Seattle ordinance would make panhandling a crime
SEATTLE (At'J •
Panhandler Mike G
says lie doesn't
want to be a crimi
nal. A proposed r.itv
ordinance would
make him one
Two or three days a week. Mike sits out
side of a grocery store in the University
District north o( downtown, asking
pasxorshy for spare iJiange He says he ram
get by on about $30 a week
"Have a good day." he says to tinea* who
so much as acknowledge him.
An ordinance proposed by city attorney
Mark Sidran would make sitting or lying
down on a sidewalk in a commercial area
I»etween 7 a m and 9 p m against the law.
That means Mike.
Panhandling has become < ornmon in
urlwm Amerii a. more so as the ranks of the
homeless increase, and temperate Seat
tle is no exi option The city's homeless
population has grown to more than 21.(XX).
ai i ording to n 1992 report by the Wash
ington State Housing Coalition
Sidran s proposals — he also wants to
toughen up existing rules — represent an
attempt to ease panhandlers' impact on
businesses, and downtown merchants who
believe beggars run off their customers are
applauding the effort
A (uminon comment we hear from the
visitor* to the i itv is that downtown Seat
tle has tinin> than its share of panhandlers,
and they're more aggressive and there's
one on every street corner." said John
Gilmore, president of the Downtown Seat
tle Association
Mike lines n't think the proposed ordi
nance would help.
"All they're going to end up doing is
make people into lawbreakers.” he said
"If you want me to be a criminal. I'll
Iki a criminal. If you want, we can go
that far I don't want to go that far.” said
Mike. 44. who asked that his last name not
lie published
Mike said he understands the need for
laws against aggressive panhandling and
public drunkenness, but has misgivings
about those that would prevent his sitting
or standing in a public place.
Mike understands that some people
might consider him a threat
"I could l«e a murderer, a rapist I'm not.
but they don't know me,” Mike said
between spare-change requests
"I'm just someone that's easy to grum
hie at,” he said
Sidran's proposals are the latest devel
opment in the city's years-long effort to
‘All they're going to end
up doing is make people
into lawbreakers.'
— Mike G„
Seattle panhandler
balanc e the rights of street people with
those of the mainstream.
In 1981. the Seattle City Council reject
ed an ordinance that would have outlawed
hogging in the city. The council member*
told unhappy merchants that panhandling
was an "inalienable right."
But in 1987. Seattle became the first city
in the nation to penalize aggressive pan
handlers Beggars who intimidate people
or block sidewalks and doorways while
panhandling face a maximum penally of
a $500 fine and 90 days in jail.
That measure — and Sidran's new pro
posal — are opposed by the American Civ
il l.ilierties Union of Washington.
"Sidran's law will make them criminals
for just sitting there." said Jerry Sheehan,
the ACLU's legislative director in Seattle.
"Such a law in our view would lie uncon
stitutional."
.Sidran says his plan isn't aimed at pan
handlers like Mika bul at the small minor
it\" who urinate on sidewalks, block
pedestrian traffic and drink in public
1 don't think these are the sort of behav
iors that hearty urban dwellers should lie
expw twi to tolerate," Sidran said. "These
behaviors, taken together, create a psy
chology of fear "
Sidran said state laws against public
drinking, urinating and defecating do not
penalize offenders with jail time. He dis
misses them as useless.
Sidran proposes:
• A maximum penalty of 90 days in jail
and a $1,000 fine for repeat offenses of
public drinking, defecating and urinating
State law provides for citations and a max
imum $100 fine, but no jail time.
• bringing the city ordinance on under
age drinking into accord with state law
Violators In Seattle now face a maximum
$500 fine. Under state law, the penalty for
a first offense is a maximum $500 fine and
two months in jail. A second offense can
mean a six-month sentence and subse
quent violations as much as a year.
• Raising the maximum fine for aggres
sive panhandling from $500 to $1,000. and .
tightening the definition of "intimidation”
in the panhandling ordinance.
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court says tree speecn
does not cover damage
SALEM (AP) — Free speech
rights do not protect demonstra
tors from punitive damage
awards if they disrupt use of pri
vate possessions, the Oregon
Supreme Court ruled last week.
The court in a 5-2 decision
upheld a $25,000 punitive dam
age award against six members
of the environmental organiza
tion Earth First!.
The protesters, objecting to
timber harvest policies, chained
themselves to heavy equipment
to shut down logging for a day in
July 1987 in the North Kalmiop
sis area of the Siskiyou Nation
al Forest.
The equipment owner, Huff
man & Wright Logging Co. of
(amyonville. sought damages
against the demonstrators. A jury
awarded the company $5,717 in
compensatory damages for lost
revenue plus the punitive dam
ages.
Punitive damages are awarded
to penalize conduct and deter
future similar conduct. The
defendants argued that the award
violated thuir constitutional
rights of free speech and to peti
tion the government
The court majority, in an opin
ion by Justice Susan Gralier. said
the jury "was entitled to find that
defendants' acts i^iused the dis
turliance of plaintiffs possession
of its personal property, wholly
apart from any motivating opin
ion, underlying message or
accompanying speech."
The message they sought to
convey "and the spoken and
written words accompanying
their conduct did not transform
defendants’ conduct into
speech," Gralier said.
Gralier said nothing in the con
stitutional right of peaceable
assembly "suggests that right
includes a right to disrupt pos
session of private property of
another at least when, as here,
the private property is not open
to public use."
The protest actions were not a
direct petition to the government
but to the logging company and
the news media, the court said.
"The intention ultimately to
affect government policy is not
sufficient, by itself, to invoke"
constitutional protection, the
court said.
justice Richard Unis, in the
dissenting opinion, said the
amount of punitive damages (an
no! constitutionally be deter
mined even in part by the polit
ical speech accompanying
conduct.
justice George Van Hoomissen
also dissented.
The defendants were also con
victed of criminal mischief in the
protest and served two weeks in
jail.
The North Kalmiopsis region
has been one of the most intense
(battlegrounds of the entire North
west logging war for the past 10
years
"We really were never in any
doubt as to what the outcome
should be." said Greg Gaston,
comptroller of Huffman & Wright
in Canyonville. "The question is
whether we ever see a penny of
the award We didn't take this
position to come out ahead. It
was more of the idea ot the prin
ciples involved."
The ruling was a major blow to
civil disoiledlence actions every
where. said Karen Wood of
Eugene, one of the Earth First!
protesters who chained them
selves to logging equipment on
tite Sapphire timber sale.
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