They want to criminalize kindness…awful.
One hundred and twenty days in jail, $1,431 in fines and fees, and up to two years of probation. These are the possible punishments a 78-year-old woman recently stared down for feeding the poor.
On March 8, 2022, police arrested Norma Thornton of Bullhead City, Arizona, for violating a city ordinance that criminalizes sharing food in a public park if that sharing is specifically motivated by charity. A former restauranteur, Thornton has spent her retirement years making hot food and doling it out to people in need. But that mission became significantly harder after the cops caught wind of it and broke up her criminal enterprise at the picnic tables in the park.
“I’m not making a big impact. It’s not that much,” she says in a recent video filmed about her case. “But at least some people have enough food to survive.”
Before taking Thornton into custody, an officer can be heard on his body camera footage saying that the impending arrest was going to be “a PR nightmare.” He was not wrong. The local press made Thornton‘s story a front page one, ultimately prompting the government to drop the charges but with the caveat that it would move to jail her should she have the audacity to reinvigorate the project.
The footage shows Thornton getting in the back seat of the patrol car, while she insists, “I’m not here to hurt anybody.”
Thornton was issued a citation to appear in court and was prohibited from feeding homeless people in public. Though she originally faced up to four months in jail, the misdemeanor charge was eventually dropped.
Attorney Diana Simpson said what was on everyone’s mind – “the city has criminalized kindness” in Arizona.
“People have a fundamental right to feed those in need, and have been doing so for the entirety of human history,” she added.
However, city officials continue to stand by their restrictive ordinance and say that people can feed homeless people on private property. Or if they want to do it at a public park, they simply should not use homecooked food.
Thornton has been feeding people in need and homeless individuals for four years. She moved to Arizona from Alaska in search of warmer weather but soon found the Arizona town filled with a homelessness crisis, unlike anything she had ever seen before.
Fortunately, Thornton did not go to jail for her arrest — the officer said on bodycam that he would only take her in for fingerprinting — but she faced four months behind bars and a possible fine in the ensuing criminal case. The city prosecutor offered a plea deal for community service and two years of probation. Thornton refused. She received pro bono legal representation. The city prosecutor dropped her case, reasoning she was unfamiliar with the new law.
Thornton said she had to move her work to a nearby alley, but compared to the park, it lacks seating for anyone there and offers only paltry shade from the severe Arizona sun.
Thornton is now suing the city over the arrest, arguing the food-sharing ordinance violates her constitutional right to engage in charitable acts.
“The city of Bullhead has made it a crime to feed the needy,” Thornton said. “The thought of people being hungry, I mean, I’m not making a big impact… but at least some people have enough food to survive, and I can’t even imagine living in this country and being hungry to be told that you cannot feed the hungry regardless of the circumstances are.”
Watch the video below for more details:
Source: AWM
Leave a Comment