Houston Food Not Bombs Harassed by HPD
by Nick Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009 at 10:48 AM

I arrived with a pot of hot food to find a bunch of HPD officers politely asking us to find a new place to serve, taking down ID information, and willing to threaten us if we didn't comply.

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Houston Food Not Bombs has been harassed by cops before and has been hassled by the library before. Last night, for the first time in a year and half, the Downtown Public Library (contact them at ContactHPL@cityofhouston.net) decided to ask us to go elsewhere, this time by sending out the HPD.

Supervisor Pribilski was not stating that any law was being broken, but spoke on behalf of the "Public" Library, that they would like us to go away.

This type of NIMBY oppression of the rights of the homeless has been a constant theme for FNB, causing us to move several times over the years, until reaching our current location at the Downtown "Public" Library.

The HPD officers took down the ID information of volunteers to fill out a report. When I denied my ID, Pribilski threatened to tow my car if I did not. They asked us to find another place to go, not realizing, of course, that wherever we go, they would be sent out eventually to ask us to go elsewhere.

Several people thre to eat were very supportive, thanking us for risking such confrontations to feed them. One said he hadn't eaten in three days.

fnbhouston.org

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