A homeless rights advocacy group plans to take legal action against the City of El Cajon after at least a dozen people were arrested Sunday for feeding the homeless.

At a news conference Monday in Balboa Park, attorneys and leaders of the group known as Break the Ban said they plan to file a lawsuit against the city, arguing that its ordinance — which bans food sharing in public spaces — is unconstitutional and discriminatory.

El Cajon City Council members unanimously passed the ban in October, saying it would help protect the public from hepatitis A, which has spread predominantly among the homeless population. The temporary ordinance is set to be in place until San Diego County’s state of emergency related to the health crisis is lifted.

“This isn’t a ban on compassion, and there is certainly no restriction or lessening of access to food,” said El Cajon City Councilman Steve Goble. “This is about protecting the public, both those at-risk, and those around them.”


Councilman Bob McClellan said the city has published a list of churches where people can get food and where activists can help serve food, in an effort to contain food sharing to closed and sanitary environments.

“They don’t have to feed them in the park where it could cause a problem according to the health authorities,” McClellan said. “If they want to help the homeless, look at the list of places. All they have to do is read the list.”

Scott Dreher, one of the attorneys representing Break the Ban and one of the people arrested Sunday, said city officials were using the hepatitis A outbreak as an excuse to punitively dehumanize and criminalize the homeless.

“It’s discriminatory against a vulnerable class of people. Plain and simple,” Dreher said. “And on top of that, it abridges the First Amendment rights of the people who want to feed them.”


Dreher said attorneys will file the lawsuit in 10 days, before Break the Ban’s next event on Jan. 27. They will also be filing motions to dismiss the charges against the activists who were arrested, citing constitutional grounds.

Court dates for those who were arrested are spread out over the next few months, Dreher said. The first is scheduled for Wednesday.

About 50 people attended Sunday’s event to feed members of the homeless at Wells Park on East Madison Avenue in El Cajon. Everyone who was handing out food was arrested by El Cajon police officers, including a 14-year-old child. They were given misdemeanor citations with a date to appear in court and released. No one was taken away in handcuffs.

It was the fourth event hosted by Break the Ban, which was formed and named after the ban took effect. Organizer Mark Lane said the goal of the event was to feed the homeless, but it was also a strategy to eventually contest the ordinance in court.


Lane quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the news conference and said the group was determined to fight until the ordinance is overturned.

“If a law is unjust, you’re obligated to reject it,” Lane said. “We saw an unjust law and we’re rejecting it.”

Shane Parmely, one of the organizers arrested at Sunday’s event, said the ban opens up the opportunity for more restrictions, not just in El Cajon.

“If El Cajon gets away with passing an ordinance like this, then what’s to stop Ramona or Santee or La Mesa from passing ordinances like this?” Parmely asked. “We need to stop it now.”


Mayor Bill Wells said the event was “pure political opportunism,” because there are multiple locations where the homeless continue to be fed on a daily basis.

“Political protest groups ignore this reasonable step to insure the public safety and look for a grander conspiracy,” Wells said. “This is not a game, and I believe that public safety is more important than political posturing.”

Similar incidents have occurred outside California. Seven activists in Tampa, Florida, were arrested in January for feeding the homeless because they didn’t pay for a permit. In November 2014, a 90-year-old man and two pastors were arrested for feeding the homeless in public in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where a city ordinance bans public food sharing.

“We just have this way of criminalizing and stigmatizing the most neediest members of our society,” Parmely said. “Where would they like them to go? That’s the question.”


Lane said Break the Ban will continue to organize events to feed the city’s homeless.

They have partnered with a second group called Food Not Bombs that has also hosted two food-sharing events. Another is planned for Jan. 27 at Wells Park.

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