The left-wing Maine American Civil Liberties Union (Maine ACLU) has come out in opposition to a proposed ordinance in the City of Bangor that would ban people from loitering on narrow medians on high-volume or high-speed roads.
The proposal, considered on Monday by the Bangor City Council’s Government Operations Committee, would make amend the city’s loitering ordinance to make it unlawful “for any person to loiter, either alone or with others, on medians less than six feet wide in high-volume or high-speed traffic areas, due to safety concerns.”
According to a memo to the committee from Bangor City Solicitor David Szewczyk, enforcement of the proposed ordinance would be carried out by police or other law enforcement, and violators who fail to disperse from a median would be subject to fines from $100 to a maximum of $2,500.
In a Tuesday press release, the Maine ACLU argued that the proposed ordinance “would restrict free speech under the guise of public safety.”
“These restrictions are often passed in the name of public safety but are clearly designed to single out and criminalize unhoused and low-income community members,” the organization stated.
The Maine ACLU was successful in getting a similar “median ban” ordinance adopted by the City of Portland in 2013 struck down by a federal appeals court on constitutional grounds, following a lawsuit filed by the organization and the law firm Goodwin Procter LLP.
“Banning peaceful, non-threatening speech in public spaces violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” ACLU of Maine Executive Director Molly Curren Rowles said Tuesday. “Public spaces, such as streets and parks, are essential places for people to communicate ideas, discuss public questions, and exist as they are.”
“Cities should not be in the business of telling people where they can and cannot exercise their constitutional rights, and they certainly should not ban speech in long-standing forums for public dialogue,” Rowles said.
“Solicitation of charity,” or the panhandling by homeless people on narrow medians, is constitutionally protected free speech, according to the Maine ACLU.
The proposed amendment to Bangor’s anti-loitering ordinance is slated to be considered by the full City Council at their June 10 meeting.
The ACLU of Maine has previously joined with socialist protestors in Portland against the city’s policy of sweeping large homeless encampments that function as open-air drug markets and, according to Cumberland County District Attorney Jackie Sartoris, are rife with sexual assault against women.
Speaking before the Portland City Council last September, ACLU of Maine legal fellow Heather Zimmerman called the city’s encampment sweeps “inherently racist,” and demanded that the city stop “criminalizing homelessness.”
The organization has also claimed that clearing the homeless encampments violates the homeless individuals’ constitutional rights.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="28393 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=28393">6 Comments
Arrest the motorist who stops to make a contribution for creating traffic hazard even while stopped. You can’t use cell phone while stopped per Maine law, why should you be able to make a contribution. Go after the motorist, the panhandlers will leave the median.
Pass out IOU’s —- signed ACLU
The panhandlers at the ACLU, who can’t get jobs with legitimate law firms, wind up defending homeless panhandlers.
Common sense is dead with the left
It was not long ago that I read a column written by a undercover reporter that identified panhandlers in Portland as an organized business. They were put up in a motel fed and had to cut in the organizers with a portion of their take. They were guaranteed specific places on specific intersections to panhandle with no competition.
As soon as one of these panhandlers gets struck by a vehicle the ACLU will be the first to be there to sue the driver. What’s the difference between a dead skunk in the middle of the road and a dead aclu lawyer. There are skid marks in front of the skunk.