A 30-year-old man filed a lawsuit against the D.C. Metro Police after allegedly being arrested for panhandling near a Metro station, NBC 4 Washington reported.
The man identified as John Burke took his claims to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Burke is claiming that he was illegally stopped from panhandling outside a busy station near the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
He asserted that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) police has targeted him since 2016 for panhandling, through citations, evictions and arrests numerous times.
The lawsuit accuses the D.C. Metro Police of violating Burke’s firsts amendment rights as they arrested him even though he complied with the city’s panhandling law, which requires panhandlers to keep minimum 15 feet away from the entrance of Metro stations.
Homeless man sues Metro, alleging transit police illegally stopped him from panhandling https://t.co/GsD0hOHojg
— NBCWashington (@nbcwashington) October 24, 2019
Burke, claiming to have a traumatic brain injury, said in the lawsuit that he usually stood outside the Smithsonian Metro station or the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station.
“Panhandling is protected speech, the areas where Mr. Burke were [sic] panhandling were public forums, the policy and practice does not serve a significant government interest….” the suit stated, according to NBC 4 Washington.
The news website failed to receive a comment from the WMATA on the case.