Retired restaurant owner, 78, is arrested after feeding homeless people without a permit

A retired restaurant owner is suing an Arizona town after she was arrested for feeding unlicensed homeless people in a public park.

Norma Thornton, 78, was feeding homeless residents in Bullhead City Community Park on March 8 when she was arrested for violating an ordinance requiring permits to distribute home-cooked food in a city park.

She is now suing Bullhead City officials for enacting the ordinance and asking a federal judge to reverse it — arguing the permit requirements are “extremely onerous” and violate residents’ Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Under the terms of the 2021 ordinance, residents must pay $1 million in liability insurance, as well as a fee and a down payment to get a permit — which they must apply for five to 60 days in advance.

The permit is then only valid for two hours and you can only get one permit every 30 days.

“In addition, no two permit holders are allowed to use the same location within 30 days of each other — meaning the city can allow up to two hours per month for charitable food sharing in one park,” attorneys with the Institute of Justice said.

In fact, attorney Diana Simpson said in a statement, “the city has criminalized kindness.

“People have a fundamental right to feed those in need, and they have been doing so throughout human history,” she added.

But city officials have said in statements that Law and crime that individuals can still feed anyone they want on private property, or provide non-homemade food in city parks.

Thornton has been providing meals to the homeless and those who otherwise cannot afford a meal.

She had moved to the city from Alaska in search of warmer weather, and soon noticed the high number of homeless people in the city, the lawsuit states.

It cites data from the US Census Bureau showing that 17 percent of Bullhead City’s more than 40,000 residents live below the poverty line.

Thornton knew what that was like, the lawsuit says, as she and her five children lived on an old school bus for six months as she looked for work after her first husband passed away.

“The thought of people being hungry — I mean, I’m not making a big impression,” she said through tears in an Institute of Justice video, “but at least some people have enough food to survive.”

She added that no one was camping or living in the park, with the lawsuit stating that many of the city’s homeless residents take shelter in the desert away from prying eyes, and she always cleans up herself.

But after serving about 27 people at Bullhead City Community Park on March 8, she was approached by a city police officer.

Body-camera footage shows the officer responding talking to his supervisor on the phone about the situation and even admitting, “I think this is a PR nightmare, but okay” before telling Thornton she had been arrested.

The officer did not handcuff the elderly woman, as he did not consider her a threat, as he led her into a police vehicle.

Thornton was not arrested at the time, and the officer told her in the body camera images that they would only include her for fingerprinting.

He claimed she was “lucky” this time, but “if this happens again, I’ll be told you have to go to jail at least tonight.”

Still, Thornton insisted, “I’m not out to hurt anyone.”

But she was given four months in prison, a fine of up to $1,431 and two years’ probation.

Authorities argued that she was operating illegally, without a license, because her food was distributed for charity and not prepackaged or store-bought.

However, a prosecutor eventually offered her a plea deal for community service with two years’ probation, but Thornton declined and was granted pro-bono legal representation.

Soon the prosecutor dropped the case, saying that Thornton was simply unfamiliar with the law.

Thornton has since decided to continue serving her home-cooked meals, which contain a protein (usually meat) and fresh fruits and vegetables, in a nearby alley.

“I will never stop feeding them,” Thornton said in the video posted by the law firm. ‘Never.’

But compared to the park, she said, the alley has no seats and only partial shade from Arizona’s unforgiving shadow.

City officials, meanwhile, say the video is misleading.

They said they had passed the Food Sharing Ordinance “after years of complaints from families wanting to use city parks.”

The ordinance does not prevent individuals or groups from handing out food or drink to a homeless person or other person in a city park if the food or drink is ‘sealed prepackaged food’ that is readily available at retail and intended for immediate use. consumption of the package,” they said in a statement.

“Individuals are free to serve food to homeless people in their residence, church or private property,” added Mayor Tom Brady. “Our ordinance only applies to public parks.”

And Police Chief Robert Trebes said: “After the ordinance was enacted, there was about nine months where we were educating or warning about the ordinance and no enforcement action was taken.

“The Bullhead City Police Department looks after the health and well-being of our citizens, and we have worked hard to help homeless people get the services they need to get them out of their situation,” he added.

“Officials have many contacts with homeless people, and during these contacts we teach them about local services and will even take them to local homeless shelters if they want to, rather than enabling them by just leaving them where they are.” and bring them things that won’t help them in the long run.

“When these kinds of incidents happen, where citizens, even well-meaning ones, break the law, it becomes counterproductive to what we are trying to achieve with this vulnerable population,” Trebes explains.

“We want them to get help to get out of their situation, not to keep them in.”

But, the lawsuit states, “the city’s real goal is to remove all homeless people from public parks, which it is trying to achieve by banning charity sharing of food by well-meaning residents like Norma.”

It notes that the city’s food pantries and shelters have limited hours and that “many needy people in the area either don’t have a car or can’t afford to pay for gas to drive to food pantries or shelters.”

The lawsuit then goes on to argue that the ordinance violates its 14th Amendment rights “to do charitable acts and share food with the needy.”

And, the lawyers argue, “the unequal treatment between people who share food for charitable purposes and people who share food for non-charitable purposes also violates her right to equal protection.”

“People have a fundamental right to charity, which is protected by the Constitution,” Simpson said.

“There is absolutely no valid reason for Bullhead City to crack down on Norma’s act of compassion.”