Monday evening, the Missoula City Council, after much debate and heat about the so-called problem of "aggressive panhandling" and the denial about Criminalizing Homelessness, the Council passed the new ordinance 7-4 that "prohibits begging in an "aggressive manner," such as touching a person without asking, following someone being solicited and using violence. It prohibits telling lies to get money, and it also bans soliciting in some public places, such as near ATMs and within six feet of an entrance to a building."
This new ordinance provides for a $100 fine for any of this grab bag of infractions. However, one real and tangible issue was voiced by Councilman Dick Haines. "Councilman Dick Haines, though, said one thing plenty of people are afraid to express aloud. The complaints aren't only about the aggression, but they're about the kind of people who are asking for money downtown. He said some shop owners tell him their customers don't want to visit because of the street people - and those customers vote with their feet and stay away from downtown stores. We've got enough vacancies on Main Street and Broadway, and we don't need any more, said Haines, who voted for the ordinance." from Keila Szpaller of the Missoulian Tuesday 8-18-09. http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_045468d8-8baf-11de-9a86-001cc4c002e0.html Also note, that the Missoula City Council is currently working on an ordinance to ban homeless people sleeping on the streets. The real issues then are about discrimination and criminalizing homelessness, downtown! Because, let's face it, there are a lot of "homeless" people who hang, downtown. Through a lot of hard work and effort, Missoulans have made it a very nice destination to be. And, unfortunately, the homeless don't fit within the new and improved Downtown Master Plan, which developers envision and highlights high rise office/apartment/retail and condo complexes. So how will they accomplish removing this homeless "undesirable element" from Missoula? Well, let's start with profiling. Long about the time that the Missoula Downtown Association, broke off into the Downtown Business Improvement District and started working on its new Downtown Master Plan, certain changes started happening downtown. The City Council started adopting rules and ordinances, that restricted business people downtown, including hiring "ambassadors" downtown rule-givers and extra police patrols to help secure downtown from the undesirable. Next, they started profiling (mandatory back ground checks) business people who came in for a "business" license. It seems they only want the Right kind of people doing business in Missoula. Then, they started profiling street people and introducing ordinances to deal with the "problem" of these "street peoples' " behaviors on the Downtown streets. Of course, nobody on the City Council spoke to how many rules or ordinances are already on the books to deal with these unacceptable behaviors. Not one. No one spoke to how many other more serious issues were not being dealt with by the police. And besides, if they had to actually arrest, an "aggressive" person, then he would have a "Right" to an attorney (due process, it's in the Constitution) to defend himself, and that would take up a judges time and clog up the courts! And, get this ... now, all a cop has to do to "profile" a person, is to go up and say, I got a complaint that you were being aggressive .... You were being aggressive weren't you? No, well here's a $100 ticket for aggressive panhandling and another for lying about it! Or how about, are you still lying about how you spend your panhandling funds? No? Then you are still lying to me! Here's a $100 ticket for lying! Or how about, the musician who having opened his guitar case to take out and play on the street, is approached by the police and given a $100 ticket, because he is 7.95 feet from an ATM, storefront ect. and obviously he is soliciting funds.... And this is where profiling comes in. If an officer just "stops" and "reports" a "homeless person," then, it goes on their "record." No due process, no trial, you just owe $100. Clean! No muss, no fuss. Who cares if our City Councilors have sold one more little piece of Montana's Constitution down the river? Who cares if our City Councilors are discriminating against these undesirables? After all, aren't our brave City Councilors doing something about the problem? Thank god, that our elected and hired representatives have sworn an Oath to support, protect and defend the Constitution of Montana. It a tough job, but someones got to do it! As always, Think about it and I'd like to encourage your comments about this important topic. Please feel free to ask your City Councilor or Your City Attorney or Your City Employee (this could also apply to County or State) ... Rick Gold Missoula, MT http://mtlegal.blogspot.com/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
