The First Amendment.
The embodiment of our freedoms. It’s what separates us from the Visigoths and the North Koreans. Religion, speech, press, assembly, petition. Our underpinnings.
None, of course, are absolute. All, of course, imply responsibilities as well as rights. Some, of course, will necessarily be confrontational and controversial. A few, of course, will seem incompatible with the common good, if not common sense.
To wit: the disgusting Terri Schaivo TV parody. Or the unconscionable, anti-gay protestors unfurling “Thank God For Dead Soldiers” signage at a Marine’s funeral service. Or “adult” entertainment that demeans meaningful definitions of freedom of expression. It’s part of our American, societal fabric — and legal support system.
Now another problematic, albeit much more pedestrian, First Amendment application.
Tampa recently refined its street solicitor code. Used to be that those soliciting for charities and selling newspapers in the medians of busy intersections had to be a certain age (18), operate only during daylight hours and not linger when the light turned green. Now such individuals must also sport a safety vest.
And add this subplot: such individuals now include panhandlers — once they’ve been vested in neon orange, yellow or lime green.
No one intended this as a panhandler-helper act, but that’s the upshot. But what can a free-speech venerating municipality do? Accommodate those asking for charitable donations but not those asking for a spare-change handout? Hardly. Abridge no one’s rights. Apparently City Hall’s legal department has tied City Council’s collective hands and manacled its minds.
The code update comes from a good place: safety. A more visible, Home Depo-tized solicitor is a safer solicitor. But it comes — ironically — at the expense of, well, safety. What is needed is not a marginally less-dangerous scenario for all roadside solicitors. That, in effect, only perpetuates an inherently unsafe scenario. What is needed is the removal of ALL such solicitors. That’s safety we can believe in.
Whether they are booted firefighters, garden-variety panhandlers or Philly-style soft pretzel hawkers, nobody belongs in the middle of the street transacting anything. That’s why St. Petersburg banned such accidents-in-the-offing two years ago.
This is no time to go all ACLU about the First Amendment. It’s a time for common sense. It speaks volumes when the City Council member most outspoken on this issue is Joseph Caetano, hardly its most insightful member.
In a refreshingly nuance-free rationale, Caetano said the city should just flat-out ban anybody peddling anything in the middle of the street. What a concept.
The alternative is to continue to ban common sense and traffic in misapplied legal rationales.