Outrage as ‘Asbo’ warning is issued to activist feeding Croydon’s homeless
By Harrison Galliven, Local Democracy Reporter
A community activist from Croydon who serves home-cooked meals from a shopping trolley to homeless people has been issued with a police warning saying his activities are causing antisocial behaviour.
Ringo Vision claims to have served over 13,000 meals to those in need in Croydon town centre, and in doing so has attracted millions of viewers online for documenting the borough’s homelessness problems.
The Croydon resident has become a local celebrity for pushing around his distinctive supermarket trolley, which acts as a mobile soup kitchen.
However, after an incident at Surrey Street Market, the police have warned him about serving food in the town centre. While it doesn’t ban him from doing so, it warns him about any antisocial behaviour resulting from his activities, which has forced him to temporarily pull out of helping Croydon’s homeless.
Ringo said: “Even if there is no ban, why am I being issued with a warning for feeding the homeless? I’m not a criminal, I’m a million miles away from that lifestyle.”
The police warning has caused outrage locally, with a petition launched calling for it to be rescinded, that has already garnered 2,000 signatures. The warning was issued after Surrey Street Market became a focal point of his outreach work.
It is claimed that the unintended consequence was that incidents of antisocial behaviour began increasing around the market as people accompanying Ringo had got into altercations.
Surrey Street Market stallholder Jose Joseph said: “He brought friends, and they were the ones creating the problems a lot of the time. I told him he needed to control that because people respect him and watch him.”
It is claimed there were incidents where people were fighting, and someone even briefly stopped a tram from passing. During one particular incident on January 8, several people reportedly gathered around Ringo’s trolley, and were said to be acting aggressively towards other marketgoers and traders.
According to Ringo, things got ‘passionate’, and there was a fracas between himself, his followers and marketgoers. This resulted in police attending the market and questioning Ringo. Following this incident, the police issued him a seven-year Community Protection Notice Warning (CPNW).
CPNWs are intended to prevent people from engaging in antisocial behaviour that negatively impacts the community’s quality of life.
The Metropolitan Police said: “There had been multiple complaints of intimidating behaviour, which was distressing for those affected. The CPNW acts as a warning only, and not as a ban on behaviour which is not considered to be intimidating.”
Jamaican-born Ringo has been cooking for over 20 years, but it wasn’t until last year that he felt inspired to take action. “I woke up one Sunday morning with a new mission,” he said. His meals, including hearty stews and jerk chicken with rice and peas, quickly became a staple in the local community.
Jose said, despite the recent issues: “He is still like family to us. He is doing some great things for the community, but some of the people he brought along attracted fights, it wasn’t the homeless people.
“I am not happy they warned him. Even my children have signed his petition because we don’t want him to stop what he is doing.”
On the day of the police warning, Ringo said he was disappointed but not deterred. ‘I’ll be back out’, he said.
Pictured top: Ringo helping the homeless (Picture: Ringo Vision)