Ten days after the Tampa Police Department’s arrested seven members of Food Not Bombs for attempting to feed the homeless without a permit in Lykes Gaslight Square, newly-elected State Attorney Andrew Warren has summarily dismissed the charges against all seven members of the group.
“My mission is to make our community safer while promoting justice and fairness for everyone,” Warren said in a statement released mid-afternoon on Tuesday. “Prosecuting people for charitable work does not further that mission and is an inefficient use of government resources. “
The freshman officer added that “our goal is to view each case not as a person to be prosecuted but as a problem to be solved. That is why we have spoken with the Tampa Police Department, members of Tampa City Council, the Mayor’s office, and the attorney for Tampa Food Not Bombs in order to facilitate a resolution, and we commend them for working together to find a sensible solution. We will not prosecute the trespassing charges so long as the Tampa Food Not Bombs organization willingly participates in reaching a resolution to this matter and remains non-violent.”
Food Not Bombs is a national group that has been feeding the homeless for decades, and has chapters all around the world. The local Tampa chapter had not had any confrontations with the Tampa Police in more than a decade before they warned two weeks ago that if they fed people in Gaslight Square on Saturday, January 7, they would be arrested. The group went ahead anyway and did that, and seven members of their group were arrested by TPD for using a city park to feed people without getting a permit.
The arrests took place just two days before the national college football playoff game was to take place, and it made national headlines.
FNB members have said that it is too expensive to obtain a permit, and would continue to disobey the law. At last week’s Tampa City Council meeting, the board agreed to talk about possible solutions at a workshop last month.
The State Attorney’s office said the first Food Not Bomb member’s appearance in court was scheduled for Wednesday, January 18. The office filed a notice of “Nolle Prosequi” for the first of the trespassing arrests, which serves as a dismissal of the case. The State Attorney’s Office said they will dismiss the cases for the remaining six defendants after those appearances are scheduled.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said last week that while he was open to compromise with FNB, he added, “You can’t destroy a neighborhood in order to make your conscious feel better, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”
““We continue to attempt to work with this group in an effort to find a more appropriate place for their activities to occur,” said Ashley Bauman, the mayor’s spokesperson. “There are locations in closer proximity to those in need with appropriate facilities. Our public places in our urban core are meant to serve as front yards to our increasing number families, residents and visitors who enjoy them. A better solution would be for these groups to collaborate with the numerous non-profits that already comply with the law and serve food in sanitary environments that abide by health code.”
