Panhandlers cited for using milk crates

To curb panhandling on Oakland streets, the Pitt police are looking to the law for alternative… To curb panhandling on Oakland streets, the Pitt police are looking to the law for alternative strategies. One method includes enforcing a state law that restricts the use of carts, cases, trays, baskets, boxes and other containers. Though the law has existed for at least two decades, the police have just applied it to panhandlers, said Pitt police chief Tim Delaney. Pitt police recently cited Roosevelt Lewis Bell for illegally using a milk crate and obstructing a sidewalk. Police have cited others for this offense, Delaney said. He added that the police use the law to encourage panhandlers to move away from Oakland streets and to allow other pedestrians to move freely. ‘As heavily traveled as the sidewalks are, if you put a crate down and sit on it, you’re obstructing a good portion of the sidewalk,’ he said. The law prevents people from taking crates that dairy companies use to transport milk to stores. Dairy companies and others that lend out or use crates and containers lost so many of these items that Pennsylvania passed a law specifically prohibiting their use without the owner’s permission, Delaney said. The law says that a person may not use a crate off the owner’s premises or in a nearby parking lot without permission. In addition, the crate must be marked with the owner’s name or mark. Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he doesn’t know of any instances of police enforcing this law. ‘I’ve never heard of this law being enforced and certainly not in this context,’ said Walczak. ‘It appears that Pitt police are using this law as a pretext to harass panhandlers.’ This application could constitute harassment, because police use the law for something other than its original purpose and typically don’t contact the owner, he said. Walczak also questioned the police’s application of Pennsylvania’s obstruction statute. The law defines ‘obstructs’ as ‘renders impassable without unreasonable inconvenience or hazard.’ The individual would have to occupy the sidewalk to the point so that people walking couldn’t easily step around, said Walczak. Delaney said the police must ask the individual if he owns the milk crate and almost always, the person tells the officer he doesn’t. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘In most cases, they admit that it’s not theirs,’ he said. ‘They don’t want the hassle.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ If the person claimed to own the crate, the police would call the contact number on the side of the crate and ask the owner if the person had permission, said Delaney.’ The offense carries a fine up to $300, he said, but a judge wouldn’t typically impose the fine against first-time offenders. Panhandlers sitting on milk crates and blocking the sidewalk haven’t affected Duquesne University. As a private university, Duquesne can avoid this problem, said Nick Okopal of the Duquesne University police. The police can remove any trespassers from the campus at any time. ‘We’ll kick people off, and if they come back, we charge them with defiant trespass,’ he said. Delaney said Pitt police use this law because panhandlers typically will not practice aggressive tactics with police officers around, so they have a hard time catching aggressive panhandlers in the act. ‘We’re trying to protect their constitutional rights, but yours at the same time,’ he said.