Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 18, 1993 TAG: 9302180300
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BEGGING LAW FACES CHALLENGE
A Roanoke ordinance that makes it illegal to beg for money in public is facing a court challenge backed by the American Civil Liberties Union.City police say the law is being used to arrest obnoxious beggars who pester downtown pedestrians for pocket change.
But the ACLU says panhandlers have a First Amendment right to ask for money.
Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU's state chapter in Richmond, said Wednesday that the group has voted to help coordinate and finance a lawsuit to be filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.
The suit is expected to be filed within a few weeks. "It's simply a matter of packaging the case," Willis said.
Although other cities have outlawed begging, Roanoke's ordinance is more restrictive than most in that it makes no distinction between pushy and passive panhandling.
"The ordinance is so broad that it could be used to arrest someone who borrows lunch money from a friend," Willis said.
While police appear to be using selective enforcement in arresting only beggars who harass people, Willis said the ordinance carries no such guarantee.
"When laws are overly broad, the tendency is to use them to pick on the poor, the minorities and the underprivileged," he said. "This ordinance provides that catchall."
And if the beggars are truly being disruptive, Willis added, authorities could use other laws to charge them with offenses such as disorderly conduct, public intoxication or impeding traffic.
Although Roanoke's anti-begging law has been on the books since 1956, it caught the ACLU's attention after the Roanoke Times & World-News reported last month that police were using the ordinance more frequently to arrest beggars in the downtown area.
Authorities have made about 25 arrests in recent months on charges of soliciting for alms without a license, a misdemeanor that carries a $250 fine as the maximum punishment.
Police made the arrests after a group of downtown merchants complained that a small but visible group of beggars was harassing shoppers and employers.
No one has reported being physically harmed by a beggar. But police say it's not uncommon for one to grab someone by the coat sleeve or follow someone the length of a city block, repeatedly asking for a handout.
City Attorney Wilburn Dibling said Wednesday that his office is reviewing the ordinance and will make suggestions on what - if any - changes are needed.
However, Dibling said it appears that police are using the law "very reasonably."
Meanwhile, the ACLU is working with potential lawyers and plaintiffs on the pending lawsuit. Willis declined to elaborate on details Wednesday.
Although beggars are being prosecuted in state court, the suit will be filed in federal court in order to raise the constitutional issues of free speech.
Willis knew of no U.S. Supreme court ruling that dealt with begging as a free-speech right. But appellate courts in California and Florida have made such rulings.
The Supreme Court last year upheld a New York solicitation ban, but only when begging interfered with the flow of traffic at subway and airport terminals.
For the most part, anti-panhandling laws in other cities make begging illegal only if it is done in a threatening or disruptive manner.