What can I do about this....?

Question

Alright, this one's a bit of a doozy. I'm a first-year college student who lives in an area with a pretty busy tourist season, and over the years I've found that I can make some good money busking (playing my violin on a street corner) to the vacationers. So I've been playing in this one spot for two years now, right in front of a well-known fudge shop that claims my playing attracts more customers, the cops have always just kinda ignored me till two weeks ago. I was playing my usual gig, and this rent-a-cop (or so I assumed, I didn't recognize him) told me that I was panhandling and had to move along. I'm not disturbing anybody, people seem to love it and it was something that I really enjoyed doing....any suggestions on what I should do? It's the only place in the area that's buskable, there aren't really many other places around here with as much foot traffic...what should I do? I still have a half a summer left to play, I don't want to give it up now.

Answer 1

I do not know where you live. However in most states, "rent a cops" have the same authority as a private citizen. I would check with your local city hall. They would be able to tell you about any city ordinance that would prohibit you from continuing.

Answer 2

If he is not a peace officer and you are on public property then he has no authority to tell you to move. If he is a cop then you're pretty well screwed.  

Answer 3

I would kep on playing. Rent a cops other wise nown as security guards arent really authorized to tell you anything unless it is on the area that they are suppose to be supervising.

Answer 4

If he was in fact a private security guard (aka rent a cop) then he did not have the authority to tell you to leave, unless you were on private property.

Was this "rent a cop" carrying a gun?