ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A St. Louis minister to the homeless, once ticketed by police for handing out bologna sandwiches without a permit, loses round one in federal court. But he says they're not giving up.
Pastor Red Redlick of the New Life Evangelistic Center was ticketed by St. Louis police three years ago. The city eventually dropped the the tickets against him and has not been enforcing the ordinance.
But Redlick says they want a court win to set a precedent, so the city can't stop them again.
"We believe it is still a right for individuals to show love and compassion for their neighbor and we shouldn't have to have a permit," Redlick says.
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He says it's unreasonable to expect people to have to get a permit every day to do something like hand out food to the homeless.
The lawsuit was filed in 2019 in U.S. District Court by the Freedom Center of Missouri and says the city ordinances restrict the minister's "free exercise of religion, their freedom of expression, their freedom of association, their rights of conscience." Then Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards said the law was put in place to protect people who are homeless and ensure they're receiving "food prepared and transported according to the required sanitary guidelines."
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