Compassion a Crime: City of Tampa Food Not Bombs

This weekend, the City of Tampa had a major sporting event that was going to attract several out of town folks. It was a highly glorified event, with a full weekend of entertainment available in downtown Tampa.

Unfortunately, the Tampa Police department decided earlier this week to detain the Food Not Bombs activists who were providing free food sharing to the members of the houseless community. On Tuesday, the activists were told by the police to refrain from the food sharing and to not return this coming Saturday. Despite their threats, the brave activists of Food Not Bombs came out to Gaslight Parks on Saturday, amidst the cold and the crowd, and continued food sharing. Without fail, the Tampa Police department arrested seven of the activists and disbanded the group.

The fact is the City of Tampa and Greater Hillsborough County has a serious poverty issue, and naturally as a result, homelessness will persist. Instead of creating a community of compassion, the City decides, randomly and at-will, to enforce some very oppressive legislation to prevent food sharing.

Here is some data on the City's homeless counts in 2016.

Although I may be wrong, I believe the City is acting on sec. 16-43 of Article III in the City's Parks and Recreations ordinance. This ordinance was established in 2004 and proclaims certain prohibited activities in city managed parks. You can read the ordinance here where you see Sec. 16-43 point C.

 "No person shall conduct any activity or utilize any department managed land in a manner which will result in commercial activity, as defined in this chapter, or provide for the distribution or sampling of any materials, merchandise, food, and/or beverages to the general public, without prior written approval from the department."

It seems, however, such laws are managed at-will whenever the police department is instructed to make the City more eye appeasing to outside groups. Instead of actually tackling the homeless problem, the City would rather "cover it up" with a band-aid when a large mass of visitors are present. This is not tolerable and must be stopped!

In 2011, people were stopped ahead of the Republican National Convention.

I commend the activists who violated these laws and take a stand for human decency and compassion. Since the City won't tackle the homelessness problem, it has become up to the activists to handle it.

What can you do about it?

Attend the upcoming Food Not Bombs Tampa meeting and find out what their action plan is.

Write AND Call the Mayor to let him know you are not alright with these types of law enforcement actions in your City.

Write AND Call your City Council.

Contribute and share the fundraising for legal support for the activists.

And of course, distribute this information to your peers and ask them to get involved as well.