Posted May 5, 2007 on the Newschannel 13 website

The American Civil Liberties Union* held a protest Friday outside the Orange County Courthouse on behalf of homeless advocate Eric Montanez who was arrested in April.

Montanez was arrested for feeding the homeless in Lake Eola Park. He's the first person charged with violating Orlando's ordinance that bans feeding large groups of people in downtown parks without a special permit. Montanez pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday. The ACLU said he should never have been charged.

"The fact that he was arrested is total insanity," said George Crossley [president] of [the Central Florida ACLU]. "In a town that has a crime problem going through the roof, you actually have time to send in 10 officers, undercover agents and two carloads of supervisors to observe people being fed, so you can throw him in jail for feeding the homeless. Does that make any sense? Not to me."

Montanez is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the food-sharing ordinance.

Note: *Actually, the protest was organized by S.T.O.P.