A-Infos (en) US, 6 Members of Orlando Food Not Bombs Arrested

Six members of Orlando Food Not Bombs (OFNB) were arrested today (Wed., June 27) 
in downtown Orlando outside a fund-raiser for Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. The six 
OFNB members, Jonathan Giralt, Ryan Hutchinson, Bryan Jones, Brett Mason, Eric 
Montanez and Will Vertlieb, were arrested under a City of Orlando noise 
ordinance when they refused to quit drumming as part of the protest, citing 
their free speech rights. Dyer was holding his fund-raiser in a restaurant 
located on the bottom floor of The Sanctuary, a downtown condominium complex, 
located about two blocks from Lake Eola Park where OFNB shares. The police 
confiscated some of the drums that had been used as "evidence" and had OPD's 
Crime Scene Unit take pictures of the protest site and the remaining protestors 
from OFNB.

Bond for five of those arrested is $250.00 each; however, they have elected
to stay in jail until their first court appearance sometime tomorrow to see
if they can be released on their own recognizance. Two of OFNB's lawyers
already have met with the adult arrestees at the jail. Giralt, a juvenile,
will be released to his parents' recognizance. About 40 people participated
in the protest. It was held to denounce Dyer's policies towards
homelessness in Orlando and his support of the City's "large group food
sharings" ordinance (enacted in July 2006) which, essentially, bans giving
away food inside more than three dozen parks in downtown Orlando. Orlando
Food Not Bombs has found ways to circumvent the food sharing ban to the
extreme displeasure of the Mayor and Orlando City Commissioner Patty
Sheehan (the chief proponent of the ordinance) and continues to share
inside Lake Eola Park every Wednesday. The ordinance was enacted owing to
gentrification and development pressures in Orlando's Thornton Park and
Lake Eola Heights neighborhoods.

This was the second Dyer fundraiser at which OFNB has staged a noisy,
spirited protest and there is the possibility that today's arrests were
politically motivated--revenge for the first anti-Dyer protest. That
action, held on May 16 outside a business only a few hundred yards from
where OFNB shares, received considerable media coverage. Hutchinson and
Montanez are two of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit filed in October
of 2006 against the City over the anti-homeless food sharing ordinance.
That lawsuit is expected to come to trial in June of 2008. Montanez, on
April 4, became the first person arrested under the anti-homeless food
sharing ordinance. His trial on that charge will start on Sept. 10. OFNB
member Matt Houston was trespassed from Lake Eola Park on May 9 when park
rangers called police to break up the group's sharing, although his
trespass warning was later rescinded.

OFNB's lawyers are reviewing whether the Orlando police properly applied
the ordinance which they used to make the arrests.

Further updates will be released later.

For more information on Orlando Food Not Bombs, go to
http://orlandofoodnotbombs.org

To contact Orlando Food Not Bombs: orlandofnb@orlandofoodnotbombs.org

To donate to Orlando Food Not Bombs: make the check payable to Carrot and
Fist Collective, Inc.
P.O. Box 540957
Orlando, FL 32854-0957
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