SANTA MONICA : ‘Feed-In’ Protests Law to Curb Homeless Gatherings

Actor Martin Sheen and former Santa Monica City Attorney Robert M. Myers led a group of more than 200 homeless people Friday in a protest of a new law that in effect bans homeless feeding programs from Santa Monica’s parks.

The protest, dubbed a “feed-in,” featured lunch for several hundred in Palisades Park next to the Santa Monica Pier. Such gatherings would be illegal under the new law unless a permit is obtained. The law, which was to go into effect this week, is being held in abeyance until the resolution of a federal lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.

Myers, who was fired last year over his refusal to write the law, said its aim is to use food as a form of social control to “sweep the homeless out of our parks.”