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Judge Orders End to Arrest of Beggars. Forgot to mark this article over the weekend. Recognized my favorite panhandler yesterday while waiting for the express train at GCT. Briefly considered walking over to offer my loose change, but I thought that would be a little weird since she wasn’t even in begging mode.

A federal judge ordered the New York City police, county prosecutors and state judges yesterday to stop arresting and punishing people who are peacefully begging on the streets, an order first issued nearly 13 years ago.

[snip]
Judge Sheindlin acted after a class-action lawsuit was filed showing that the Police Department had quietly but openly disregarded a ruling in 1992 by two federal courts that the state’s panhandling statute, the basis for arresting peaceful beggars, violated the First Amendment.