Atlanta is debating a proposal to arrest and fine people who are homeless and panhandling. The proposal is a bad one that criminalizes people who are homeless but does nothing to help people lift themselves out of poverty.
A hearing was held today, reports the Associated Press, where critics of the plan forced the city council to hold off adopting the measure.
…when people got a chance to address the council, many of them painted the ordinance as evil, even an affront to God.
``You're going to answer to a divine authority!'' shouted the Rev. Richard Cobble of Concerned Black Clergy, waving a finger at the council as he accused them of targeting the poor.
The proposal would make it illegal to beg for money near downtown hotels or tourist sites. On a third offense, beggars could be jailed or fined.
The plan has sparked intense opposition from advocates for the poor and civil rights groups. On the other side are downtown business owners, who say aggressive beggars are keeping people away from the central business district.
Atlanta ought to spend their great resources creating affordable housing and support services for people who are homeless instead of investing time and resources to create crimes to charge them with.
Rev. Cobble is correct that this is a religious issue.
Lee Griffith wrote in The Fall of the Prison (Wipf and Stock Publishers: Eugene, 1999) that:
The Bible does not present crime as the problem of a few evil individuals within society, nor does it suggest that the answer to crime is to apprehend and lock up all the bad people. We cannot pretend that the problem is a hundred or a thousand or a million bad people. The Bible links crime with a crisis in the fabric of society. We are corporately responsible. More often than not, offenders are merely reflecting the idolatrous values of the larger community. Any of us who pretend that prison bars separate the good from the bad need to be reminded of the manner in which Jesus equated anger with murder and sexual objectification with rape and oaths with perjury (Matt. 5).
The crime Atlanta – and all our cities – should be dealing with is the crime of poverty that forces hundreds of people (including children) into the streets. I hope Atlanta gets that message.
Related Link: Illegal to be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States
November 2004
