Ideally, Christmas should be the time to spread joy everywhere. Some people try to do so outside of the comfort of their homes. One example is a recent Reddit video where we can see a man gifting food to homeless people during Christmas, who sadly gets interrupted by a Phoenix police officer. As expected, this is quite anti-Christmas behavior, especially because the man wasn’t breaking any rules or committing a crime. Sadly, this shows that even when you’re trying to do some good out there, someone will come and harass you to stop doing it, and sometimes, it might even be a law enforcement officer who’ll ruin a good deed.
As seen in the above video that user I_may_have_weed shared on the r/PublicFreakout Subreddit, a man is handing out food to homeless people during Christmas when a police officer in Phoenix arrives to stop him. The audio isn’t the greatest, but the officer claims the man is obstructing traffic and should have a permit to hand out food and even try to go to a shelter to do so. As expected, many people on Reddit had an opinion about this.
Wow… It ALMOST looks like they are not here to serve and protect, but rather to harrass and and detain innocent civilians…What a POS.
UnCarlosCualkiera via Reddit.
Others were a bit curious about the whole permit thing. As far as many know, giving out food does not require a permit, and someone clarified it.
He doesn’t need a food handlers license to give people free food. It is a charitable donation and protected by the constitution both to give and to receive said donations. The license is required to SELL food.
last_rational_man via Reddit.
If you think about it, this is quite a sad situation. To start with, the man was driving a motorcycle when handing out food, and the Phoenix police officer had just decided to rain down on the Christmas parade by saying there was an obstruction of traffic, which there wasn’t. Ironically, the officer was obstructing the street when he stopped to harass the man. Secondly, as other users confirmed, you don’t need a permit to donate food. That man wasn’t selling the food; he was giving it out as a gift.
Ultimately, seeing this behavior from people who should make us feel safe is disappointing. We hope the man finished giving the food to those who needed it. There aren’t many people like him around nowadays, so seeing these moments of solidarity is always lovely, as long as no one interrupts them.
