Mark Faulk sues for his right to Panhandle
"Among those listed as plaintiffs include Calvin McCraw, who sells The Curbside Chronicle in Oklahoma City; Wayne Marshall; activist and filmmaker Mark Faulk; jogger Neal Schindler; the Oklahoma Libertarian Party; and Red Dirt Report."
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Oklahoma City responds to ACLU lawsuit over 'panhandling ordinance'
Sarah Hussain / Red Dirt Report
Legal director of the ACLU-OK addresses the media at the OKC Municipal Building in April after filing a lawsuit against the city over anti-panhandling ordinance.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- In response to a lawsuit filed against the city of Oklahoma City by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma that says a new anti-panhandling ordinance violates free-speech rights and specifically targets the poor, attorneys for the city filed a formal response that the ordinance instead protects the public.
Attorneys for Oklahoma City filed a 25-page response Wednesday in U.S. District Court, claiming that the ordinance passed in December is clear and tailored to achieve goals to protect public safety.
The ordinance, which prohibits standing or staying in traffic medians, has raised the ire of not only those championing the rights of panhandlers, but also other entities that use medians for political activism, media and more.
The city’s response claims that the ACLU’s complaints are not relevant to how the ordinance reads and the city is not required to prove that medians and intersections are dangerous.
However, while the intersections and medians are prohibited from being used by vendors, panhandlers and others, some entities – like the firefighters’ Fill the Boot collections for muscular dystrophy – remain legal.
“I think the clear takeaway to their answer is that there is a critical dispute forming that a judge will have to resolve,” said Brady Henderson, legal director for ACLU Oklahoma. “If you look at the actions leading up to this, we feel there is clear evidence that it is anti-panhandling and criminalization of poverty. They don’t see it that way. That’s where we have a clear dispute.”
The 50-page lawsuit filed April 13 by ACLU Oklahoma claims that the ordinance targets panhandlers and the poor for special prosecution and criminalization. In addition, because it limits media presence on medians, it also violates free speech and free press.
Among those listed as plaintiffs include Calvin McCraw, who sells The Curbside Chronicle in Oklahoma City; Wayne Marshall; activist and filmmaker Mark Faulk; jogger Neal Schindler; the Oklahoma Libertarian Party; and Red Dirt Report.
“The story of this ordinance is complicated, it’s challenging and it’s difficult, but at its core, it is rotten,” said Henderson when the lawsuit was filed. “It was an ordinance that was done in a mean-spirited way, in a dishonest way, and it is that taint among other issues that will cause the courts to strike it down.”
Ward 6 Councilwoman Meg Salyer authored the measure that keeps all people off city medians after receiving complaints from citizens and local businesses. Exceptions to the rule are medians that are 30 feet wide and located more than 200 feet away from benches, intersections or other public use features.
By a 7-2 vote, the Oklahoma City council approved an ordinance in April that requires panhandlers to back 50 feet from any mass transit or school bus stop. A 20-foot buffer zone remains for public outdoor areas and cafes, pay phones, ATMs and other public-use areas.
The law will keep a 20-foot buffer zone intact around public outdoor seating areas and cafes as well as ATMs, public toilets and pay phones.
In December, the council voted to remove panhandlers and others from most city medians. It deferred a vote on the new ordinance numerous times before the April decision.
Calvin McCraw, who sells the “homeless” magazine The Curbside Chronicle, said he used to sell 30 to 50 issues a day at a corner at Classen and Northwest Expressway. After the ordinance passed, he says he can only sell three to 10 a day.
Curbside Chronicle vendor Calvin McCraw is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Oklahoma City. (Sarah Hussain / Red Dirt Report)
“I was homeless, and someone gave me a card for The Curbside Chronicle when I was panhandling,” said McCraw, who became homeless after he lost his job due to an injury. “I just got into housing, but now I’m not able to pay the fines for this, pay my rent, and I’m barely getting by.”
Red Dirt Report owner and editor Andrew W. Griffin said he is surprised that more media outlets are not highlighting the likely free speech violations posed by the city’s unconstitutional ordinance.
“Red Dirt Report may be the only publication in Oklahoma City pointing out how this so-called ‘safety ordinance’ is an attack on the poor, homeless, pet owners, joggers, protesters, and even the media,” Griffin said. “And when we cannot do our job – even when it involves us standing and reporting an event from a median, as we have done in the past – we are shortchanging our readers and the public at large. It is because of that threat against the First Amendment by the reactionary City Council that we agreed to join the ACLU’s lawsuit.”
Joseph Thai, independent counsel for all plaintiffs, said the ordinance is a “targeted” crackdown on speech for everyone, not just the poor or homeless.
“It just multiplies the constitutional violations,” Thai said.
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