Cops shoo busker away from market

A longtime downtown street musician says he was run off by police while busking outside the new Hamilton Farmers’ Market at its grand opening.

Violinist Michael Leech says he was playing on the city sidewalk outside the market’s main gates around noon Saturday when market security called Hamilton police to clear him away.

“The police threatened to charge me with aggressive panhandling,” Leech said. “There I was, playing in the grand tradition of the banjo player who used to play outside the farmers’ market. I’m not God’s gift to fiddling, but I’ve got some chops.”

Leech said the pressure from the market’s property management firm and police flies in the face of a new city policy now in the works that recognizes buskers as a desirable element of a revitalized downtown.

It’s been determined by the law that just playing for someone with an open case is not panhandling, he said.

“Look, it’s been a long, cold winter. I just thought I could come down and pick up a couple hours at our farmers’ market. But apparently it’s their farmers’ market.”

He said he left voluntarily, rather than risk getting charged by the cops.

Hamilton police say the reason special ACTION squad officers asked Leech to leave was because the landlord was upset about trespassing in the building. Leech admits he tried to busk inside the market’s main lobby a day earlier before being kicked out by security.

Meanwhile, a local lawyer says he believes the crackdown on buskers is really a misdirected effort by police to rid the downtown of criminal elements.

Michael Puskas’ client, street musician Ken Steffler, was charged three times over the past year, only to have each charge eventually dropped.