1st Amendment Vending, NYC

** Sample letter to State Senator(s) in opposition to #S4045, requiring fingerprinting of anyone charged with violating laws governing general vending. **

*Write your own or you can use this sample letter:

Dear State Senator......,

I am a NY State resident. A bill now before you, #S4045, which requires fingerprinting of anyone charged with violating local laws governing general vending, is of great concern to me.

I believe it violates artists right to sell art and communicate with the public, as granted by the NY State Constitution, the US Federal Constitution and the various 2nd circuit Federal Court rulings that granted street artists full First Amendment protection.

Although exempt from any vending license or permit, street artists are already subject to more than 60 pages of restrictions on where, when and how they can sell their art.

There is no need to criminalize the sale of art, to fingerprint artists or to build a criminal record for them as a justification for prison sentences.

Moreover, because First Amendment protected speech is a right, a law that could cause an artist to be sent to prison for violating the slightest unclassified misdemeanor is an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech. Unlike a fine, being sent to prison would completely take away artists right to create, display and sell art on public property.

The reality on the street is that no new restrictions are needed to control vending or to protect public safety. As Alan Gerson, the anti-vendor Councilmember for the 1st District (which includes Ground Zero) wrote to the NY City Council Consumer Affairs Committee:

>From the opening paragraph of Councilmember Gerson's letter to the Consumer Affairs Committee, dated 9/24/08:

"Dear Colleagues, Ample laws exist to prevent illegal vending and to direct legal vendors to appropriate locations."

[Dictionary definition of ample: As much or as many as required, usually with some left over.]

The "vending problem" Senator Squadron is trying to alleviate at Ground Zero is totally due to a lack of police enforcement, not to a lack of penalties. Penalizing artists, veterans and other legal vendors with new restrictions and harsh penalties will never stop the illegal vending this bill pretends to address.

I ask you to vote no on S4045.

Sincerely Yours, .................