90-year-Old arrested for feeding the homeless

American cities were getting increasingly tough on food distribution for the homeless — and in November 2014, one of the starkest examples played out in a Fort Lauderdale park. According to the Sun Sentinel, 90-year-old activist Arnold Abbott and two pastors were arrested at a park — first on a Sunday, then again on Wednesday — for doing what they had been doing there for years: serving meals to homeless people.

On October 22, the city's commissioners passed a measure requiring feeding sites to be more than 500 feet apart and 500 feet from residential properties, allowing only one group to share food with the homeless per city block.

NPR reported that a study by the National Coalition for the Homeless found a 47 percent increase since 2010 in the number of cities that had passed or introduced legislation to restrict food sharing. Such measures typically take one of two forms: new rules on the use of public property (as Fort Lauderdale adopted) or new food-safety regulations.

Abbott, a World War II veteran nicknamed "Chef Arnold," had been feeding the homeless near Fort Lauderdale beach since the 1990s, and founded the nonprofit Love Thy Neighbor after his wife's death in 1991.

"These are the poorest of the poor. They have nothing; they don't have a roof over their heads," Abbott said. He told the AP that a police officer had ordered him to drop the plate of food he was holding, as if it were a weapon. Per the Sun Sentinel, he faced up to 60 days in jail or a $500 fine.

"I know I will be arrested again, I'm prepared for that," Abbott told Fox News. "I am my brother's keeper, and what they are doing is just heartless. They are trying to sweep the poorest of the poor under the rug."