Should panhandlers be banned from downtown Athens?
The Commission's Legislative Review Committee studies the issue of handouts.
We've all seen people sitting against a building downtown with a box beside them containing a few dollars dropped by passersby. Maybe we've even given money to some of these folks. Others in our community, residents and visitors alike, have been confronted by people demanding money from them. For some, it's off-putting. For others, it's frightening. Officials with the Athens Downtown Development Authority say that merchants downtown report getting regular complaints from customers about panhandlers. People who are going to an ATM or getting a parking meter ticket are especially uncomfortable. The Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau worries about the effect panhandlers have on visitors. So the ACC Commission's Legislative Review Committee…
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Rebecca McCarthy
9:13 am on Saturday, January 28, 2012
Hey, Paul! thanks for jumping in. It's hard to enforce the law because people don't want to prosecute, and they won't talk to the police (though they will speak to a store owner or restaurant worker). And the police can't arrest anyone if they don't have a witness. I don't know if people are afraid to speak up, or just don't want to bother, but that's the difficulty. Most "regular" homeless … more ›