By Miriam Raftery

January 16, 2018 (El Cajon) – The arrests of a dozen activists at Wells Park in El  Cajon for defying the city’s ban on feeding homeless people on public property over Martin Luther King Jr.'s  birthday weekend has made news around the world.  Headline stories have been reported in the BBC in England and Canada, Britain’s the Guardian newspaper,  MSN,  Huffington Post, and other national and international media.

A national petition on the Care2 site calling on El Cajon to end the ban has been signed by 37,000 people.

Yesterday the city has issued a statement standing behind its actions as appropriate to prevent spread of Hepatitis A during a countywide health emergency. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)has also issued a statement condemning the arrests as “unconstitutional and “cruel.” Activists arrested and their attorneys also held a press conference denouncing the ban and threatening legal action.