http://www.wsbtv.com/news/4947673/detail.html


Asking For Help Lands Evacuee In Jail

POSTED: 7:42 am EDT September 8, 2005
UPDATED: 7:51 am EDT September 8, 2005

Atlanta -- A man who fled Louisiana with his family to escape Hurricane Katrina has been arrested in Atlanta for asking motorists for money.

James Scott says he had slept in his car for days with his brother, sister and her two young children before they decided to ask for help last Thursday.

Nearly broke, the family drove to Buckhead on Thursday and got out near Lenox Square mall, hoping for the charity of others.

Scott says he asked passing motorists for help for about half an hour before he was approached by a policeman on a bicycle. Scott showed the officer his Louisiana driver's license, his car tag and his car registration -- proof that he was not a local homeless person, but an evacuee down on his luck in an unfamiliar city. He was arrested for soliciting.

Scott says the officer gave him $7.00 as he was taken to jail.

Atlanta Police Department spokesman John Quigley says soliciting on a public sidewalk is allowed, but NOT in traffic. He says he is NOT aware of any increase in panhandling arrests in Atlanta since the hurricane.

Last month, Mayor Shirley Franklin signed into law a panhandling ban around tourist destinations in parts of downtown Atlanta, not the area where Scott was arrested. The ordinance drew noisy protests from opponents who declared the ban was a mean-spirited way to hide the city's homeless population
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