Orlando Food Not Bombs member Eric Montanez is led away by the Orlando police after being arrested for the "crime" of sharing food with the homeless. photo by RAYMA JENKINS

Update: A plea of "Not Guilty" was entered for Eric on May 4, and a pre-trial hearing was held on Thurs., June 7. About 30 comrades, friends, family members and homeless people came to the courthouse to show their support for Eric. His trial likely will be held sometime this summer. A hearing on a motion to dismiss the charge on constitutional grounds is pending. Orlando Food Not Bombs, including Eric, continues to share food inside Lake Eola Park every week.

Orlando Food Not Bombs shared food outside the Orange County Courthouse on May 4. Eric Montanez is in the center (in the blue shirt).

For immediate release

April 12, 2007

Orlando Food Not Bombs denounces the arrest of our friend and comrade Eric Montanez, who on Wed., April 4 became the first person charged under Orlando's controversial and unpopular "large group feedings" ordinance, which bans food sharings in downtown parks. Eric's terrible crime, according to the police report, was that during our weekly food sharing at Lake Eola Park he served "30 unidentified persons food from a large pot utilizing a ladle." The police also took a sample of our delicious vegan stew as evidence. We are wondering what are they are going to do with that sample, send it to a lab for testing? We can see it now: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I draw your attention to exhibit A: the stew, consisting of carrots, potatoes, peppers, mushrooms, and trace amounts of rosemary." Don't they have better things to do with their time and our tax money than take samples of soup?

The surveillance of Orlando FNB on April 4, which ended in Eric's arrest, involved at least a dozen Orlando police, including two undercover officers videotaping us, eight used in the actual arrest, and supervisors. This is a rather ridiculous use of police resources, especially in a city which suffered a record-setting 49 homicides in 2006 and has had more than a dozen so far this year. Common sense would seem to dictate that the police would have more pressing priorities than whether someone gave stew to more than 25 people.

Of course, skewed priorities are not unusual in Orlando, a city which would deny free food–provided without using a dime of taxpayer money–to the homeless while spending over a billion dollars of taxpayer money on three grandiose projects: a new arena for a professional basketball team owned by a billionaire, a performing arts center for the pleasure of the local civic elite, and renovations to a football stadium that is used less than 10 days a year. This is in an area with an estimated 9,000 homeless individuals. Orlando has lots of room for people who can afford to buy tickets to events at those venues, but no room for people who can't even afford to buy a night's lodging and must sleep outdoors.

The measure under which Eric was arrested is the latest in a series enacted by Orlando with the goal of driving the homeless out of downtown at the urging of development and business interests who see homeless people as an obstacle to their profits and plans for further gentrification.

We consider the "large group feedings" ordinance unjust and inhumane since it seeks to deny food to those who need it the most and criminalizes the homeless and their allies. We and our lawyers from the Central Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also consider the ordinance to be unconstitutional, violating First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, assembly and religion, and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees of due process and equality under the law.

We feel that we and the homeless should have the same right as anyone else to use public facilities such as parks. That's why in October, Orlando FNB as a group, along with the First Vagabonds Church of God, sued the City in federal court. Four members of OFNB, including Eric, also are individual plaintiffs. The ordinance is so poorly written that despite Eric's arrest it appears that it is unenforceable in a court of law, making his arrest just another instance of petty harassment. We are confident that Eric will be vindicated as his case winds it way through the system. We wonder, however, if community service would be part of his sentence for giving food to too many homeless people?

Eric's arrest shows both the heartlessness of Orlando towards the destitute and those who aid them. It also shows the dishonesty of the City's elected officials, employees, lawyers and police. Less than two weeks before Eric's arrest a police spokesperson had told the Orlando Sentinel that the ordinance would not be enforced until after the lawsuit is tried in June of 2008. That was after a March 14 incident in which three members of Orlando FNB were given parking tickets while food for the homeless was unloaded from their vehicles, in addition to being videotaped along with their vehicles and their license plates. The police harassment has continued, including more videotaping and the presence of officers at each sharing, meant to intimidate both Orlando FNB and the homeless. At one sharing, we even had officers in SWAT jackets. Again, aren't there more important places to be doing surveillance and expending police resources?

Orlando FNB denounces bigotry against the homeless, which is exemplified by the "large group feedings" ordinance, Eric's arrest, and the support for anti-homeless measures from some of the privileged, affluent people living in downtown neighborhoods such as Thornton Park and Lake Eola Heights. We also denounce venal, opportunistic and not-so-bright politicians such as Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and City Commissioner Patty Sheehan who pushed for the "large group feedings" ordinance and the crackdown on this group of community activists armed only with ladles and pots of soup. Dyer and Sheehan are not concerned with what is fair and humane, but only with holding onto power and the political support of those who hate the homeless and would deny them civil and human rights.

Orlando FNB is not a charity. Sharing food is a charitable act; however, we do it not only because there are people who desperately need the food, but to express our political opposition to poverty, inequality, violence, war, militarism, oppression--including authoritarianism, racism, sexism, homophobia and exploitation–and the destruction of the environment. We do this in Orlando because our group is made up mostly of Orlando residents and we believe in trying to make a positive difference in our own community through acting on our values. We see people who are hungry, so we go out and give them food. Everyone is welcome at our sharings.

In the 25-year history of the worldwide FNB movement, many of its participants have been arrested. Eric is not the only person in Orlando willing to face the possibility of jail. We are not afraid to be arrested if that is what it takes to stand up for what is just. Orlando FNB will not be intimidated by the City and police. Since Eric's arrest we have received an outpouring of support and generous offers of help. We are just a small group of people who give away free food once a week, but we will not be pushed around. We were back at Lake Eola Park this week (April 11), sharing food as usual, and we will be back every week thereafter.

WE WON'T STOP UNTIL THE LAST BELLY IS FULL!

orlandofnb@orlandofoodnotbombs.org

Come help out! We serve every Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the corner of Central and Osceola in Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando.

TAKE ACTION

Contact Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and City Commissioners to express your opposition to Eric'a arrest, the "large group feedings" ordinance, the harassment of Orlando Food Not Bombs and the criminalization of homelessness--being homeless should not be a crime.

Mayor Buddy Dyer
buddy.dyer@cityoforlando.net
Fax: 407-246-2842
Phone: 407-246-2221
Chief of Staff: Cheryl Henry
407-246-2221

Comissioner District 1: Phil Diamond
phil.diamond@cityoforlando.net
Phone: 407-246-2001
Fax: 407-246-3010
Aide: Sandy Johnson
Phone: 407-246-3011

Comissioner District 2: Betty Wyman
bwyman@cityoforlando.net
Phone: 407-246-2002
Fax: 407-246-3010
Aide: Dona Patrick
Phone: 407-246-2899

Comissioner District 3 : Robert Stuart
Robert.Stuart@cityoforlando.net
Phone: 407-246-2003
Fax: 407-246-3010
Aide: Monica Mesa
Phone: 407-246-4059

Comissioner District 4: Patty Sheehan
Patty.Sheehan@cityoforlando.net
Phone: 407-246-2004
Fax: 407-246-3010
Aide: Chase Smith
Phone: 407-246-2106

Comissioner District 5: Daisy Lynum
Daisy.Lynum@cityoforlando.net
Phone: 407-246-2005
Fax: 407-246-3010
Aide: Marcia Davis
Phone: 407-246-3014

Commissioner District 6: Samuel Ings
Samuel.Ings@cityoforlando.net
Phone: 407-246-2006
Fax: 407-246-3010
Aide: Cynthia Wilson
Phone: 407-246-3016