Criminalising begging is one of the nastiest and most counterproductive things any government body can do, so it’s sad to see that Alice Springs is planning just that:
The by-laws will give council rangers powers to fine people who are begging $130.
The Director of Corporate and Community Services, Craig Catchlove, says the fines will send out a strong message. “That’s up to them to figure out how to pay it,” he said.
Isn’t that nice?
Faced with the disturbing sight of an old woman begging for food, Mr Catchlove was seized by the need to DO SOMETHING. So he had her dragged away and fined.
While Mr Catchlove is roasting in his special place later this century, he might like to muse on what exactly punishing the poorest and most desperate in the community actually achieves, other than to make them even more wretched and vulnerable to abuse by the unscrupulous and cruel.
UPDATE: Another ironically-named petty tyrant here.
Moved On 
If you’d like to let Mr Catchlove know your thoughts on his initiative, why not respond here:
http://www.alicesprings.nt.gov.au/contact/
As it’s a general council contact page, be sure to be specific and his colleagues will enjoy seeing the feedback also : )
Good idea. I’ve contributed the following:
“I was appalled to hear today that the Alice Springs council is considering fining beggars. I checked the calendar and looked out the window, and was reassured that we’re living in Australia in 2009, not Dickensian London, which made the news even more astonishing.
Punishing the most desperate and wretched people in the community for being desperate enough to beg is one of the most disgraceful things an authority can do. It pushes the poor further into the cracks, it makes their situation more hopeless, it makes them more vulnerable, it pushes many into crime and it pushes others into starvation.
The ironically-named Mr Catchlove and other members of the council who are proposing this heavy-handed and inhuman bylaw should be ashamed of themselves.
Seriously, just think for a moment what you are contemplating doing. Is this why you went into public service? To make the situation of the least fortunate in society even worse?
Please, reconsider.”
Too bad the Chaser team have been axed!
They could have gone to the streets of The Alice and ‘begged’ people to smile or sing a happy song or walk with better posture.
I wonder what General Catchlove would have done then?
Cheers
Is this why you went into public service?
I’d be willing to bet that Mr. Catchlove went straight from the local Chamber of Commerce into the local Council with the promise to rehabilitate the CBD and make it more amenable to shoppers.
His manner of doing so would obviously include moving on the ‘drunk niggers in the park’ and the ‘begging deros on the street’.
So, essentially, yes, that’s why he went into public service.
Methinks that he shares the same concept of ‘public’ as does Wilson Tuckey.
Cheers
I can’t understand how anybody other than a sadist would support such laws.
Don’t you love our world where we bail out banks with public funds and fine people with no money. WTF and where the fuck are we headed a race. No wonder the kids are killing themselves.
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To fail to have any awareness of, any empathy for what it must do to a person’s dignity to have to resort to begging means this dude is unfit for public office. I’m going to use that link to send my thoughts along too. They may not think they need to take any notice of me because I don’t live in the NT and therefore don’t vote there, but I will make a point of passing this piece of information on to anyone I know who is thinking of visiting the place as a tourist.
I agree with this. Melbourne City Council could well do the same thing, as I’m rapidly tiring of not being able to walk through the streets without having someone demand (not ask) for money.
If someone is in genuine need of assistance or food, there are plenty of charities out there who can assist.
Or perhaps the beggars can get off their fucking arses and go find work. Easier said than done, I know, but still.
Melbourne police can do the same thing, and do – read my earlier post on the subject.
It’s barbarous and inhumane.
It makes me really angry …
I’m assuming that Andy is being sarcastic. Either that, or his empathy neuron just short-circuited.
I’m with the fascists here. Begging is only acceptable when people are genuinely at risk of starving to death or dying of exposure on the mean streets. That’s the case in America – home of the rich and f*** the rest – but not in Australia. We have Centrelink – even without a fixed residential address, payments can be accorded to any humanoid entity who’s in dire circumstances. That’s what we pay the taxes for. It’s a welfare safety-net, which serves a purpose in looking after the destitute. So, then, why the begging? Because: “It works in America (we’ve seen it in the movies) so why not try it in Australia?” And it usually works – it doesn’t save the beggar’s life – it’s just “pocket money”, on top of the Centrelink allowance, to spend on whatever keeps them sane. This is not America – lives do NOT depend on the income derived from begging.
It makes no sense to criminalise begging. It’s a waste of the court’s time and taxpayer’s money.
On the other hand, much of the begging in Melbourne, at least, is related more to substance use than anything else. Begging seems to be on the increase. When I’ve been approached by people purporting to be homeless, I’ve offered to give the details of emergency accommodation services, and have been treated with contempt every time.
Centrelink is not as helpful as some might think – getting payments whilst transient, or in a short period of time still proves to be a challenge for most genuinely homeless people. Stable accommodation for the destitute is also in dire under-supply. But I think we need to move away from charity, and the pretensions of noblesse oblige, and instead try to build systemic remedies for those who want them.
