Beggar wins free-speech case!

[You know, I think this is fine and everything, but one time I had a panhandler ask me for money, and I was on the phone so I couldn't give him any, and he yelled, "You can shove that cell phone up your ass!" Rude.]

(05-31) 09:47 PDT New Rochelle, N.Y. (AP) -- A homeless man who was arrested after asking a policeman for a dollar got a judge to throw out the case by arguing that begging is a form of free speech.

Judge Gail Rice made the ruling after Eric Hoffstead had his lawyer cite a 15-year-old federal court decision saying New York state's loitering law violated First Amendment protections.

"This is a great victory for freedom of speech," said Hoffstead's lawyer, Carl Birman.

Hoffstead was still in the county jail Thursday on a separate trespassing charge.

The ruling Wednesday nullified a loitering charge and a misdemeanor drug charge. Police said they found a crack cocaine pipe on Hoffstead, 36, when he was arrested last November.

The 1992 case applied specifically to enforcement in New York City, and the state law, which prohibits begging in a public place, had never been changed. But when Hoffstead, who has been arrested 20 times in Westchester County, read about the case, he asked Birman to bring it up in court.

Rice's ruling echoed the 1992 decision.

What about my freedom of being left the fuck alone by scary bums?

How did it nullify a drug charge?

I agree. I don't mind if someone asks for money, hell I usually try to give them some, but the ones that harass you if you don't really fucking piss me off.

Yes, scary guy outside of the gas station, it is very possible that I don't have any money on me. Calling me a bitch won't make me magically shit quarters for you.

Oh, it's there, right next to the freedom of sitting on my ass all day without being bothered amendment.

Let's hear from somebody in the UK about scary bums! They have a few of 'em over there, but it's something else entirely.

It's my understanding that most rulings on this sort of thing say that it's free speech to ask for money, but that aggressive, harrassing panhandling is a no-no. So, are the bums scary for all the wrong reasons?

it's in there. keep looking.