she had the audacity To feed the homeless. I wish I were making that up, but I'm not I'm gonna call my my higher-ups and figure out how we're gonna handle this, okay? My name is Norma Thornton. I live in Bullhead City, Arizona Okay, so I've made contact with the lady and the gentleman that was here I went up and talked to her. I said, what are you doing? She goes, I'm just bringing the Transients and food. They're hungry. Yeah, so I just got a very I'm gonna speak your phone, right? Yeah, yeah, I'll take you off I think this is a PR nightmare, but okay Here's the bad news. Uh-oh, you're under arrest. Yeah, it's a PR nightmare Violating the city ordinance. Good news is all I'm gonna do Get your fingerprints all that stuff and I will bring you right back here The city of Bullhead has made it a Crime to feed the needy Technically, I'm supposed to be handcuffing you and everything too, but I'm not gonna do that I don't think I don't think you're a hardened criminal. I don't think you're you're out to hurt me. I I'm not out to hurt anybody Just so you know, you are under arrest. This isn't a rest. You must go to court Do not come back into the park and feed people if you do You will definitely spend the night in the jail in Kingman. I Had a restaurant for a very long time and I worked restaurant work for quite a bit a Friend of mine had been volunteering making food for the homeless and asked me would I please be interested in in serving food One day a week and I found it very exciting and so volunteered this gave me purpose and a good way to use my skill and Kind of spiraled to doing more More and more I started out a wonderful day. I've made had good food made up for my For the people down at the park I just finished up serving approximately 26 or 27 people and the very last person that come through I literally was scraping the bottom of my pants finished off the food gave him and As he was walking away these two police officers drove up Bullhead City Police Finally the day came to come and talk to the prosecutor person and Then they would set a date for criminal Criminal court so Thought of people being hungry. I mean, I'm not making a big impact. It's not that much But at least Some people have enough food to survive and I can't even imagine living in this country and being hungry To be told that you cannot feed the hungry regardless of What what the circumstances are? It's sad, but it makes me really really angry to put it bluntly Let me pause it right there for a moment because I do want to give you guys a little bit of additional context So if she was going to feed Homeless people she would need a one-time permit Now here's some details here from USA today. So It requires people and this is the ordinance that they're referring to in this article To obtain a special one-time permit one Thornton's attorney says she can't afford So it costs money to obtain this permit to feed homeless people To share prepared meals with a charitable purpose and limits the distribution of food to a two-hour window once a month A location is only allowed to host a food sharing event once a month now the food sharing event that is More like a potluck right but if she were to be the one to distribute the food Then she would have to do more potentially obtain like a food handlers card or a license to do that as well So it's genuinely one of the most dystopian stories ever and they're trying to criminally charge this woman For literally feeding the needy something that the city should be doing but the city is punishing her for doing that But um, let's continue After the court this reporter sit down beside me because I was sitting Right on the brink of tears and he sat down talked to me a little bit And he said may I take a pic take your picture? He asked me a few questions the day after the front page blasts across grandmother Arrested for beating the homeless or something like that. I'm never gonna stop feeding him never I am still able to serve people. It's not ideal. It's there's no tables. There's no grass They get their food and they just sit up against a fence that gives us some shade When I was serving in the park Word would get out that I was serving and it was much easier for people to get to me and to the food We always kept the park clean so that the places always left as Clean or cleaner than we arrived nobody Camped in the park lived in the park The city has made it very clear that I can have a party and host up to a hundred people with no Consequence at all so long as I am not feeding the homeless It's insane. I am not enabling homelessness I'm enabling these people to survive now The reason why she says that that she's not enabling homelessness is Because the sheriff in this town tried to justify this city ordinance by saying that They were trying to stop the enabling of homelessness as if you're enabling someone to be homeless where it's like Oh, come on stop being homeless and they're like no I want to keep being homeless and by giving them food that just further incentivizes them being homeless like they're thinking here is So idiotic like the logic just doesn't make sense. So that's why she said that she's not enabling homelessness She's just caring for people who happen to be unhoused. It's genuinely absurd now a little bit of an update to the story So thankfully that the city dropped the charges against her Probably because this is now a national story and she has lawyers representing her pro bono and She's suing the city suing them over the ban on feeding homeless people in parks good for her I hope she wins and I hope that anyone who was responsible for this ordinance Um They face political repercussions. They get kicked out of office. They lose their jobs. It's genuinely disgusting So I'm glad that she's suing by the way, this woman is 78 years old They're arresting a 78 year old senior citizen because she dared to distribute prepared food To homeless people it's This is evidence that we are living in The latest stage of of capitalism because if you notice like when it comes to any Legal action taken to address homelessness Often times I'd say more often than not although I don't have data to back up this claim The legal action is to try to erase homeless people out of existence You see architecture that has been created to stop homeless people from using it at benches with you know Divots in the middle or arm rests in the middle bars in the middle so that way you can't sleep on them and you know spread out It's spread your feet across them. We see just so much cruelty in the richest country on the planet and This country is so fucking cruel that cities are literally banning homeless people from Just being in public places, which I don't know where else they're supposed to go and banning people who have the audacity to Try to feed the homeless It's so disgusting, but this is the country that we live in and I just want people to know that it's fucking sick There's no compassion. Yeah, this is class warfare as the beer burglar puts it and Yeah, I hope she wins this but you know the sad thing is that this is a story that blew up but it's not the only instance of Feeding the homeless and just being homeless in general being criminalized It's happened in a lot of different cities So if this were like an isolated incident that I think wow, this is a really stupid city, right? The officials here all should be out of jobs, but it's not it's it's a pretty common phenomenon Which really makes things worse, right red comment says Tennessee made it a crime to be homeless. Yeah It's like what are you supposed to do if you don't have anywhere to go?