Editor's Blog Jan 04th 2012
Street Justice
Every morning I walk into town via Land Port Tunnel, every morning I have to run the gauntlet of vagrants lining the walls of the tunnel, with their little boxes with a few copper coins put in them for effect.
Some are musicians, to a degree, while others have all the musical talent of a fish with a trombone!
In the evening I walk back via the same route and, while most of the morning crew have gone to wherever it is they go, there is another group doing more or less the same thing, but with two distinct differences; One, they are very obviously intoxicated. Two, the instruments have gone.
There has been a lot of traffic on social media these past few days about the increase of begging not only in town but also at places of work, restaurants, mainly in the Casemates area and, more disturbingly, at private residences. As a people we are very generous and that is why we now seem to have a problem.
You see, word has got out that we like to give our money away, and every vagrant from La Linea to Ukraine appear to like the free money so much they have decided to stay! I am all for street performances, they add colour and character to the town, but plain old begging just sends the wrong image to the many visitors that grace our town daily.
In most large cities across the world if you are a genuine street performer you will require a permit, which is normally issued by the Ministry of Culture's equivalent, for a small fee. This permit system would keep beggars off our streets. Persons without a permit can then be asked to move along by our Police Force and persistent offenders can be then prosecuted by our justice system.
I wonder if this is in place already and not being enforced?
Ed.
