30/11/2025
I've experienced TOO MANY of the certain harmful "individuals within systems" described here, MORE OFTEN than NOT. Is it a personal & insanely BAD "luck of the draw" OR... simple STATISTICS? 🤔 I leave you with the question...
https://www.facebook.com/share/1AYcX1uLrN/
Offentsive has always had a solid relationship with the City of Pensacola - Government and the Pensacola Police Department. We’ve worked side by side to reduce the impact of homelessness by helping our unsheltered neighbors access the resources they need. And we stand by that partnership.
But partnerships don’t erase the fact that individuals within any system can still cause harm.
A pillar of our community — and I don’t say that lightly — was arrested at MLK Plaza while feeding unhoused citizens alongside Food Not Bombs. That pillar is Mike Kimberl, the man who heads up one of the most critical lifelines for our unsheltered population: the Alfred-Washburn Center.
For 14 years, Mike has served our people with nothing but compassion. The Washburn Center provides:
Mail services
Showers
Laundry
Meals
It’s open every day from 9–1, serving up to 300 people daily, and Mike still spends his evenings taking food directly to those who can’t make it in. This is the definition of a public servant. This is the definition of a leader.
His arrest is completely uncalled for.
The officer responsible should not hold authority if he cannot comprehend the difference between harm and humanitarian aid. What happened at MLK Plaza was not a crime — it was community care.
Offentsive is ready to step up. We’re offering peer-led training for de-escalation and discernment. When situations like this arise, a peer team like the Big O can be called in to evaluate what’s happening and help prevent unnecessary strain between law enforcement and the community. We don’t need punitive measures — we need understanding, communication, and collaboration.
These charges should have never existed in the first place.
Now that they do, the only just path forward is simple:
Drop the charges. Make it right.
Mike is essential to the work happening in this city, and criminalizing him is appalling. This is a wound — and wounds, if ignored, become cancerous. We love our community too much to let that happen.
Free Mike.