An Ohio man is fighting a littering charge that he says he got after the dollar he tried to give a disabled person at a Cleveland intersection fell to the ground, WJW-TV reports.
John Davis says he was cited for littering, which carries a $344 fine, rather than for giving money to a panhandler, which carries a much smaller penalty.
Davis, who pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in a Cleveland court, tells WJW that he was pulled over by a police officer after handing the money to the panhandler, who was in a wheelchair and holding a religious sign.
douchebag
First major cities have banned feeding the homeless, and now this.
Starving them out of existence appears to be the agenda.
On the other hand, I can see where a worthless dollar might conceivably be considered as litter.
HA!
FTW!
“The law in its magistracy prohibits the rich man and the poor man alike from sleeping under bridges.” /// forget who said it, and probably only close to accurate. But the idea is there.
It is class warfare. So many ways that poverty is being criminalized – – – – when the truth is just the opposite.
Yea, verily.
Matthew 7:15
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
Le Lys Rouge [The Red Lily] (1894), ch. 7
Ahhh, thanks skeptic. So, our equality in society is more far reaching than I remember?
Looks like I gots some readin to do.
How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.
–Adolf Hitler
Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice.
–Adolf Hitler
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.
In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
–Confucius
Around here, they’ve made it illegal to sleep anywhere in a public place – like a park!
First, let me say I hate to see anyone get killed for any reason. But whenever I see a cop get mowed down by a criminal I kind of want to cheer a little. Then I want to apologize to the cop’s family since murder is definitely not the answer. But NOT to the cops! (Stories like this should give you a pretty good clue as to why.)
So calling that cop a douchebag is almost polite. Personally, I hope the next time that “pig” issues a ticket that it puts him off the force – forever! I just hope it’s not six-feet under.
Can someone please tell me why nearly every total douchebag seems to emanate from Ohio? I’m sure there are plenty of nice people there, but nearly every douchebag I’ve ever met or even heard of either comes from Ohio or has ties there somehow. Could the reason be due to their cops?!
Not every douche comes from Ohio. I’ve met a few from Cleveland.
You’re obviously not talking about the Cleveland that’s in Ohio, so which state has the Cleveland where you met those few douches?
It was…… it was…… ok, you got me. It was in Cleveland Ohio. But I got confused because they had just moved from Akron.
Cop was probably off his quota that month.
They don’t have quotas anymore, they can write as many as they want.
The people are hungry: It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes.
–Lao Tzu
When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish.
–Lao Tzu
My pet peeve:
garbage trucks.
When you follow a garbage truck all kinds of crap flies out! What gives? If we citizens did the same theing, we’d get a steep ticket.
John, your link to the story is gone. Posted it below.
The guy was in a wheelchair at a highway exit ramp. The dollar hit him at 80 mph.
From the Toronto sun:
“A Cleveland man was busted for littering after he dropped a $1 bill on the ground.
John Davis said he stretched his arm out his car window to hand some money to a wheelchair-bound panhandler at a highway exit ramp, reports Fox 8. Davis said he felt for the man, who was holding a sign that read, “Jesus loves you. Please help.”
“Obviously he’s needing some money or he wouldn’t be out there,” he told the news outlet.
He rolled up some bills lengthwise and held them out. One of the bills fell to the ground, and the indigent man picked it up.
A short time later, a cop pulled Davis over and ticketed him for the offence of “Throw paper out window,” and in parenthesis, “money to panhandler,” the report said.
The combined fine and court costs could tally $500, and the would-be good Samaritan told Fox 8 he plans to challenge the ticket in court.”
It isn’t littering. He’s not throwing trash away.
He’s giving money to the indigent man. The indigent man picked up the money and kept it.
I’d like to see a court decision on this.
Corporations can give to money to political campaigns because they, the corporations, are – something like – “people”.
Well, here’s a case of a person through an act of charity giving money to another person.
What’s next? Making it illegal to give money to charities that help the homeless? Legally, I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch.
The homeless need a super PAC.
The value of the U.S. dollar is apparently the equivalent of worthless trash.
