Fort Lauderdale police arrested three men, including 90-year-old Arnold Abbott, for feeding the homeless in public. From Local10.com:
"One of the police officers said, 'Drop that plate right now,' as if I were carrying a weapon," said Abbott, who runs a nonprofit group called Love Thy Neighbor, Inc. "It's man's inhumanity to man is all it is."
In 1999, the city tried to stop Abbott from feeding the homeless on Fort Lauderdale Beach, prompting a lawsuit from Abbott, which he won. Now he said he will fight the municipal ordinance charge and be forced to take the city back to court.
"I’m going to have to go to court again and sue the city of Fort Lauderdale -- a beautiful city," said Abbott. "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: After being released from prison on Tuesday, Abbott returned to the streets on Wednesday and was arrested AGAIN by police for feeding the homeless. From The Daily Mail:
And after they finished serving food, police again arrested Abbott.
It seems that despite Abbott's amazing charitable ways, the mayor of the city, Jack Seiler, has nothing but disgust for the selfless old man.
Seiler told Local 10, 'Mr. Abbott has decided that he doesn't think these individuals should have to have any interaction with government, that they should be fed in the parks. We disagree.'
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