Controversy in sight? The city of Amiens announced this Monday that it wanted to implement an anti-begging decree on an experimental basis, between May and August 2024, reports France Bleu. A decision which, according to the town hall, responds to the requests of several merchants in the city center.
“Sometimes, we have homeless people who can be aggressive and who can have the effect of chasing customers away from businesses,” explains Brigitte Fouré, mayor (UDI) of Amiens to the radio station. The order will be limited to several streets in the city center, which are not yet known.
Aggressive begging
It aims to curb the possible aggressiveness of the homeless. “Either homeless people stay where they are and behave correctly, or they have to go elsewhere,” emphasizes Brigitte Fouré. But is a decree necessary for this type of problem?
Last year, during an appeal to the administrative court against an order “limiting the occupation of public space” taken by the mayor (LR) of Angoulême, in Charente, the lawyer for the League of Human Rights the man had specified that “nocturnal noise, public drunkenness, aggressive begging were offenses already provided for in the Penal Code”.
It is true that the courts regularly reject municipal decrees that prevent the poor from begging.