Panhandlers Under Fire, but ACLU Finds Fault with City Council Ordinance Committee's Plan

CRANSTON, RI -- Panhandlers could face trouble in Cranston, if they stand in the road or on the median.

According to the state Secretary of State's website, the city's ordinance committee meets at 7 p.m. tonight in council chambers to discuss cracking down on soliciting.

But the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island is serving notice it will take Cranston to court -- again -- if the ordinance is changed, as Mayor Fung and other city leaders have proposed.

In an Oct. 11 letter to the city councilors, the ACLU said the measure is unconstitutional and could even result in stamping out charitable activities, such as the firefighters' Fill the Boot campaigns.

Moreover, the ACLU called the plan “a thinly-veiled attempt to undermine the right of poor people to engage in panhandling,” and added that rather “than addressing the problems that have forced people to engage in panhandling in the first place, this proposal instead seeks to punish them for their poverty.”

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