Unlawfully hungry.

A bunch of guys from work went to Atlanta for a basketball game. They all said Atlanta is "the bumminest town" they had ever been too. A lot of panhandlers, they were very aggressive, and they would not leave.

In the parking lot of a stadium, my coworkers were being followed to their car by several of these guys. My supervisor finally (you'd have to know the guy) started running around in circles waving his arms in the air screaming "BLAAAA! BLAAAA! BLAAAA!" Bums asked what was wrong. He said "I'm going to do this until you leave."

Running again. "BLAAAA! BLAAAA! BLAAAA!"

Then the bums left. Don'tgetme wrong. My supervisor wasn't really the type of guy to hate bums. I saw him give a buck to a guy in FL with a "Why lie? Need beer" sign. But I guess bums are just that bad in Atlanta. That's tough in an area where you are trying to promote tourism.
 
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""A lot of times, tourists give money to people, and they go to the liquor store. They buy a crack rock. You just enable them," James said."

Years ago I was walking in DC, and there were a bunch of homeless panhandling at, IIRC, Farragut West metro stop.

As I was passing by a woman walks up to this one shoves a $10 bill at him, and as god is my witness says "You poor, noble man, may I be permitted to help you?"

I walked a few steps further, and then turned around to watch this unfold. The guy got rid of the woman, hung out for a few minutes to make sure she was gone, and then walked across the street to the package store.

Right then and there I vowed to give money ONLY to organizations.

Around the same time (I was living in DC) we had several very agressive panhandlers start hanging out near my building, who would roundly abuse you if you didn't cough up the dough. My girlfriend was really afraid of them, and took to carrying pepper spray in violation of DC laws at that time. I simply ignored them.
 
They've done a lot of renovating in Atlanta the last few years, regarding the downtown area. My brother lives on the north side and fills me in on the dirty doings done by the city government. His favorite phrase regarding the shennanigans is that "they are trying to turn this place into New York South."
He claims that the long-term plans are to squeeze the poorer folks out of downtown areas by driving up costs and push them to the south side of the city.
I used to live in Cobb county, then Jonesboro, worked in Henry county south of Atlanta. Nothing about Atlanta would surprise me.
 
Get a real job. If a person has to beg on the street for money it is a product of their unwillingness to work or a consequence of their own poor choices. A completely unskilled teenager can get a fast food job and so can these people. Even if the job sucks there are still jobs. These people just don't want them because it's easier to abuse kind-hearted (but naive) people than actually work for a living.
 
"a resolution that would make it illegal to beg for money near downtown hotels or tourist sites."

There are rules against jaywalking on a public street, rules banning certain activities in public parks and rules about a lot of things you can't do in public. Now there's a rule about bothering the city's guests in the tourist zone. Seems reasonable.

You worried they'll starve? You adopt them. :)

Anyway, I've about given up on offering a meal to the down and out folks around here - I'm tired of being cussed at. And for the most part it's the same dern people day after day. There's one woman with a sign over near the bus station and I-95. She's been trying to get money for a ticket to NY for 2 years.

I've spent 30+ years providing job-related services to individuals with disabilities, so don't go telling me I'm selfish and heartless. I've seen and heard it all and know what people can accomplish even with severe problems.

John
 
"There's one woman with a sign over near the bus station and I-95. She's been trying to get money for a ticket to NY for 2 years."

Good God I've seen her, or at least someone with the same sign.
 
Rather than "ban" things like panhandling and begging, what is needed is more powers for property owners to physically detain or eject trespassers - and decisive action by the public servants during or after the fact. And something more than a ride down the road or just a night in jail.

Not "bans" on what one day might be alot of very poor people trying to get something to eat for themselves and their families in public places.
 
I walk with a limp, sometimes have to use a cane and have breathing problems. Four days a week i drag my ragged self out of bed and go to work ( i work 4-10 hour shifts). No one gives me free money.

They always use the same line "I ain't had nothin' to eat in two days". One of my fellow employees once offered to buy the guy a sandwich (there's a Subway Sandwich shop in the building i work in). "Nah i don't want no sammich i wanna burrito".

Ask the store owners in an area with a large homeless population how they can really screw up their business.

I kinda like Wildalaska's idea.
 
Johnbt
So you're saying they can do whatever they like because it's a public place?
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No, I am saying that begging or asking for money in a public place shouldn't be a crime. The public servants and courts are already so over-stretched they don't do thorough investigations on all assaults, robberies, burglaries etc; so for one I would say the last thing we want is another "crime" on the list to clutter the pattern.

Trespassing already is a crime of sorts. We need that one tweaked so that it is effective before we start creating new ones.

I am also saying that private property owners ought to have more powers to act directly to remove or detain/arrest trespassers. A trespasser could be; someone who has been told to leave and doesn't - or comes back - for panhandling, begging or any number of other reasons.

The biggest problem for private property owners in most jurisdictions is that they call the police, the panhandler or other problem taunts them in the meantime and continues to make a spectacle (or smell), breaks a few things or urinates all over the ladies room, or on a couple of cars, looks at his watch (five minutes have passed) and then he leaves.

The police arrive. "Where is he?"
"He left 15 minutes ago"
"Oh, what he do? look like? your name? [etc]. Call us if he comes back".
"Uh, yeah thanks. OK".

He does - about a week later. The same thing happens, except this time the responding unit takes 13 minutes to arrive.

And so on.

Lastly, things are pretty tough for some people right now; my personal prediction is that they are going to get much tougher for a great many more people in this country in the future. The idea that someone who really is poor or in need can be charged with a crime for simply asking someone in a public place for some money bothers me alot.
 
