A Fine Kettle

A proposed Richmond city ordinance seeks to crack down on panhandling by extending a current ban on begging in the roadway to nearby curbs and sidewalks.

It's a mean-spirited measure that violates the First Amendment, and the City Council ought to spike it.

It also comes loaded with some potential unintended consequences.

The measure would forbid anyone to "solicit, by spoken word, written sign or gesture, contributions of any nature from the drivers of motor vehicles or passengers therein." A perceptive reader wonders whether that might forbid, say, Salvation Army-kettle bell-ringers. If they're within sight of motor vehicles, then it seems as though the answer would have to be yes. At the very least, a case could be made.

And such a case would deserve to be made if the city began discriminating among those with their hand out -- slapping homeless people with hefty fines for doing the very same thing charitable solicitors do: asking for spare change.