Councilman Walter Hunt responds to the controversy his new anti-aggressive panhandling bill has created.....
It is critically important here to realize that he's clearly making a distinction between passive and aggressive panhandling - something that has been at the heart of this debate long before the inception of the "Please Help, Don't Give" campaign initiated in July by the Nashville Downtown Partnership. While I don't agree with the "after-dark ban" on all panhandling, many will feel Hunt's rationale is valid, to a point.
I do believe however, that even if the ordinance passes, that particular part of it will not survive a Constitutional challenge and I suspect one will come, too. I could be wrong - wouldn't be the first time - and Mr. Hunt has done his homework by modeling the law after one that did withstand the challenge.
That will undoubtedly give pause to any attorney contemplating action, since precedent has been set, although not in the 6th district, which covers Tennessee.
Still, the fight would be an ugly one....
Frankly, I would hope that it doesn't come to that for a couple of reasons, but especially because the community doesn't need yet another reason to divide itself along lines of battle.
What I don't understand is why it is that Mr. Hunt still feels the need for another law. The police are doing a booming business of citing the Homeless at the moment and the need for yet another law targeting behavior he agreed we actually have no idea about how much they even engage in is just one more way in which our homeless community can be hassled.
The Downtown Partnership, in their own rationale for the "Please Help, Don't Give" campaign, stated in a public meeting back in June on their new effort to control aggressive panhandling that they felt there were already enough laws on the books to combat the aggressiveness associated with out of control panhandlers and what was really needed was an informational awareness campaign. We haven't had that campaign on our streets for half a year and already someone else wants to enact a new law targeting the aggressive panhandlers?
What I'd really like Mr. Hunt to do here is to prove to me is why he feels that we have a need to escalate beyond the initiation of the DTP's effort and the current laws on the books? He claims that aggressive panhandling is a "huge" problem; just how huge is this problem here in Nashville?
And if it's "professional beggars" he's targeting, then wouldn't a law dealing with them be far more appropriate than a very broad blanket of limitations on one's personal rights and liberties?
As a public administrator, he knows better than most that statistics are needed to validate claims such as this.
I think we as a community ought to be asking for the hard numbers before enacting another law; one that may very well be unnecessary when all the facts are really examined.
I have absolutely no problem in supporting legislation and ordinances that actually combat a real problem, so long as the law does what it's intended to do and is narrow enough in scope as to avoid unintended consequences.
This particular ordinance however, especially in the way that it is currently written and then justified, leaves a lot of room for error, as well as a rather "huge" gap in credible numbers at the moment that would convince me of its veracity and its overall efficacy potential.
Tuesday, 12/04/07
This bill would target professional beggars
By WALTER HUNT
Panhandling is not a right in all cases. It is not a right when individuals who are not homeless pose as such to get money from unsuspecting citizens.
It is not a right when panhandlers persist and annoy citizens who refuse to honor their request. While I understand many people who ask for money on Nashville streets are simply down on their luck and looking for their next meal, I am convinced that a large number of aggressive panhandlers are not homeless; they are professional beggars.
This kind of panhandling is a huge problem in Nashville and in cities across the nation. This problem has become unmanageable. The cities of Indianapolis, Orlando, Louisville, Las Vegas and many other cities have proposed some type of panhandling measures. Some have passed the constitutional test while some have not. I modeled our proposed bill (Ordinance No BL2007-66) after the one that passed the test, Indianapolis. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Indianapolis proposal.
In the 1980s, I lived and slept an entire weekend on the streets with the homeless with "Hoot Jackson," also known as Bill Boner. I talked and walked with the homeless, and I went to feeding sites all over Nashville with the homeless.
I learned that most homeless people are off the streets by 6 p.m. That is the time the homeless are required to be in the shelters, or else they will not be allowed to enter. After 6 p.m., there are two types of groups remaining on the streets: professional beggars and the individuals who refuse or are afraid to sleep in a shelter.
Safety is a responsibility
I have received many e-mails and telephone calls, and I thank the many people for their input. However, we as legislators have the responsibility to make this city as safe as possible.
BL2007-66 gives the police a tool for dealing with threatening professional beggars, while continuing to allow street musicians and other forms of non-aggressive panhandling that do not cause a safety concern. Homeless people would be free to solicit funds during the day in a non-aggressive manner, as long as the solicitation does not take place next to the entrance of a building, an ATM machine, or a public transit stop.
Under this proposal, the officer would have to witness the aggressive panhandling before issuing a citation. In addition, a citizen could use the law to swear out a complaint against an aggressive panhandler.
Aggressive panhandlers are those panhandlers who become irritable and persistent when their request is denied, walking with people after they have said no, holding parking spaces for a fee, washing car windshields unsolicited and going from place to place throughout downtown and the city collecting large sums of money. We as legislators should create a community where people feel safe and welcomed, and are not harassed by unwanted aggressive panhandling. The citizens of Nashville and our visitors have that right. BL2007-66 is not an anti-panhandling bill. It is a bill that makes panhandling safer.
