About Those 17 'Panhandling' Deaths …

As promised in this week's edition of Beside the Point, detailing the solicitation debate at City Council last meeting, here's that day's remarks from Rebecca Berhardt of the ACLU of Texas. It pokes major holes in the talking-point that the year's pedestrian-traffic deaths were related to panhandling.

… I would also like to address an issue raised by the police, the issue of one-third of the folks that were the victims of traffic deaths violating the pedestrian in the roadway rule, meaning jaywalkers … not just people who happen to be asking for money near a street. I went through all 17 incidents for 2007 … Five of them occurred between 2am and 5am, not a time when people are asking for money. Five were jaywalkers, that is, people who tried to cross a major street in the middle of a block. Doesn’t sound like somebody is asking for money in an intersection. One man was killed because he was asleep under a truck at four in the morning. Probably homeless and probably not asking for money. One person was killed crossing I-35 on foot. Clearly not a good idea. Probably not connected to asking for money. There were also two pedestrians who were hit by cars when they were walking on a frontage rolled of a major highway, I-35. One was walking with a woman and a baby and a baby caravan – only the man was killed. Also doesn’t sound like somebody asking for money. I think this city has a serious public safety problem and sounds like it needs sidewalks and cross walks and traffic lights … And we would like to see no more antisolicitation ordinances. Thank you.