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In general terms I agree with you. OTOH, they aren't outlawing it in ALL public places, only some - the ones heavily populated with visitors/tourists. And I think guests, paying or otherwise, should be given special treatment. That's the way I was raised anyway.

I'd like to see a similar law applied to the sidewalk in front of my local 7-11. The smart ones know not to bother people going into 7-11 at 6:30 a.m. for their first cup of coffee. ;) The not-so-swift among them get grumbled at.

It's interesting that the majority of them don't show up until around 7 a.m. when the clerks are allowed to unlock the beer coolers.

John
 
Johnbt
In general terms I agree with you. OTOH, they aren't outlawing it in ALL public places, only some - the ones heavily populated with visitors/tourists. And I think guests, paying or otherwise, should be given special treatment. That's the way I was raised anyway.
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The problam with "some places" is that it is open ended, easily going to "all places". And besides - who is going to decide where are the places "heavily populated by tourists"? The whole of DC might qualify there - as would NYC perhaps or LA.
I'd like to see a similar law applied to the sidewalk in front of my local 7-11. The smart ones know not to bother people going into 7-11 at 6:30 a.m. for their first cup of coffee. The not-so-swift among them get grumbled at.
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I'd like to see such a law applied to the IRS, who don't even ask, in regard to all money taken that does not pay for our Navy, Border Patrol, Customs etc and essential government administration. As irritating as it is - and the real bums do irritate me - I recognize that some people on the street begging are genuinely down and out. And I do not want to see a law turning very poor people or the genuinely "unlucky" into criminals simply for begging. This is the difference between government enforced socialism - and individual charity.
It's interesting that the majority of them don't show up until around 7 a.m. when the clerks are allowed to unlock the beer coolers.
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Yeah; the ones that make me chuckle are the 30-40 year olds at intersection lights with the pathetic "limp". :D
 
As irritating as it is - and the real bums do irritate me - I recognize that some people on the street begging are genuinely down and out.
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I have to wonder if those who are genuinely down and out are taking advantage of the vast array of public and private charitable services available in our society, rather than asking for spare change from strangers.
 
"who is going to decide where are the places "heavily populated by tourists"? The whole of DC might qualify there"

Have you ever lived in or around D.C.? I have and you're grasping at straws. At least half of D.C. is too dangerous for tourists (or residents), although with the rising crime rate in P.G. County to the east it appears some of the problem has shifted over the line into Maryland.

And why do some of the bums at 7-11 ask for spare change when you go in? Most people don't have any change until after they make a purchase.
I must admit that 7-11 around here is good at running the bums off, especially the ones who show up day after day, week after week. The clerks at the one near me know a lot of them by name.

Funny but true: There's a dead-end grass alley behind the 5 houses on my end of the block. A few summers ago 1 man and 2 women started camping in the alley at night and the women kept throwing used toilet paper in the bushes. After almost a week of this foolishness I finally printed up a sign that said XYZ Campground - $5 per night and stuck in the middle of the alley on a stick. They moved and never came back. :)

I'm not heartless, I don't mind somebody (even a college student) sleeping off a bender, but I draw the line when they move in. And I hate slobs. One morning I cleaned up 5 cans of Sterno in the alley and threw them in the supercan. Somebody came back while I was at work and took them out to see if they could squeeze a little more juice out of them. Talk about hard up.

John
 
If you travel frequently through an area that has pan-handlers and you have a charitable vein but don't like to be BS'd - you can be charitable without hassle and without giving them money for booze/drugs.

Buy fast food gift certificates and hand them out instead of cash. The vagrants might trade them off at a discount for cash, but someone somewhere is going to eat with the certificate, and it will be someone that was hungry.
 
Lastly, things are pretty tough for some people right now; my personal prediction is that they are going to get much tougher for a great many more people in this country in the future.
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After listening to an NPR rant about how bad the economy was, I stuck it out the next hour to hear their news show. They admitted that the unemployment rate of my state is down to 4%, the lowest since the early 1990's. So if the professional whiners have to admit something like that things may not be as bad as the rest of us think. So try not to get too upset.
 
The unemployment rate is close to meaningless as a yardstick for the health of the economy, because of the way it is measured.

They are only counting all the people who have applied for unemployment benefits in the state's UI program. The economy can be bad, yet the state unemployment rate low, because they don't count all the people whose UI benefits have run out, only current applicants for benefits.
 
Johnbt
Have you ever lived in or around D.C.? I have and you're grasping at straws. At least half of D.C. is too dangerous for tourists (or residents), although with the rising crime rate in P.G. County to the east it appears some of the problem has shifted over the line into Maryland.
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Yes, I have. At least close enough to have visited on many ocasions. Long time ago, but regardless of crime, there are still the major tourist attractions there, and I doubt that you will see any decrease in the number of foreigners that visit to see them - as neither in London or Glasgow. Johannesburg or Rio'.
And why do some of the bums at 7-11 ask for spare change when you go in? Most people don't have any change until after they make a purchase. [etc]
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I avoid places where bums concentrate - and not surprizingly people who are genuinely down and out often avoid them too.
Funny but true: There's a dead-end grass alley behind the 5 houses on my end of the block. A few summers ago 1 man and 2 women started camping in the alley at night and the women kept throwing used toilet paper in the bushes. After almost a week of this foolishness I finally printed up a sign that said XYZ Campground - $5 per night and stuck in the middle of the alley on a stick. They moved and never came back.
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Now I like that one ;)
I'm not heartless, I don't mind somebody (even a college student) sleeping off a bender, but I draw the line when they move in. And I hate slobs. One morning I cleaned up 5 cans of Sterno in the alley and threw them in the supercan. Somebody came back while I was at work and took them out to see if they could squeeze a little more juice out of them. Talk about hard up.
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I hate bums; but credit where credit is due, very resourceful they often are.
 
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