Arnold Abbott's quest to keep feeding the homeless at the beach went global last week.
After police showed up at Abbott's weekly feeding at Fort Lauderdale Beach to officially notify him that his charity is nonwelcome, unsightly and illegal, the 74-year-old retired salesman went to the Internet looking for help.
Within 24 hours,the head of the World Homeless Union was threatening to organize a boycott of Fort Lauderdale and contacting national legal organizations to persuade them to help Abbott launch a legal fight.
"If Fort Lauderdale officials don't work it out with Mr. Abbott, we will call for a global boycott of the city," Ruben Botello said from his RV parked at the edge of a redwoods forest outside Eureka, Calif.
With his Web TV, Botello keeps at least 20,000 people a day abreast of homeless issues from Albany to Zimbabwe and points - like Fort Lauderdale - in between.
Already, he says, four cities, including San Francisco and Seattle, are on the group's boycott list for their treatment of the homeless. And if Fort Lauderdale wants to be the fifth by continuing to harass Abbott for merely giving food to the hungry, so be it.
While members of more than 100 groups would be asked to boycott the city which prides itself as a tourist mecca, Botello says he has no illusion that a boycott would cripple Fort Lauderdale.
"It doesn't hurt them financially," he says of the effect the group's boycott has had on other cities. "But politically they don't like to be on the list. It just makes the cities look bad and they know it."
"Our bark is much worse than our bite," he continues. "But you don't want us barking at you because we bark really loud."
Assistant City Manager Bud Bentley says he wouldn't want to see Fort Lauderdale on the group's boycott list.
"I would hate to have anyone perceive that the city of Fort Lauderdale is not doing the right thing when we are doing the right thing," he says.
Unfortunately, he says, Botello's view of the city is based on what Abbott has told him. "Based on Mr. Abbott's representation to him, I can understand his opinion but I don't think Mr. Abbott has fairly represented Fort Lauderdale's actions to him."
However, Botello says for several years he has closely monitored Fort Lauderdale's response to the homeless through his Global Homeless Network which reaches out to thousands of homeless advocates throughout the world. He knows about the city's now-defunct Tent City, its new $9.5 million homeless assistance center and the plight of other Broward human service agencies, not just Abbott's Love Thy Neighbor group.
In fact, Botello seems to understand as much about what's going on here as many Broward residents.
"They have the potential to help a lot of people," Botello says of the new $9.5 million Homeless Assistance Center on Sunrise Boulevard. "But their motive seems to be to hide the trash rather than figure out a way not to make any more trash.
"The motive behind the shelter isn't to help the homeless, it's to help Fort Lauderdale. It makes them look better as a city. It's not aimed at fixing the problem of homelessness, it's fixing the political problems of the city."
While maybe the first in California, he's not the first person to make similar observations about the new shelter.
Although he's blunt in his assessment of the city's handling of the homeless, Botello says he is hopeful city leaders eventually will see that it is in their best interests to work with Abbott and other charitable groups insteadof trying to drive them out of business.
City Commissioner Tim Smith responded to one of Botello's e-mail missives about his organization's plans. And while Smith insists that Abbott is nothing more than an "enabler" - feeding the homeless so they will be able to continue to get drunk and live on the streets - Botello says he hopes he can change Smith's view and persuade Smith and other city leaders to work with Abbott, instead of against him.
If not, Abbott's lawyer is busy preparing a lawsuit charging the city with discriminating against the homeless by allowing others to eat on the beach while denying the homeless that same privilege. Botello is also e-mailing public interest law firms, asking them to consider filing a federal lawsuit if an agreement between Abbott and the city can't be reached.
In the meantime, Abbott says he will continue his weekly feedings. And Bentley says city police will continue to show up at the Wednesday night gatherings and document Abbott's refusal to stop after being warned that he is violating park rules.
Eventually, Bentley says, if it becomes clear Abbott has no intention of finding a permanent indoor home for his feeding program, the city will charge him with violating city codes.
Let the lawsuits begin.