Dear all
I'm not sure that anti-panhandling laws constitute a radical realignment of
public space although the type of enforcement might. Begging has been
illegal in England since the sixteenth century as has being in public
without money and not being able to give an account of oneself. English
anti-vagrancy laws were imported wholesale into the United States and the
vast majority of states had anti-vagrancy laws until around 1880 when many
were supplemented by tramp laws that specifically made being a tramp (a
crime of identity if ever there was one) illegal. Tramp were defined as
pretty much the same as vagrants except that they were more mobile.
Chapter 159 of the general statutes of Connecticut 1902 states for instance
that "All transient persons who rove from place to place begging, and all
vagrants, living without labor or visible means fo support, who stroll over
the country without lawful occassion, shall be deemed tramps'
To this very day most state have vagrancy laws on the books that resemble
the English laws of the sixteenth century. As for trenchant critical views
of such laws none does much better than the once Govenor Lewelling of
Kansas who issued an order forbidding the arrest of tramps and vagrants
for begging. This was applauded by one Elbert Hubbard who wrote
'In this country we say every man is assumed to be innocent until he proven
guilty. This applies only to men who have money. No peaceable decent man
with money is asked to "give an account of himself." But let him have no
place to lay his head, and ask for a cup of cold water, immediately we may
legally assume his guilt and drag him before the notary, who shall demand
that he "give a satisfactory account of himself." Satisfactory to whom
forsooth?'
Hmmm
Tim Cresswell
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