Mitch Albom
If you walk in downtown Detroit or get use freeway ramps in Metro Detroit, you're bound to see a panhandler.
Last week, the state House Criminal Justice Committee pushed forward legislation called the Aggressive Solicitation Prohibition Act, which would call for fines of up to $100 for aggressive panhandlers who beg from people who don't want to be solicited. Free Press columnist Mitch Albom calls the legislation "spineless:"
Really? Michigan can’t fix its roads. It’s embroiled in a water crisis. Yet our Legislature advances a spineless bill on panhandling.
I say “spineless” because such laws are. How can you judge what is “too much” from a beggar? Within 10 feet is too close for some people. “Do you have spare change?” makes others feel violated. And we haven’t even addressed the lunacy of fining someone $100 who has to beg for a dollar.
How are we going to enforce this? Hold them there until police arrive? Send citations to their homes? Most of these poor people, like Cricket, don’t even have an address.
I guess we can put them in jail — as we used to do before an archaic law was struck down three years ago.
