Daley Plaza Panhandlers Get $3K Payout From The City
By Mae Rice in News on Jan 29, 2016 4:10PM
Jurors awarded $1,500 each to two panhandlers after Cook County spent years forbidding them from begging in Daley Plaza.
After a judge ruled Kim Pindak and Sam Phillips’ rights had been violated, jurors decided damages, according to the AP.
In the original suit—first filed in 2010, according to the Sun-Times—the duo claimed they lost up to $10 a day over four years because officials kept kicking them out of Daley Plaza, best known for the above Pablo Picasso sculpture, the AP reported.
As of late, judges have increasingly ruled that asking passersby for money is speech protected by the First Amendment, according to the AP.
Pindak told reporters he’d spend the money on necessities and books on his hobby, chess.