Palm Beach Sheriff Offers Advice On How To Deal With Panhandlers
Local panhandling ordinances continue to fall and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw explains why that's happening.He says case law prohibits enforcement.
"In the courts it said people have the right to ask for help because they're homeless. Having said that, there's a difference between somebody coming up to you and saying 'Can I have a dollar?' and what we call aggressive panhandling where someone comes up and bangs on the window of your car."
The Lake Worth Beach City Commission this week voted to repeal its ban, while facing lawsuits. PBSO hadn't enforced the Lake Worth Beach ordinance since January.
Mayor Betty Resch, during that meeting, talked about the importance of coming up with a new ordinance that would withstand legal challenges." And I certainly agree to that.
Read about the Sheriff's advice
20 comments:
The Highwaymen of Lake Worth
With Panhandling now legal in Lake Worth, Panhandlers will have the unimpeded opportunity to become Highwaymen. Yes, the rule as it had been written left the town liable, and it needed to be struck down, but EQUALLY IMPORTANT Lake Worth needs a REPLACEMENT LAW.
The threats to Lake Worth citizens will soon increase daily as this new occupation becomes all the more popular and aggressive with the panhandling crowd.
If you are not familiar with the term, Highwaymen were a group that thrived in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Highwaymen were "a frequent and common threat " on the roads and public places from around 1650 to 1800. No one traveled alone without fear of being robbed, and people often joined together or hired escorts. Travelers often wrote their wills before they set out...
In the last few years, with fear of prosecution, a Panhandler would more likely say, "Can you spare a few dollars."
We are now entering a new day and age, where these modern-day Highwaymen will say "Give me Five Dollars"…and with success with this, they will move up to "Give me Twenty bucks," or "Give me your wallet," or, "I need your money."
We have ENABLED the aggressive demanding of money and made it difficult for our Police forces to do anything about the Highwaymen wandering around in plain sight, even in front of the Police.
Perhaps the government of Lake Worth will find a way to prosecute the Aggressive Demanding of money, which IS ALREADY OCCURRING on a regular basis. Many of us have been CONFRONTED aggressively by Highwaymen in Lake Worth, and most prefer to avoid confrontation, and so they just hand over money….Others of us get upset with the aggression and we confront the person back, but this risks physical violence, and good government and Laws are supposed to PREVENT THIS.
Should the Police attempt a prosecution, you would swear the Highwayman said, "Give me $5."….the Highwayman will swear that he said, "Please give me $5".
The Highwayman will win, and you will lose. And Lake Worth will lose.
I like the analogy to the Highwaymen. I will make a serious effort not to be in a position to be accosted like this. Not only does it scare me, but because, I never carry any money, that might make them angry.
I agree that it is a serious situation and has to be addressed ASAP by our City Government, in cooperation with PBSO.
There is just no law and order today in our society and police say they cannot do anything ,case law, the old lwpd cap used to say the same thing, so many excuses!
Yes, we've gone downhill fast in the 21 years since 9/11.
Plummeted really!
Our overpasses and intersections around 10th north and 6th south 95 are so trashy and filthy it’s embarrassing.
The landscaping is garbage, weeds, bottles, fast food wrappers you name it, it’s 3rd world no wonder they attract drunks and druggies.
Take a look, drive down from west palm to delray, ours are the worst!
Is that the City, County, or State jurisdiction?
I am very unhappy to see so many election signs still standing, for an election that has been over for 3 weeks. Whose job is it to take these signs down.
If you want to have a sign up with your name on it after the election, you should pay the city a fee for advertising. Federal Highway, of all places.
@12:01. Now that the Primaries are over, most of these candidates who won will be running again on November 8th. I don't know what our ordinance says about removing signs if you are running in the general. It seems that it would be an expensive burden for these candidates to remove and then put them back up.
I get it! It does seem excessive though. In some cases, it's 4 months of free advertising. And then, you have to chase them around after the election to take them down.
Perhaps there should be a small fee.
Lake worthless has been a dump for 30 + years, they say it will get better but it never does.
We live in this town. If we want it to be better then it's up to each of us to DO things that will make it better.
Well Said Dan!
It was reported to me just now that a fairly well dressed couple were panhandling at downtown Publix. Asked for $1 to eat.
If I were going to stand outside in this heat, I'd ask for more than $1.00.
Another option...Should a person "exercise" their first amendment right of free expression and ASK you to give them money....I would suggest YOU have the right to exercise YOUR Rights and offer them a loud and eloquent explanation, for all around to hear and enjoy, about why you believe people panhandling in town are a THREAT to Family Values and how you are offended by their suggestion that somehow THEY are your personal responsibility....And finally you could suggest a government program they could be helped by locally, and avoid insulting people as they are doing now....THIS IS YOUR RIGHT. And they should find this uncomfortable to the point of potentially giving up in this behavior, if enough people chastise them for it.
Most of the homeless people I see, are strung out on meth, and I wouldn't feel safe giving them a lecture. These people take combinations of drugs that would put a horse to sleep.
While those in power are railing about guns, the homeless carry knives, and they know how to use them.
Don't engage, and don't make eye contact.
What do we do individually to make our town better, Dan? We live normal lives.
One of the problems is, that everybody has a different idea of what better is.
My idea is that we go back to actually cleaning the streets, instead of using a leaf blower. It actually makes a world of difference.
Make the guy who owns Propaganda paint the building and power wash his sidewalk.
You know: The old Broken Windows Theory.
Anon@7:47
Many of us have at least ONE town issue of that we care a lot about. If you have an issue that you could help develop...that your personal social network could form a small boring block for...if you could do workshops on that issue YOU convinced your cf commissioner to form...if you could even write up a well thought out development of your idea for the town..and include possible solutions or ways to find them---and then have coffee with YOUR COMMISSIONER and go over this with them...each of these, all of these and many other options are available to each of us.
And maybe you have a friend that cares about the same issue as you..and presents really well---you could HELP THEM!
YOU really can make a difference.
If a thousand of us felt and acted this way, Lake Worth could change for the better...its at least worth attempting.
Yikes..last post was from my phone and it BADLY auto spell checked and Changed important words...hopefully you can guess around the obviously wrong words...
Thanks Dan, but if they've been waiting for 50+ years for me to come along and tell them the town looks better when the streets are cleaned and the buildings painted, I don't think there is too much I could do to motivate them on that issue.
In keeping with the appearance of the town, we will soon have our own Jurassic Park right in The Cultural Plaza. The Iguana's have grown to the size of cats and eaten all of the Bougainvillea.
Nobody can do anything, because nobody can make a decision!
Watch out! The Banyon's could be next!
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