At his press conference this morning, I asked Mayor D.C. Reeves about the status of the Food Not Bombs’ event permit and the status of its Friday night protests in Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza.
- “As I sit in front of you, I don’t even know who did the permit,” the mayor stated. “Obviously, our staff received it. I believe there was some legal review of whether it was public record or not. Certainly no concern on my end for that to be public.”
I immediately requested the record, which we believe is most certainly a public record. Mayor Reeves said several others have also requested the permit. He said, “If it’s clearly a public record, you guys can have it.”
Is It Legal Now?
I asked, “If they don’t want the permit and a permit’s been granted, does that give them a ‘halo’ to operate even though they don’t want the permit?”
“Yeah, I don’t know. Well, obviously, we’ve got some clarity this week,” he replied. “Initially, the conversation was around how important it was from a homeless services standpoint. Now we’ve kind of gotten into a discussion about the ability to protest without the government’s cooperation or whatever the case may be. So that clarity, I think, is actually helpful for both sides now.”
The mayor continued, “I think we’re singing from a little bit closer to the same sheet of music that we understand what the priority is. So we certainly wanted it to come to an amicable solution when we received a permit. At the end of the day, we’re just trying to keep people safe and have the rules on hand. Whatever theory is out there about who put it in and why or whether they accept it or not, you’d have to talk to them about their feeling about that.”
“But we want this to be able to take place. And again, I think I’ll reiterate, we feel very optimistic about being able to get to a solution on our side of things—be it a change in park hours or a change in park designation that we’re working through right now.”
Can the police arrest the Food Not Bombs organizers this Friday? The mayor’s initial reply was that I would have to ask the Pensacola Police Department, but he later texted: “To clarify, there is a valid permit and no one is getting arrested. We’re on our way to a solution.”
Still don’t know the answer to the key question. Has the group Food Not Bombs really had a “handshake agreement” with the city for 14 years to feed the poor at 6 PM in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza on Friday nights? Both Mayor Reeves and Mike Kimberl have said so. The fact that Food Not Bombs has been doing the same thing for 14 years reinforces the view the city has chosen to not enforce the park closes at sunset law under those specific circumstances. If so, in which case Food Not Bombs was not breaking the law on November 28th, then on what basis did PPD Officer William Roper take it upon himself to show up at 6:02 PM, self-initiate a criminal investigation, determine that city law was being broken, demand just one member of Food Not Bombs (Mike Kimberl) show his ID, and then when he refused, arrest Kimberl, arrest no one else and let the event continue? Did someone with the DIB “again” contact Officer Roper via his private cell phone and give him directions? Of so, let’s find out and tell us their name. Will Officer Roper be disciplined? Also, will the city employee who issued a permit to a person unaffiliated with Food Not Bombs also be disciplined? Has everyone in city hall gone rogue? Last Friday, I visited the Food Not Bombs event. Saw an amazing community spirit. Food was excellent. More people should show up to bring food, eat food or just share in the comradery. Kimberl told me that no city council member has ever shown up at the event. Too bad. Lastly, I just reviewed Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual. I saw no mention of a statutory exemption that would shield the city from releasing the permit to the public. Someone should ask State Representative Andrade. Maybe someone needs to be prosecuted.