Amiens town hall will issue an order to prohibit
“on an experimental basis”
aggressive begging in the pedestrian city center, between May and August, Mayor (UDI) Brigitte Fouré said on Friday, explaining that she was responding to a request from traders. This decree will be limited in space and time, applied from May to August from Tuesday morning to Saturday evening, when businesses are open, in the pedestrian area of the city center, Fouré specified.
During workshops on the attractiveness of the city center,
“merchants complained about the behavior of certain homeless people, aggressive begging
,” she reported. As part of this decree, municipal police officers will be able to
“ask people to behave differently or to go elsewhere”
, the verbalization having little effect on them, according to the elected official.
"Inhuman"
Asked about the possible link of this measure with the Olympic Games and the potential displacement of homeless people during the summer, Fouré expressed the fear of
“seeing people who have nothing to do with (her) city and who would get there because they would be chased out of Paris, in particular
,” while emphasizing that they have no evidence in this direction at the moment.
In an open letter published on Facebook, members of the Amiens Citizen Maraudes called on the mayor not to implement this decree, deemed
“inhumane”
.
“Begging is not a pleasure or a career, it is a way of surviving
,” they protest. Anti-begging orders have already been issued by several French cities in recent years, such as in La Rochelle last June, but have often been overturned by the courts.