Mayor Supports The Right to Hitch

Mayor Barbara Ackermann said last night that she is opposed to any regulation governing hitchhikers except those concerning cars stopping in the middle of traffic to pick up passengers.

"How can you make laws to protect two people in a car who don't know each other," she told a group of 12 students in the Tonkens Room at Winthrop House. She explained that it is illegal under state law to pick up persons hitchhiking in the street, but that there were no laws against standing on the curb while hitching.

"I pick up girl hitchhikers, but I don't pick up male hitchhikers as much as I used to since the recent murders," she said.

Ackermann cited a need for general agreement on what laws should be enforced. "The community chooses which laws it wants to abide by," she said.

"Police complain that they get no support, but they are enforcing unpopular laws. They are not qualified by either education or training to be symbols of the laws which the community upholds," she said.