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- <text id=90TT1295>
- <title>
- May 21, 1990: American Notes:New York City
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- May 21, 1990 John Sununu:Bush's Bad Cop
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 33
- American Notes
- NEW YORK CITY
- Begging the Question
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Though often hellish for riders, New York City's subways
- have long been a heaven for panhandlers, who can enjoy a
- captive clientele of hundreds of passengers when they board a
- train. (Some riders, after all, are not hardened against being
- dunned for donations.) Because these discomforting
- confrontations tend to drive down ridership while increasing
- panhandlership, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last
- year decided to enforce rules that ban begging underground as
- well as in other public-transport facilities.
- </p>
- <p> Then in January a federal judge struck down the authority's
- new policy, ruling that it violated the beggars' right to free
- speech. But last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second
- Circuit reinstated the ban, ruling that far from being a form
- of speech, begging seems an "assault" and a "detriment" to the
- common good. That's bound to cheer many a subway user, but it
- leaves the panhandlers without much to be thankful for.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-