The ordinance was repealed during East Lansing City Council’s Oct. 15 meeting following a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s case of Speet v. Schuette. The ruling made it unconstitutional for cities to ban begging within the state of Michigan.

While we applaud East Lansing for being the first city to repeal the ordinance, it’s unfortunate this rule ever existed. The city has no right to penalize anyone for peaceably asking for spare change, and policies against beggars discriminate against some of the city’s neediest citizens.

The former law went against a person’s right to freedom of speech; asking a passerby for a spare dollar to buy a cup of coffee is everyone’s right. Only on private or business-owned property, complete with “no loitering” signs, would these people be overstepping their boundaries.

However, there always will be certain people who don’t want to be inconvenienced by someone taking 10 seconds out of their day to ask for bus fare.

If beggars made crude remarks to pedestrians, or if their attempts take a turn for the violent, then it would make sense to be annoyed or even frightened when approached on the street.

But this shouldn’t be a huge concern while meandering down Grand River Avenue — compared to a lot of other city streets, East Lansing is relatively tame.

Not only that, but violent responses from beggars are a rare occurrence around the city. If they’re turned away, they often leave and move on to the next person they happen to catch walking past.

Community members have expressed concern over having beggars show up on their doorstep and possibly overstaying their welcome. This was hardly a pressing issue before the ordinance was repealed, though, and it doesn’t make sense that it would become one after. Repealing the ordinance does not create any new opportunities for beggars, nor is it likely that they would start flocking to neighborhood houses and start going door to door.

Of course, every scenario is different. It’s impossible to predict whether the situation could become out-of-hand, but that’s on a person-by-person basis. Taking away an ordinance not many people seemed to be aware of won’t morph beggars into obnoxious and possibly dangerous people.

All has been calm on the city’s streets in the four weeks since the repeal, and no drastic changes have been noted as a result of it. It isn’t anyone’s business if a person asks for change on a public sidewalk, and trying to change that only takes away their rights as citizens.