78-year-old arrested for sharing food with the homeless

One might think that doing a good deed for society is always welcomed by everyone but turns out there can be some serious crossovers between philanthropy and the law.

Mirror reports that a woman named Norma Thornton, from Arizona, US was arrested for feeding the homeless in her city. She is now taking matters to court and suing her city.

Why is feeding the homeless a crime?

Earlier in March this year, Mrs Thornton, a 78-year-old grandma, was providing hot meals to the homeless at her local Bullhead City Community Park. She was almost at the end of her shift when the Bullhead City police came in and arrested her.

The charges against her were for violating a city ordinance. Mrs Thornton is quoted as saying,

I’d just finished up serving approximately 26 or 27 people, and the very last person that came through.

I literally was scraping the bottom of my pans, finished off the food, gave him, and as he was walking away, these two police officers drove up.

In the footage of the incident recorded through the police officer’s body cam, they are heard saying,

Here’s the bad news… you’re under arrest for violating the city ordinance.

The officer then adds,

Technically I’m supposed to be handcuffing you and everything too, but I’m not going to do that because I don't think you’re a hardened criminal.

Court case against Bullhead City

According to Mohave Valley Daily News, Mrs Thornton was arrested because her city has a law against organising any events at a public park where prepared food is served or distributed for charitable purposes at no cost, or for a nominal charge, to any member of the public.

The charges against her were later dropped but she expressed how it feels like feeding the needy has been made a crime. She says,

The city of Bullhead has made it a crime to feed the needy. The thought of people being hungry, I mean, I’m not making a big impact… but at least some people have enough food to survive

Mrs Thornton is now suing Bullhead City for violating her constitutional rights to participate in charitable events. Her lawsuit states that there are huge impediments to gaining permits to prepare and serve food such that,

the permit’s conditions are so restrictive that, in practice, it is not a permit requirement but is a categorical prohibition on giving prepared food to the needy in public parks.

Sources used:

Mirror: ‘Gran arrested for giving food to homeless as city makes it 'crime to feed needy'’

Mohave Valley Daily News: ‘Lawsuit seeks injunction against food-sharing ordinance’