Bonne Beavers, our staff attorney who took the lead in preparing and presenting our critique of the Spokane City Council’s panhandler and street musician ordinances, shared the following anecdote with us Wednesday. It’s about an encounter and conversation she had on a downtown street a day after the council passed the four ordinances. I should add that, much to Bonne’s credit, the city did make significant changes to each of the ordinances and drop a fifth in response to hers and others’ comments. Still…
Last night, I was walking home in the rain, without a hat or coat. I was waiting to cross Second Avenue near Adams or Jefferson along with a fellow who looked like he probably lived on the streets.
He looked and me and said, “Don’t you have a hat?”
I laughed and said no and he said he had a knit cap I could have. I told him thanks but I’d be fine. We started to chat and he finally asked me for a dollar. While rummaging around in my backpack, I asked him what he wanted it for and he said, “do you want me to lie or tell the truth?”
I said, “tell me the truth.”
He said, “I’d really like a beer.”
I gave him about four bucks and told him to go use that for whatever he needed. He told me thanks and then said, “I probably just broke the law, didn’t I?”
And I said, no, you did not. I told him he has a Constitutionally protected right to ask for help.
We talked for a few minutes about the new panhandling laws and I told him to come visit me at the Center if he wanted any other info.
What was poignant about this exchange was that the word on the street seems to be that these new laws outlaw begging. This shows how public perception can effectively chill the exercise of one’s First Amendment rights.
