Is Panhandling Illegal?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

For instance, when a person stands on the sign of the road with a sign that says "Will Work For Food" is that person subject to arrest?

I ask because I saw a person being arrested yesterday morning under just those conditions at the intersection of Interstate 4 and Colonial Blvd. in downtown Orlando.

If that's the case what's a broke person supposed to do. He just should have went to the police department and said he has no home and no money. I wonder what would have happened then.

I am seeing homeless people everywhere in Greater Orlando.

[Bluzmann57]

1. A city in this area issues permits

In this particular city, Bettendorf, Iowa, there are about three or four guys who have actual panhandling permits. They set up "shop" at various Interstate exits and I have no idea whether or not anyone actually stops. I once offered a guy 20 dollars to wash my car inside and out and he turned it down. That led me to believe that he really didn't want to work for food or money.

[Crabby Appleton]

2. In Orlando there you need a permit and there are many

restrictions about where you can panhandle.

http://www.mtas.tennessee.edu/KnowledgeBase.nsf/0/F760641999207DE585257241005900A8?OpenDocument

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. What If The Gentleman Was Just Standing There?

"Except as specifically provided in this section, panhandling does not include passively standing or sitting with a sign or other indication that one is seeking donations, without addressing any solicitation to any specific person other than in response to an inquiry by that person."

[elocs]

4. There are a few professional panhandlers in my city.

They take a cab to their spots near the mall areas at the outskirts of town and if it is cold, but not too cold they will place their coats across the street in order to look more pathetic.
Their signs read "Will Work For Food", but work is the last thing they want and what they want is $. It's funny how you will not see them out there on a very nasty day or a very nice day either.

What is sad is that there are those who are truly in need and these types give those a bad name.

[bridgit]

5. In my town it depends on levels of aggressiveness. Aggressive, violent panhandlers...

Will end up doing a 72 or sent down the road, simpler aggressions will be sent down the sidewalk. If a civil panhandler is working, maybe someone with a story to tell; people deal in relation to the ways they themselves deal. But I also live in a town where homeless women pull down their sweatpants, squat and pee on the sidewalk right in front of Starbucks on the open-air K St mall. There was a black guy run out of a little family owned & operated Concina Mexican restaurant the other day (we know the family they're hard working people) cause he just walked in at lunch time and was going from booth to booth of people with food on their forks belligerently demanding dollars cause no one asks for spare change anymore - he was run down the road, when I came out with our to-go order my husband has watched him demanding money of others at the bus bench

I don't mean for this reply to be quite so long, just some recent experiences since you've asked - but up in Placerville, a elderly scruffy homeless mute walked up to my husband and just sort of stood in front of him saying no words. My husband smiled and looked back into his eyes. Then the man pulled from his pocket a little slip of paper on which had been printed his situation. My husband read it very carefully, never asked if he was a mute as represented; just reached into his pocket and pulled out the change and handed it to him - it turned out to be over $5 cause my husband had a couple Sacajawea' in there, carries them around with him I should say; which he nearly considers priceless. Wordless, the old man saluted my husband and he saluted back

[MadHound]

6. It depends on local laws

Some places outlaw it, some don't, some just seek to regulate it in order to get rid of the more aggressive panhandlers.

[Bluerthanblue]

7. isn't it a clear case of the right to speak freely?

hell, if dog-fighting videos are a-OK because of the 1st Ammendment, I should think a case could easily be made to fight any law which infringes on a person's right to stand with a sign declaring their need.

:shrug: