Surely This Isn't Rocket Science!

I don't mean to seem disrespectful, but is the City of Toronto for real handing out panhandling tickets and wondering why the number of tickets issued might be skyrocketing?

It seems that the number of tickets issued to Toronto's homeless people for panhandling has increased by more than 2,000 per cent in the past 11 years. I was unaware that Toronto has what they call a "Safe Streets Act" that allows Toronto's finest to issue tickets to anyone who solicits money, stakes out an ATM's, a bus stop or frequents other places with captive audiences.

In the year 2000, 710 tickets were issued. Last year it skyrocketed to 15,324. The "Safe Streets Act" allows for recommended fines of $500 for the first offence, but the average penalty is usually around $60, which is $60 more than those 15,000 plus panhandlers had in order to pay the fine. Out of the 6,388 tickets issue to youth, only 12 of these tickets have ever been paid. It seems that there is an outstanding balance owing from all of these issued tickets in the amount of $723,068, not to mention the cost of the number of Toronto's finest who were paid to issue these fines and the people at City Hall who are paid to administer the fines.

I'm sorry, but doesn't it make you wonder what brain child decided that this would be a good idea? Perhaps if the city came up with a plan for more emergency housing and free suppers that $700,000 would have gone a long way toward helping people instead of helping to destroy whatever self-esteem they may have left. I'm sure that if the churches in Toronto were approached with some help with organization and legistics from the City of Toronto, they could find much more humane solutions don't you think??