To the editor:

It is a shame that the City Council voted to regulate panhandling within 15 feet of most major city roads, just because a few people made complaints.

Many of the people panhandling might be homeless. Some might be homeless veterans, and panhandling might be their way of providing for themselves and maybe for their families.

I have never seen the panhandlers bothering or trying to harm anyone. They always just have their signs asking for donations.

Since the City Council decided to do this, now it is time to stop the fire department from asking for donations at the intersection of Main Street and Constance Road by McDonald’s and in front of the Walmart store.

I hope the few people who made complaints and the City Council members and their family members never fall on hard times.

I am 68 years old and was taught in my younger years that it is good to help someone in need if you can.

I believe the council voted the way it did, because its members don’t believe in helping people in need if they are not in the right class in this city. It has been this way for a long, long time.

I hope that I never will have to help those few cold-hearted citizens and members of City Council. If so, all of them will be out of luck.

People of Suffolk, I have one question for you: When are we, the citizens of Suffolk, going to come together and put a stop to the bad leadership we have in this city?

Now the city attorney has fallen into the same trap of making decisions for all of the citizens of Suffolk. But I guess she has to do what the City Council tells her to do.

James A. Thomas

Suffolk