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Thursday, December 14, 2023
ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: Florida lawmaker files felony bill criminalizing panhandling in most cases. (Pensacola News Journal)
Merry Christmas, Republicans! State Rep. ROBERT ALEXANDER ANDRADE has introduced HB 759, a bill worthy of satire and derisive laughter. Make panhandling a felony? As Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge character said, "Are there no workhouses? No jails?" Rep. ROBERT ALEXANDER ANDRADE, b. July 22, 1989, an actual University of Florida Law graduate, previously earned obloquy by supporting erasing First Amendment rights in libel actions. Now the hobbledehoy from Pensacola has found a way to grind poor people in the dirt. What a hick hack sad sack. Sick twisted Torquemada. Dull Republican rebarbative retromingent reprobate. How did this mean young man ever get elected? Follow the Money. Pray for Republican Rep. ROBERT ALEXANDER ANDRADE.
From Pensacola News Journal:
Florida lawmaker files bill criminalizing panhandling in most cases
A new bill filed by Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade adds criminal penalties for panhandling in most circumstances and adds the potential for panhandling to be a felony.
Andrade filed a new bill (HB 759) on Wednesday that amends Florida's charitable solicitation law in a way that he said gives law enforcement the tools to remove aggressive panhandling from roadways across the state.
The bill's various changes to the charitable solicitation law does two key things.
First, it restricts panhandling by place and time, essentially banning it in most public areas, and limits legal panhandling to 9:01 a.m. to 3:59 p.m.
Laws cracking down on panhandling have often been overturned by courts on free speech grounds. However, courts have long upheld that speech can be regulated with appropriate "time, place, and manner" regulations.
Andrade's bill limits the places where panhandling is allowed by banning it in these areas:
All roadways or public sidewalks
Within 50 feet of a commercially zoned property, bus stop, ATM machine or bank, parking lot, parking garage and public restroom
Within 100 feet of a childcare facility or a school
Inside a public transportation facility
It also bans asking for money of anyone waiting to go into a commercial establishment. It further bans panhandling while a person is under the influence of alcohol or drugs and prohibits touching anyone being solicited or using profane language.
Violation of the panhandling ban would be a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $100 and 30 days in jail for the first offense and $200 and up to 60 days in jail for any further offenses.
Secondly, the bill makes the potential penalty for panhandling a felony by amending the definition of charitable solicitation to include asking for a donation — directly or indirectly — on a public road or sidewalk.
Under the current law, anyone soliciting charitable donations must register with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The change essentially would require someone asking for money on the side of the road to register as a charity with the state or face the potential of a felony charge for what is traditionally considered panhandling, even if it's legal under the time, place and manner restrictions in the other part of the bill.
Andrade said the bill is meant to provide law enforcement with the proper tools needed to end aggressive panhandling, and he pushed back on the idea that it would criminalize being homeless.
"I think there's a vast distinction between homelessness and panhandling," Andrade said. "I'll be the first to tell you, I don't associate homelessness with panhandling. I tend to believe that many panhandlers do have a home."
Andrade said people give money to panhandlers because it is an act of charity but the state has regulations for soliciting charitable donations for the donors' protection.
"If you're out in the public, engaging with strangers, making contact with strangers, and soliciting money for what you claim to be a charitable purpose, you should be able to show that it's a charitable purpose," Andrade said. "You're engaging in commerce. You're selling good feelings, or you're selling someone being able to satisfy their guilt by giving you money. But there's no protections at all for the general public to make sure that when they give that money, that's actually what they're doing."
The change essentially would require someone asking for money on the side of the road to register as a charity with the state or face the potential of a felony charge for what is traditionally considered panhandling, even if it's legal under the time, place and manner restrictions in the other part of the bill.
Andrade said the bill is meant to provide law enforcement with the proper tools needed to end aggressive panhandling, and he pushed back on the idea that it would criminalize being homeless.
"I think there's a vast distinction between homelessness and panhandling," Andrade said. "I'll be the first to tell you, I don't associate homelessness with panhandling. I tend to believe that many panhandlers do have a home."
Andrade said people give money to panhandlers because it is an act of charity but the state has regulations for soliciting charitable donations for the donors' protection.
"If you're out in the public, engaging with strangers, making contact with strangers, and soliciting money for what you claim to be a charitable purpose, you should be able to show that it's a charitable purpose," Andrade said. "You're engaging in commerce. You're selling good feelings, or you're selling someone being able to satisfy their guilt by giving you money. But there's no protections at all for the general public to make sure that when they give that money, that's actually what they're doing."
4 comments:
Edzilla
said...
Republican shills for the fat cats and upper class warriors love to use the courts for "class re-assignment" and it's never upwards. They love a permanent lower class with low economic mobility for some reason. The American dream for Republicans is, "You lose, I win."
DeSantis said in a recent debate that Arabs wear "man dresses." So he's an ethnocentric racist and his stupid supporters don't care. He puts to shame his military service.
Bet DeSANTIS had little contact with Arabs during his military service. He has no respect for diversity. In sharp contrast, my dad got to hang out with locals in North Africa with the 82nd ABN DIVN in 1942, sharing their food (no utensils) and learning to respect their culture. My dad's WWII military service enriched his life experience, and helped make him a better, more tolerant person.
It's all about ethnocentrism and belief that "USA number one" and all that crap. For some, religious differences cause problems because they think theirs is correct while others incorrect. Some people need those sentiments for a boost and assume others should be motivated by it to. Meanwhile, this country might be economically well off but we've still got a lot of problems that conservatives and the likes fail to see as a problem or don't want to deal with at all. That's why I call them empty suits and more times than not they tend to use some kind of hostility when faced with problems instead of more rational and productive means.
4 comments:
Republican shills for the fat cats and upper class warriors love to use the courts for "class re-assignment" and it's never upwards. They love a permanent lower class with low economic mobility for some reason. The American dream for Republicans is, "You lose, I win."
DeSantis said in a recent debate that Arabs wear "man dresses." So he's an ethnocentric racist and his stupid supporters don't care. He puts to shame his military service.
Bet DeSANTIS had little contact with Arabs during his military service. He has no respect for diversity. In sharp contrast, my dad got to hang out with locals in North Africa with the 82nd ABN DIVN in 1942, sharing their food (no utensils) and learning to respect their culture. My dad's WWII military service enriched his life experience, and helped make him a better, more tolerant person.
It's all about ethnocentrism and belief that "USA number one" and all that crap. For some, religious differences cause problems because they think theirs is correct while others incorrect. Some people need those sentiments for a boost and assume others should be motivated by it to. Meanwhile, this country might be economically well off but we've still got a lot of problems that conservatives and the likes fail to see as a problem or don't want to deal with at all. That's why I call them empty suits and more times than not they tend to use some kind of hostility when faced with problems instead of more rational and productive means.
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