The Right To Give

IN JULY, PHILLIP Picone, a Houston activist, stood before a jury of his peers, charged with the heinous crime of feeding the needy.

- C.J. Ciaramella

Picone is one of several activists affiliated with Food Not Bombs (FNB), a volunteer group with chapters worldwide. Houston police have repeatedly cited FNB activists for distributing free food outside the city’s downtown public library, based on a 2012 city ordinance restricting charitable food services. By the time Picone appeared in Houston Municipal Court, FNB members had received 45 tickets at $254 each, for a total of $11,430 in fines.

Houston is part of a national trend. The legal farce in that city is a particularly potent example of an ongoing tug-of-war that pits public order against the First Amendment right to perform charity as a form of expression.

In his 2016 book Biting the Hands That Feed Us, Reason Foundation Senior Fellow Baylen Linnekin noted that crackdowns on good Samaritans began spreading across the country during the first decade of the century. Reason has covered government suppression of food charities in Tampa, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Newark, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Kansas City. In the latter case, health officials poured bleach on food meant for the homeless in 2018.