Not had many dealings with Centrelink, have you Donovan?
“Or perhaps the beggars can get off their fucking arses and go find work. Easier said than done, I know, but still.”
You ever tried talking to someone who asks you for money, rather than sneering at them or ignoring them? It’s not ‘easier said than done’, often it is simply impossible. Nobody voluntarily begs. Almost nobody prefers begging to regular employment. People forced to beg are almost always the absolute worst-off, people who have absolutely nothing left. It’s a situation most of us can’t even begin to imagine, and comments like that betray an astounding arrogance and ignorance.
“Itās a welfare safety-net, which serves a purpose in looking after the destitute.”
Pfft. Theoretically, yes. In practice, no. I’m a tertiary-educated middle class Australian-born bloke (studying law, what’s more), and it took me six months to convince Centrelink to pay me an allowance to which I was demonstrably entitled. I was lucky – my parents could afford to support me. If they couldn’t, maybe I would have ended up on the streets too.
How people who are less-well educated, who have no knowledge of legal/bureaucratic systems, who don’t have English as a first language, who have come from deeply disadvantaged backgrounds etc are supposed to navigate that system I cannot imagine.
No, actually, I’m being quite serious. For the reasons mentioned in my initial post.
Donovan, Andy – you’re mistaken about the universality of our “safety net”. Read Tim and THR’s comments.
Not to mention the huge numbers on our streets who are mentally ill and currently do not have the wherewithal to organise their lives in any meaningful way.
In addition to the mentally ill, there are many young people who have fled violence and abuse at home, who are suspicious of authorities and their intentions and feel they are safer on the streets than they are at home.
There are the substance-abusers and those who have come from a lifetime (and often it is generational) of poverty and disadvantage.
I don’t think it is possible to sheet home well enough to any of us on here – who have lived in relative privilege – how that sort of background just grinds a person down so they have no self-esteem, no hope for the future, no confidence that their life will ever amount to anything. It’s all well and good saying do this or do that, but some people, especially those who are illiterate or who have little education, struggle to do the most basic things the rest of us take for granted.
It’s a different world, and there but for the grace …
Two other things to keep in mind: one, we have nowhere near the number of mental health facilities or homeless shelters we need for the demand. There simply aren’t enough beds. And those beds there are are well-known as being unsafe for the vulnerable.
Secondly, by criminalising begging we turn the police into people for the desperate to fear – which makes them easy prey for bullies, thugs and other abusers. They can be made to feel that they have no-one to whom they can turn – because they’re “criminals” just like the people attacking them.
Again, criminalising begging is AN APPALLING IDEA.
reminds me of the simpsons episode where homer watches the promo video on cypress creek and the hobo turns into a post box
“i wish someone would clean up this town!”
To those who haven’t had to face near/potential/actual beggers existance …
anyone of you can become a homeless beggar with around three weeks of really really bad luck
btw – there is NO safety net in oz after howard + co had their way with the social security system.
There used to be a brilliant program called the Personal Support Program for people like the lady in the picture. Referrals were made from Centrelink to community agencies who would work with clients for two years or more, addressing all the issues in their lives that had led them to this point, nurture them, care for them, quarantine them from the depredations of the Centrelink system for a time, get them back on their feet gradually and with care and understanding, then send them on their way back into mainstream society. It worked brilliantly for a large proportion of clients.
The fucking Rudd government abolished it, and returned us to the good old days of “getting a fucking job you bludger”.
The bastards should hang their heads in shame.
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Um, just went to the Alice Springs Town Council meeting. Proposed bylaws passed and up for public discussion for 28 days. Basically almost all the aldermen and women (with one notable exception – she is a Greens member) were primarily concerned witt law and order. At this meeting, councillors gave themselves and each other lots of pats on the back for Finally Doing Something about law and order.
Other topics of major major concern to our elected petty officials were kids being allowed to swim in the Todd when it actually flows (there is a proposed bylaw about swimming in unauthorised places) and small business owners being slugged for time and money, and potentially being fined for not removing graffiti fast enough.
Not much said (except by the one notable exception) on the draconian and harsh aspects of these proposed bylaws.
Karl, your comment really and unfortunately sums up the opinion of too many people here in Alice Springs.
I don’t know exactly how I did the pingback. sorry. Still new to blogging and wordpress.
Cheers for that Dinana. I’m going to refer to this in a post; I think it should be noted more widely, particularly if, as you say, the vast majority of those councillors seem to agree with this mind-bogglingly inhumane idea.
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Catchlove encourages “community groups” to apply (beg/ask) for a grant (money), yet wants to fine those who do the same! Catchlove is a hypocrite!
http://www.alicesprings.nt.gov.au/your_council/media_centre/media_releases/community_grants_cheques_delivered
“…Director Corporate and Community Services Craig Catchlove said Council is proud to support local community groups and community projects.
ā…I congratulate the successful applicants for this round of grants, and encourage other community groups to apply for the next funding round,ā Mr. Catchlove said…”