Arizona woman sues Bullhead City for ARRESTING HER because she fed the homeless
BULLHEAD CITY, ARIZONA: A retired restaurant owner is suing an Arizona city after she was arrested for giving meals to homeless people at a local park without a permit, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday, October 25.
Norma Thornton, 78, a resident of Bullhead City, in the state's northwest region, was arrested on March 8, after she gave homemade food to homeless people in a public park in violation of an ordinance the city passed last year. According to Associated Press, the arrest made Thornton the first person arrested under the ordinance that makes it a criminal offense to share prepared food in a public park “for charitable purposes” without a permit. However, residents are allowed to give food at private property or social events.
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“I’d just finished up serving approximately 26 or 27 people, and the very last person that came through, I was scraping the bottom of my pans, finished off the food, gave him, and as he was walking away, these two police officers drove up,” Thornton told the Institute of Justice, whose lawyers are representing Thornton. The Institute of Justice has also released a video, which shows an officer arresting Thornton after apparently consulting with a superior by phone. The video shows the officer telling his superior, “I think this is a PR nightmare, but, OK.”
The video then shows the officer telling Thornton that he has to arrest her but he will not handcuff her. “Here’s the bad news… you’re under arrest for violating the city ordinance,” the officer tells her in the video. “Technically I’m supposed to be handcuffing you and everything too, but I’m not going to do that because I think don’t you’re a hardened criminal.” The officer also promised her that he will bring her back to the park after completing some minor paperwork and taking her fingerprints. But the officer issued Thornton a citation to appear in court, where she was told she could face up to four months in prison and $750 in fines. However, the city prosecutor soon dropped the case, noting Thornton was just unfamiliar with the new law.
Upset with the arrest, Thornton, earlier this week, filed a lawsuit against Bullhead City, alleging that her constitutional right to do charitable acts was violated and requested the court to overturn the city’s new ordinance. The lawsuit noted that Thornton, who spent more than a decade as the owner and operator of a restaurant in Alaska, moved to the state in search of warm weather and decided to distribute homemade food after noticing a high number of homeless people in the city. The lawsuit further adds that Thornton knows the pain of sleeping on an empty stomach as she and her five children lived for six months in an old school bus while she looked for work after her first husband died.
"The thought of people being hungry — I mean I'm not making a big impact," she said between tears in a video by the Institute of Justice, "but at least some people have enough food to survive." Citing US Census Bureau data that reveals that 17 percent of Bullhead City's more than 40,000 residents live below the poverty line, the suit notes that there are just three pantries in the city - and that too have limited hours and food options for the people.
The lawsuit claims that “the permit’s conditions are so restrictive that, in practice, it is not a permit requirement but is a categorical prohibition on giving prepared food to the needy in public parks.”
Since her arrest, Thornton has taken to serving her homemade meals in a private alley owned by a local business, according to the complaint. "It's not ideal — there are no tables, there's no grass," Thornton says of the location in the video. "They get their food and they just sit up against a fence."
However, in responding to the suit, the city officials said the video is misleading. The officials said the city decided to approve the Food Sharing Ordinance after years of receiving complaints from families who desired to utilize city parks. "The ordinance does not stop individuals or groups from distributing food or drink to a homeless person, or any other person in a city park if the food or drink is 'sealed prepackaged foods' readily available from retail outlets and intended for consumption directly from the package," they said in a statement.
"Individuals are free to serve food to any homeless person at their place of residence, church or private property," Mayor Tom Brady added. "Our ordinance applies to public parks only."