Panhandler Advocates, D.A. Hail Decision : Free speech: A federal court says the Constitution protects polite begging. One leader calls the ruling irrelevant.

Ventura County homeless advocates and law enforcement officials on Thursday praised a federal court decision that panhandling is a form of free speech protected by the Constitution--but for different reasons.

A spokesman for the Ventura County district attorney’s office pointed out that Wednesday’s decision did not strike down the state law that makes abusive panhandling a misdemeanor. Instead, the court ruled that a person cannot be prosecuted for merely begging politely for money.

“I think it’s a correct decision and that’s how we’ve always interpreted that law,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin DeNoce.

Representing a different view, the Rev. Jim Gilmore, director of the Zoe Christian Center, Ventura County’s largest homeless shelter, hailed the decision as a victory for the homeless.

“Panhandling has been around since the days of Jesus Christ,” he said. “But it bothers people’s conscience and that’s why some people try to eliminate it by force. This decision ensures that panhandling will be around for a long time, until society takes care of the problems that cause people to beg.”

With less than half a dozen complaints filed against panhandlers each year in Ventura County, law enforcement officials and homeless advocates agreed that the court decision would have minimal impact on law enforcement practices beyond its symbolic value.

Rick Pearson, director of Project Understanding--a countywide coalition of religious groups that helps feed and clothe the homeless in Ventura--considers the court decision irrelevant.

“It’s an interesting decision, but our position all along has been that panhandling is demeaning to both the person begging and the people being approached,” Pearson said. “The Police Department is handling the problem extremely well here, patrolling the supermarkets and shopping centers to make sure people don’t get harassed, but rarely sending people to jail.”

DeNoce said California’s panhandling law had rarely been enforced in the county until this May, when Ventura Councilman Jim Monahan and several Ventura merchants complained that aggressive panhandlers were driving shoppers away from Main Street.

In response, the district attorney’s office issued a memorandum outlining prosecution guidelines for panhandling cases.

The guidelines read: “In determining whether to file a case . . . the following standard will be applied: ‘Accost’ means to approach in a rude or insolent manner, or to harass, interfere, or obstruct the progress of another person. . . . As a general rule, cases should not be filed unless a complaining citizen is willing to testify to being accosted within the meaning of Penal Code section 6747.”

Since the guidelines were enacted, DeNoce said, less than half a dozen panhandlers have been prosecuted.

“You can’t penalize free speech, but you can’t allow a beggar to block an entrance to a store or pull a knife on an old lady and demand that she give him money,” DeNoce said.

Monahan said he couldn’t comment on the specifics of Wednesday’s decision, but said the panhandling law should be upheld. “I think you should have a heart with these people,” he said, referring to street beggars. “But we shouldn’t change the law.”

The question of panhandling resurfaced Wednesday when U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick decided that a once-homeless beggar was improperly arrested five times in 1988 when he was peaceably seeking assistance from passersby on the streets of San Francisco.

San Francisco city attorneys have vowed to appeal Orrick’s decision that panhandling is protected as free speech. They argued that the ruling will make it more difficult to protect the public from intimidation.

The San Francisco Police Department has instructed its officers to stop arresting beggars, pending an appellate decision.

But Capt. Ken Thompson, Ventura’s acting police chief, said his department has no plans to change its enforcement policies in the wake of the decision. “We follow the guidelines of our district attorney’s office,” he said. “We rely on the D.A.’s interpretation of the law.”

Ventura police will continue to discourage panhandling--polite or otherwise--but will make arrests only when a complaint is filed, Thompson said.

Oxnard Police Chief Robert Owens said his department lacks the resources to deal with panhandlers.

“Panhandlers are a cosmetic stain in our city,” he said. “But given our budgetary constraints, we seldom arrest people for panhandling unless there is a witness willing to testify that he’s been harassed.”