{"id":94878,"date":"2023-08-02T04:15:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T09:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=94878"},"modified":"2023-08-02T04:15:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T09:15:53","slug":"94878","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=94878","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

In reality, there are 4 branches of government:
\n– Executive
\n– Legislative
\n– Judicial
\n– Jury,\u00a0 as in Jury Nullification<\/a><\/strong>
\nThis is an example<\/em><\/p>\n

In first trial for feeding homeless outside Houston library, jury finds Food Not Bombs not guilty<\/a><\/p>\n

The first of a controversial series of\u00a0tickets Houston has issued the volunteer group Food Not Bombs<\/a>\u00a0went to trial Friday. And before the end of the day, a jury found the volunteer, Phillip\u00a0Picone,\u00a0not guilty of violating city law for feeding those in need in front of the Central Library.<\/div>\n
The ordinance was put in place by City Council in 2012 but largely had gone unenforced for over a decade, municipal records show. The city began issuing tickets after funding its own dinners at a police parking lot just outside the courthouse doors where the trial was being heard.\u00a0Houston has declared that the lot is the approved public site for any group that wants to give away meals.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
In an emailed statement, a city spokesperson explained that the meal program Houston is funding at the police parking lot is designed to use food to attract people to a place where they can engage with an array of services \u201con a reoccurring basis.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cThis is why we fight back,\u201d Picone said after the verdict.<\/div>\n
As of the hearing, Food Not Bombs had received 45 tickets, each seeking $254, for continuing to pass out meals at the library instead. Volunteers have argued that the law is immoral and violates their freedoms of expression and religion.Nine more\u00a0tickets are scheduled for court Thursday and Friday.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cThe City of Houston intends to vigorously pursue violations of its ordinance relating to feeding of the homeless,\u201d said Houston city attorney Arturo Michel said in a statement emailed Sunday evening. \u201cIt is a health and safety issue for the protection of Houston\u2019s residents. There have been complaints and incidents regarding the congregation of the homeless around the library, even during off hours.\u201d The city has also decided to stop using the\u00a0Central Library as an official cooling center<\/a>\u00a0during heat emergencies like the one unfolding this week.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
During jury selection Friday,\u00a0Picone\u2019s lawyer, Paul Kubosh, explained\u00a0the Houston law<\/a>\u00a0to potential jurors with slices of cake wrapped in cellophane.<\/div>\n
One by one, he placed them atop a wooden partition separating him from the jurors, recalled two Food Not Bombs volunteers present. If he gave five slices to people in need, without permission of the property owner, he was fine, he said, according to the volunteers. If he gave six, he\u2019d be violating the ordinance. And if he gave them to people who were not in need, that was also fine. (Kubosh is representing a number of people in Picone\u2019s situation free of charge.)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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The lawyer representing the city called up the\u00a0officer who issued the ticket as a witness. Adam A. Ancira, an officer with 14 years of experience with the Houston Police Department, works with the crime suppression unit.\u00a0He said he had gone to the Central Library the evening of March 3 because Lt. Jennifer Kennedy had told him to issue a citation for violating an ordinance against charitable feeding.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
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Ancira body camera footage shows him getting out of his vehicle and\u00a0handing Picone a sheet of paper as other volunteers stood nearby, at least one recording the scene. \u201cHere\u2019s your\u00a0warning,\u201d Ancira said. \u201cYou don\u2019t feed the homeless.\u201d He said they would issue one person a ticket and wait until the meal had concluded. \u201cWe\u2019re not here to harass you or anything.\u201d<\/div>\n
“I’m exercising my constitutional right,” Picone protests in the video.<\/div>\n
After the video played,\u00a0Ancira answered a series of questions. His arms were crossed, holding either side of his chest.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m human, too,\u201d he said. \u201cI like feeding the homeless, too. You just can\u2019t do it there.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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He said the ticket in early March was the only time he had issued a citation for violating the charitable feeding ordinance. Since then, other officers have issued a ticket to a Food Not Bombs volunteer every Monday and Wednesday.<\/div>\n
In his closing statement, Kubosh argued that there was room for reasonable doubt as to whether Picone had violated the ordinance. The group had been feeding people at the location for 12 years, and in 2012, then-Mayor Annise Parker gave them permission to feed the homeless there. That permission\u00a0still lives on the city\u2019s website<\/a>. He argued that the police did not have the authority to give or take away permission, which opened room for reasonable doubt.<\/div>\n
He ended with an appeal, not to the details of the ordinance, but to see the volunteers as people trying to do good. \u201cPeople have a passion for things,\u201d he said. \u201c(The volunteers) have a passion for getting rid of poverty, and this is how they put it to work.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n

The city’s lawyer, who declined to give her name, argued that the warning the police had handed to volunteers made it clear that permission had been rescinded. She said that the idea that permission given in 2012 overrode the Houston Police Department\u2019s notice \u201cdoes not make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Shortly after, the jurors filed back into the room and issued their unanimous verdict: not guilty.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Picone turned toward two Food Not Bombs volunteers in the audience, Shere Dore and Tilal Ahmed, and smiled widely. Kubosh, who had thought of a verse from Proverbs when taking on the case \u2014 \u201cDo not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court\u201d \u2014 later said he felt, at that moment, confirmed in his faith. The two officers who had been called as witnesses to the ticket had already left.<\/div>\n
The courtroom stood as the jury exited, and Houston\u2019s attorney thanked each juror for their service. Some smiled slightly as they filed out of the courthouse.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In reality, there are 4 branches of government: – Executive – Legislative – Judicial – Jury,\u00a0 as in Jury Nullification This is an example In first trial for feeding homeless outside Houston library, jury finds Food Not Bombs not guilty The first of a controversial series of\u00a0tickets Houston has issued the volunteer group Food Not … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-observation-o-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94879,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94878\/revisions\/94879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}