A member of the Beirut City Guard Regiment accosting a shoe-shiner on the streets of the capital. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — The Beirut Municipality’s City Guard Regiment announced that it would intensify patrols on the streets of the city to prevent beggars, street vendors and shoe shiners from pan-handling, the municipality wrote in a statement.
Here’s what we know:
• “With the worsening economic crisis that led to the increase and exacerbation of the phenomenon of begging,” their presence has “negatively impacted the movement of pedestrians, shop owners, restaurants and others,” the statement read.
• “In view of this, and according to the previous instructions from the Governor of Beirut, Judge Marwan Abboud, regarding this issue, the men of the Beirut City Guard Regiment intensified their patrols on the streets, intersections and in front of the traffic lights, which are the main places for their gathering. Beggars, street vendors and shoe-cleaners were prevented from being present in those places and from disturbing citizens, passersby, shop owners, restaurant-goers and others, as they were expelled from those streets,” it added.
• The guards also patrolled Beirut’s seaside corniche to stop the violations from street vendors and stalls that are illegally built there. The patrols will continue throughout the capital around the clock, the municipality noted.