He should have flipped him a Kuwaiti dinar.
hey giving money to the homeless will become illegal everywhere… here is the deal as to why i think this happened
the first casino to open in ohio was in cleveland, just a few weeks ago.. how dare anyone should piss away money on panhandlers when the casino should have that cash instead. there has been a huge crackdown on loitering and pan handlers around public square in cleveland (site of casino), oddly the casino has not committed to the area, the renovated an old department store, that way they have to invest less into the area and when it no longer becomes profitable they can jump ship and leave. (they have tried to alter their deal with the city several times) my guess is they will bleed the community dry and bail asap, there was to be a new casino built nearby, but there hasnt been any talk about that lately… gee i wonder why?? 😛
just another way to screw the old manufacturing cities, and bleed money from the area.
That will teach him, no good deed goes unpunished…
C0p should be ashamed of himself. Charity is now considered littering? The intersection may be busy, but that’s not a reason to ticket a motorist for compassion. Just inform and warn seems to be the human action the p.o. could have taken. Maybe he’s more swine than human.
I guess helping the needy starve is the top priority for some enforcement agencys. Did the swine take the money into evidence.
Brown vs. Kelly, no. 05-CV-5442, 2007 WL 2156400.
United States Supreme Court affirmed (without hearing) the right of all persons to beg, whether an individual or an organization and that those rights are protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
Stated was the fact that local governments have other means to control aggressive beggars, (such as assault, private property and fraud laws,) but that begging or holding a sign in any public forum, (i.e. sidewalk or intersection) may not be prohibited.
the panhandler should be fined for holding up a religious sign.
That would be unconstitutional.
First Amendment.
Panhandling is a lucrative business for churches.
They don’t like it much when homeless people cut into their revenue stream.
Call me an unsympathetic republican but panhandling at a freeway ramp is wrong and should remain outlawed.
You are an unsympathetic republican.
and a douche
.. that’s being redundant. What else ya got?
Helping the poor is an activity regulated by the government, as they do not want the people dependent on anyone other than the government, so they can then vote for the people in charge of the government.
This ticket is merely the consequence of thinking rich=criminal.
How Much Does A Panhandler Really Make?
First let me explain how much money a panhandler can expect to make. When I was panhandling I could expect to make between $15 to $30/hr. The average was closer to $15 than $30. Some days I had really good days. Some days I panhandled all day and barely made $60. Other days I made $10 in 2 hrs before I was chased off by the police.
When you are panhandling you can’t expect to make a certain amount of money. You will get disappointed. You can’t expect people to give you money because once you do you get letdown. When the average person goes to work they pretty much know how much money they are going to make by the end of the day. With panhandling this is impossible to figure.
Cops don’t have much to do in Ohio.
Do you want to know why this is “illegal”?
Answer: The IRS isn’t getting their cut.
And in case you didn’t realize it, the government is our really our pimp! We are all just a bunch of prostitutes who have to pay the pimp his cut. The IRS and any law enforcement are merely the muscle behind the pimp who beat your ass when you don’t come up with the money or try and screw with him. So when we give money to each other it’s like one prostitute giving money to another prostitute and where the pimp is cut out! Therefore, you better not get caught.
If you think like a douchebag (or a lawyer) then the government makes perfect sense.
[Link to article broken — working links below.]
Two weeks later, the charges were dropped, the prosecutor saying he didn’t think currency was trash.
I don’t entirely blame this officer — cities have been fighting the blight that comes with too many beggars, and there are safety issues with begging by a roadside, especially on or near freeways. The officers on the street are under pressure to minimize this as much as possible. Either he or his supervisor or maybe even someone in the prosecutor’s office probably thought this was a clever way to do it. Unfortunately for them (fortunately for the man ticketed), this particular instance made the news, with just the right ingredients to go viral, so they had to admit it was a step too far and back off.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Broken links repaired:
Oops, the blog software thinks a post with three URLs is spam. So for the first broken link, edit the link in the story by deleting everything before “content.usatoday.com” and we’ll see if it will allow _two_ URLs
link from that story to the original TV station news article
http://fox8.com/2012/05/22/man-ticketed-for-dropping-money-on-the-ground/
link from _that_ story to the “ticket dropped” story
http://fox8.com/2012/05/31/good-samaritans-ticket-fight-continues/
Fuck the cops and Fuck the prosecutor and Fuck the judge
That pretty much covers it.
hey, you left me out.
cops just do whatever politicans want
I think a Jury can differentiate between a dollar bill and litter – the cop should be reprimanded !!!