*stares blankly*
Arnold Abbott is a 90-year old resident of the state of Florida that, for the past two decades, has consistently fed the homeless in parks, on beaches, and in other public places. However, according to a new Florida ordinance that prohibits the public sharing of food, Mr. Abbott was breaking the law on Monday. Abbott now faces up to 2 months in jail in addition to a fine, a hefty price to pay for what most consider to be a good samaritan act.
This isn’t Abbott’s first run-in with the law concerning his feeding of the homeless. In 1999, he was banned from a beach in Fort Lauderdale for feeding the homeless there, and he subsequently sued the city–and won. He plans on doing the same thing this time around for fighting these charges, but admits he wishes he didn’t have to. Abbott had this to say following his arrest, “These are the poorest of the poor, they have nothing, they don’t have a roof over their heads. How do you turn them away?”
UPDATE: You would think once was bad enough. As per a Daily News report, Arnold Abbott has been arrested once again for feeding the homeless; this makes the second time in as many weeks. “I expected it. At least this time they let us feed people first,” says Abbott following his second arrest. When he was initially arrested last Monday, he posed the question, “How do you turn them away?” in regards to the homeless people living in his home town of Fort Lauderdale in Florida. He clearly doesn’t have the answer to that question, and should he not be imprisoned for violating Florida’s new ordinance declaring the public sharing of food illegal, there’s a good 100% chance Abbott will hit the streets once again, and feed “his people”. At this point, we don’t blame him. We can’t imagine Abbott is too worried about having a record at the age of 90, unless he has job applications pending. If he does, he’s even badder than we thought.
