Recent legislation meant to reform the Vagrancy Act, recently struck down as unconstitutional, will effectively target beggars for the crime of being poor.
The 1847 Vagrancy Act, imposed by British colonialists during the potato famine, criminalized starving people struggling to survive. The new law, targeting highly subjective “aggressive begging,” criminalizes poor people facing similar predicaments in order to protect business interests.
“Business and tourist interests are damaged by begging” stated Justice Minister Dermot Ahren, speaking candidly about whose interests the law protects. The law differentiates between a poor person asking for money for food or rent—who may be punished—and a “respectable citizen” who asks for change because he or she is short on bus fare.
Such laws symbolize the vicious cycle endemic to capitalism. People are punished for struggling, and then must struggle to pay the penalty. The capitalists profit while people fight for survival.
