Streets, Like Rights, There For Everyone

It’s been about a month since a group of Spokane businesses approached the city, seeking a Seattle-style ordinance to ban sitting or lying on certain sidewalks.

And although Seattle has already been through the rigors of getting the courts’ blessing on the tactic, the Spokane City Council is still waiting to see an ordinance.

Good.

The idea here, as it was in Seattle, is to eliminate “passive panhandling” and thereby cleanse the streets of odd-looking and acting young people who make respectable shoppers and workers uneasy. Problem is, odd-looking and acting young people are citizens, too, and entitled to occupy a reasonable share of the community’s public space, even if their pockets aren’t full of credit cards and spending money.

That gives them no right to threaten, intimidate or harass law-abiding citizens, which is why the city has an effective ordinance against aggressive panhandling. Police say that ordinance is having a positive effect.

Unfortunately, the Downtown Spokane Partnership didn’t consult with law enforcement officials before putting the latest proposal forward. Police would have explained, and they now have, that the behaviors complained of arise out of complex circumstances. A heavy-handed response might be justifiable for true miscreants but it also might have tragic consequences for desperate kids who are fleeing abusive homes and who might be driven into the arms of peril.

At present, the merchants group and police are looking together for a viable ordinance, one that will focus on truly menacing behavior and give police a chance to deal with the problems behind it. Downtown businesses have a legitimate stake in maintaining a safe and inviting climate for their customers and employees. Police have a duty to deal with law breakers. And the City Council has as a responsibility to give them the tools. But the police already have numerous tools, the aggressive panhandling ordinance being a good example. Any new laws must be shown to be necessary and they must be reasonable.

Declaring inherently benign conduct a crime just to rid the streets of people who practice it invites police to engage in a dangerous level of selective enforcement.

If the City Council decides a new ordinance is called for, it should remember that there are greater threats to the quality of civic life than a slow business day.