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Ohio pastor charged for housing the homeless (wng.org)

submitted 2 years ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

this is a classic example of how policing as an institution is broken and should be completely destroyed in its current form, or outright abolished

In March 2023, Avell decided the church would help with overflow from the local homeless shelter next door. He said the church has helped about 100 homeless people in the small city in northwestern Ohio.

By opening his doors for overnight accommodations, Avell violated city zoning laws. Dad’s Place is in a C-3 Central Business District, which prohibits residential usage, Police Chief Gregory Ruskey said in a December statement. Ruskey said the city informed Avell about the zoning violations and notified him of several fire code infractions.

In November, the city of Bryan sent a letter to Avell and Dad’s Place, ordering him to stop allowing overnight guests or face criminal prosecution, according to a First Liberty Institute news release. Avell continued to keep the doors open even after Bryan police came to Dad’s Place and served him a packet of charges on New Year’s Eve. Zoning violations can carry a fine of up to $1,000 per day under Bryan city ordinances.

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[–] drwho@beehaw.org 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Usually, when stuff like that is left out it means that the cops were using it as a pretext law (i.e., it lets them "say-so" without having to provide evidence).

[–] alyaza@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

the timing of serving the charges would also seem to strongly imply this is an Authority thing more than an "upholding the law" thing--there's no way these people didn't think optically about how it'd look to do this on New Years Day, or around that time of year generally

[–] drwho@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

New Year's Day would have been ideal - a lot of folks would be partied out and not paying attention to the news.