What is panhandling in texas

It is reasonable to conclude, as OurCalling executive director Wayne Walker told the Dallas Observer , that panhandling fuels the drug and sex trafficking industries. There are also strong indications, as Dallas City Council member Cara Mendelsohn suggested, that at least some panhandlers are part of organized groups that have made an industry of this work. Residents throughout Dallas, not just in wealthier ZIP codes, have complained about aggressive panhandlers shaking them down.

Many of us have witnessed panhandlers approach cars where a lone passenger, often a woman, is intimidated. Cities desperately need legal tools to manage panhandling. The Supreme Court took some of those away with Reed. The least the Legislature can do is revisit median soliciting to give municipalities and their residents a chance to gain back some control. Dallas Morning News Editorial. Dallas Morning News editorials are written by the paper's Editorial Board and serve as the voice and view of the paper.

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Erikson Central … Read More. But hands off the alms-asker. That's pretty much what Casto says he told the council behind closed doors on Sept. We're just ignoring it.

City Council members don't want to hear this. They've always looked at panhandlers as a menace. Go back to , when Mayor Laura Miller tried to chase off panhandlers she said were a "gigantic public safety hazard," especially roadside beggars "knocking on people's windows, making people afraid.

The law has been tweaked countless times since, beginning with the creation of the so-called Solicitation-Free Zones in downtown, Deep Ellum, Uptown and Victory. And even then, the council knew this probably wasn't kosher. I mean, Angela Hunt said so right there on her blog in December :. But the council's never stopped trying, insisting cops get tougher on beggars. They demand no-solicitation signs be planted in and around downtown.

They say things like "Break their backs, break their spirit — that's the only way we're going to win this battle," to quote Pleasant Grove's Rickey Callahan. They insist most panhandlers are pros, not homeless, which the ACLU vehemently disputes.

The council agrees something needs to be done — maybe a temp-job program , " giving meters " — but can't agree on the what or the how or the how-much. So, instead, nothing. Except more griping. The Dallas Way. Elected officials also like to complain that the panhandling ordinance isn't being enforced.

But that's not true: That National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty look at criminalizing homelessness put Dallas in its "Hall of Shame" for "aggressively" enforcing its panhandling ban.