A week after one volunteer was acquitted on a charge of illegally feeding homeless people in Houston, police there realized the better part of valor and failed to show up in court to defend the next batch of tickets. A judge tossed the cases Friday.
Houston judges on Thursday dismissed eight tickets issued by the Houston Police Department for feeding the unhoused outside a downtown library. The dismissals come after a jury returned a not guilty verdict in the first trial against a member of the nonprofit Food Not Bombs.
According to the Houston Chronicle's R.A. Scheutz, the volunteers' lawyer Paul Kubosh explained that two municipal judges dismissed the eight cases because the police officers subpoenaed for the trials didn't show up.
"I'm just happy," said Food Not Bombs volunteer Shere Dore, who had seven tickets dismissed on Thursday, per the Chronicle's Scheutz. "It revitalizes our spirit to know there are a lot of people who stand behind us."
"The cruelty is the point," but see how indifferent and easily surmounted the cruel sometimes are when there is sustained popular resistance to their cruelty.
