[color="Red"]I know for a fact that the man in this article was White, because his photo was in the print addition of the paper but unavailable online.

When I read this story I had to wonder, what if this man were a nigger? I could easily imagine him being forgiven by the authorities and Christian groups falling over one another to get this man some food. But he is a White man and that entitles him to not a speck of mercy or charity from anyone. He was arrested and thrown in jail because he was a hungry White man.

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Hungry, Hudson man gives woodpecker a shot

HUDSON - The caretaker heard a gunshot. She rushed to investigate. In the woods by the lake at the Girl Scouts camp, she found a puzzling scene.

One man was fishing with a bamboo pole. A machete and a shotgun lay on the ground. And over a fire made with twigs, another man was roasting what would prove to be a woodpecker.

His excuse: He was hungry.

The man is Nick Arcarola, 18, a lawn cutter living in Hudson, and here, drawn from his memory and a sheriff's incident report, is the story of his caloric quest.

On Thursday afternoon, Arcarola and his roommate Kenneth Nitz, 21, went fishing at Camp Indian Echo, a Girl Scouts retreat near their home on Hudson Avenue. It was the slow season for landscaping, and their hours had been cut back. Much of their money went to rent, and the rest had evaporated. Arcarola hadn't eaten since Tuesday.

They could have gotten food from Traci Claps, Arcarola's girlfriend and Nitz's sister, but they had done so twice in the past week, and their pride was starting to hurt.(this only happens to proud White men)

The fish weren't biting, but Arcarola had an idea. Another man had threatened his life a few weeks back, and he had obtained a 12-gauge Winchester shotgun for self-defense. But he didn't want to kill anyone - just wound them - so he didn't buy slugs.

He bought bird shot.

The men went hunting. Nitz blazed trails with a machete, and Arcarola brandished his gun.

"I felt 100 percent primitive," Arcarola said later. "I felt if any animal crossed my path, I would kill it and eat it."

A big brown bird flew over their heads. Arcarola fired a wild shot and missed. Minutes later, a fat cotton-tailed rabbit darted across their path. It was gone before Arcarola could pull the trigger.

Nitz got frustrated and went back to fishing. They made a pact: Whoever killed first would share the meat.

Then Arcarola saw the woodpecker.

It perched atop a dead tree, maybe 50 feet up, with a gray body and an orange-red head. It was no more than 6 inches tall.

Arcarola lined up the sights and squeezed. The bird fell.

"I got him!" he yelled.

The men scoured the brush for their prey. Blood stained a pile of leaves. Arcarola dug in and pulled out the woodpecker.

He had never done this before. He took out his diving knife. He ripped off its feathers, cut off its head, opened its body, pulled out its guts. He kept pulling and cutting until it looked something like raw chicken, only smaller and darker.

Nitz built a fire with his lighter and some twigs, then went back to fishing. Arcarola drooled as he turned the meat on a skewer. He considered eating it raw.

How does woodpecker taste?

Arcarola never found out. Just as it was starting to sizzle, the caretaker showed up.

Debra Delia, 53, wore a look of bewilderment.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" she said, according to Arcarola. Delia declined to comment for this story.

She told him to put the bird down and the fire out, and he obeyed. The men offered to leave. Delia called for law enforcement.

Sheriff's deputies let Nitz go. But when they ran the serial number of Arcarola's gun through the computer, it came back as stolen. He swore he bought it from his neighbor. They charged him with armed trespassing and possession of stolen property.

It was his first arrest in Florida. They cuffed him and took him to the jail in Land O'Lakes.

He didn't eat until 5:30 a.m. Friday: frosted flakes, low-fat milk, a banana and a stale piece of bread. When he asked his fellow inmates for more food, they laughed and called him "the Birdman."

His bail was set at $2,000. He was still in jail Friday night, dreaming of lobster and calamari.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/10/28/Pasco/Hungry__Hudson_man_gi.shtml

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Thomas Lake can be reached at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245 or tlake@sptimes.com.