Asheville – Members of the Asheville Coalition for Public Safety decided to speak during public comment at the last Buncombe County Commissioners’ meeting. Normally, they speak at meetings of Asheville City Council, but they wanted to leverage greater strength through a more comprehensive, broader-based partnership.
First up was Honor Moor. She agreed that the system had inequities that imposed punishments that were oversized for the crime, but the $1.1 million grant the county received from the MacArthur Foundation to reduce the jail population was not working to release nonviolent offenders with low risk of recidivism.
Instead, Moor said violent offenders were being let out of prison early. Consequently, theft, vagrancy, and squatting are now proliferating in the city. Moor said San Francisco “comes to mind” as she contemplates the future of Asheville should it continue to allow offenders to do as they please. She asked the commissioners to consider how their choices will impact the quality of life in the county long after their terms of service are over.
Moor alluded to how detention officers had been quitting in droves. Last year, when it was reported that staff turnover at the detention center had reached 125%, Sheriff Quentin Miller asked the commissioners to support substantial pay raises. Moor suggested the problem was continuing and asked that the commissioners work with local law enforcement to secure competitive compensation for entry-level officers.
Next was Bailey Stockwell. She said she hoped the county would join forces with the city in reviewing panhandling ordinances to address the post-pandemic explosion in the activity. Recently, Asheville’s Environment and Safety Committee, a subcommittee of council members that vets issues before they come before the whole council, reopened the matter a couple weeks ago.
City Attorney Brad Branham guided new councilmembers across turf that gets retrodden every five or ten years. The constitutional interpretation remains unchanged, so asking for change is free speech that ought not to be infringed, but asking in a manner that causes passersby to feel harassed impinges on their rights to travel freely from place to place. Panhandlers are allowed to beg on the sidewalks because they are public rights of way. There is also no law prohibiting panhandlers on the sidewalk from asking people in vehicles for change. Panhandling from traffic medians is, however, against the law.
Traditionally, police have not been eager to issue citations to panhandlers, who are presumably destitute already. So, people will only get a ticket for panhandling if they are caught breaking other laws or ordinances as well. The Asheville Police Department covers most of the panhandling turf. So, as long as its staffing shortage persists, law enforcement will not be expected to have the manpower to mess with panhandlers. It was just over two years ago, after 84 officers quit, that the Asheville Police Department announced it would stop dispatching officers for a long list of crimes.
Stockwell said panhandlers pose a risk to drivers and pedestrians, and their mere presence causes people to feel insecure. She suggested that the commissioners and city councilors follow the lead of Portland and Denver, where housing and job training are offered to people living on the streets. She pleaded with the commissioners to find solutions that are compassionate and safe for both the panhandlers and the citizens who aren’t panhandling.
Lastly, Helen Hyatt had concerns about crime and vagrancy in the South French Broad community, where she lives. She said the Delta House, which provides afterschool programming and is headed by Commissioner Al Whitesides’ wife, had been broken into, and somebody set a fire in the basement. The same thing happened at Varick Chapel. Another fire was set on the front porch of 220 South French Broad.
Her neighbor, who had lived at 160 South French Broad for almost 50 years, answered the door, gave a man a bottle of water, and “ended up in Mission Hospital with his head bashed in.” She said, “It’s the same people, back and forth, back and forth.” One man, she said, had been in jail “the longest time,” and when he was released, he was arrested “again in the same spot.”
Back in March, Hyatt worked to raise awareness about increasing prostitution in the neighborhood. The girls, in increasing numbers, would be working in broad daylight in all kinds of weather, and the johns were reportedly recruiting local youth. As with many other crimes in Asheville, following the departure of a critical mass of police officers citing a lack of respect from city leadership, this did not hit the threshold for triggering a police response.