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What's the By-Law

Thursday 17 July 2014, 12:40AM

By Charity Matters

514 views

The Auckland Council By-Law about "peddling" "begging" appears to be not understood.

Something needs to be said about the heavy handedness of security patrols in the CBD when dealing with people asking for a wee bit of help for food or whatever.

Here's my personal recent expeience:

Walking along Queen St last night I encountered the following ... a chap sitting on the payement asking for help.

You know the type of people I mean, those less fortunate than many of us, those who may have no other means to get a buck or two to eat, clothe themselves or maybe, yes, shock horror buy a can or six to ease whatever it is they're going through.

True, it would be better that they weren't "self medicating" but hey, it's a fact of life.

Anyway, back to the main point of this rant.

Walking up Queen St tonight I see three security looking guys standing over a chap with a suitcase, hat and sign asking for help.

These three guys weren't being aggressive, but we standing over him telling him he needed to read the council bylaw which prohibits him from doing what he was doing.

He was sitting outside a shop - but still on the shop "premises".

I stood back to see what was going on, and decided after a few minutes to ask what the problem was - the "lead" security chap asked what business it was of mine - um, simple - I'm Joy Citizen who care about others.

I was then told it was a private matter and to move on ...

um, p*%$  off, I'm not moving on ... I said to myself.

So, I thought if this is a private matter I'd ask the chap being asked to move on (Gary) ... what he knew about what they were saying

He said he'd be told to move cos he was in breach of a council bylaw ... he had no idea which one, and the security guys kept just saying look it up online.

1 - this guy was asking for money to "live" - how was he going to get online?
2 - shouldn't - I'll call them thugs aka the security guys , have something on them, in writing that states the bylaw?
3 - shouldn't these thugs also have their ID clearly visible and not inside their vest?
4 - also, shouldn't these thugs also be honest when asked "do you work for the council or are a contractor" - to say they're council employees whilst wearing First Security uniforms - screams bovine excrement to me

How would you react if, when standing up for somoene if, you were told to "get away or I'll have you arrested for breach of the peace" ... maybe I should have hung around to see what would happen if the cops arrived ...