Sheriff's Captain Orders Deputies to Halt Food-Sharing Arrests in Bryant Park in Lake Worth Beach, for Now
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's captain in charge of Lake Worth Beach, Capt. Terrence Carn, issued the directive Oct. 29 — less than a day after civil-rights lawyers told the city its Bryant Park food-sharing ban violates hosts' constitutional rights.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is backing down, for now, on enforcing a Lake Worth Beach ordinance that bans food-sharing events in Bryant Park. Capt. Terrence Carn, the sheriff's captain in charge of Lake Worth Beach, ordered deputies not to arrest anyone for violating the ordinance, the Lake Worth Beach Independent reported.
Carn issued the directive on Oct. 29, less than a day after lawyers for food-sharing hosts sent the city a letter claiming the ordinance and the Sheriff's Office's attempts to enforce it violate their clients' constitutional rights, the Independent reported. The directive holds off arrests until further notice.
The pause leaves the ordinance itself on the city's books while its enforcement is suspended — a distinction that matters for the volunteer hosts who share food in the park: the arrests have stopped for now, on the captain's order, but the underlying city rule the lawyers challenged has not been reported repealed.
