ATLANTA--Peter Gathje teaches theology at Memphis Theological Seminary in Tennessee. Police arrested him at the Open Door Community when he asked an officer why he was arresting a mentally ill homeless man in the community’s yard. Gathje, a long-term volunteer at the Open Door, said he neither obstructed the officer nor raised his voice on Thursday, July 17, when two Atlanta Police officers arrived and handcuffed a guest of the Open Door. The officers charged Gathje with disorderly conduct.
He saw the officers confronting a female resident volunteer while many guests were receiving and eating boxed lunches in the front yard. He said he approached because he felt she “might need backup.”
In a statement released on July 20, Gathje said he thought police were trying to “create an atmosphere of intimidation for our homeless guests.” He told The Epoch Times he thought the police were intentionally harassing poor people in the area, following the wish of neighborhood associations and the City of Atlanta to drive the poor away. He said Atlanta has a history of such harassment.
Officer James Polite of the Atlanta Police Department Public Affairs Office had not heard of the arrest. He offered to research the matter and call back, but had not done so by the deadline for this article.
The Open Door is a residential community in the Catholic Worker’s tradition, said musician and human rights activist Elise Witt in an email. The community provides indigent men showers, lunches, toiletries and clean clothes each Thursday.
Professor Gathje went to go to court on July 21, determined to plead not guilty if the charges were not dismissed. He said thirty or forty people showed up wearing red T shirts to signify the Open Door, which has a red T shirt with a picture of Martin Luther King. Gathje entered a pretrial diversion program in which a person can perform community service. The charges will be dismissed if he completes the service by a certain date.
The Epoch Times visited the Open Door on July 24 and found three police cars and a van labeled “Prisoner Transport” in a parking area behind the house The officers were not there to harass or intimidate: they were arresting another mentally ill guest who had become violent. The arrest was complete and the officers were having a civil conversation with staff.
Inside, men were eating a meal at rustic wood tables. A disheveled woman slumped in the front yard, smoking a cigarette.
