Free Republic

BALTIMORE (AP) — A man was shot and killed after he swung a baseball bat at a person who cleans windshields at intersections for cash, Baltimore’s police commissioner said Thursday.The 48-year-old man who was shot was driving through an intersection near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in the afternoon when he encountered so-called squeegee workers and had a heated interaction, Commissioner Michael Harrison told reporters.Squeegee workers, also known as squeegee kids, consist mostly of teens from low-income neighborhoods who clean drivers’ windshields at intersections in exchange for money. Some drivers in Baltimore have complained about them.The man drove through the intersection, parked...

<p>A highly organized crew of squeegee men marked Monday’s unofficial start of summer by aggressively wiping down windshields just blocks from Times Square — using buckets of water from the nearby Port Authority bathroom.</p><p>The Post watched as four squeegee men converged on cars and SUVs waiting on West 40th Street near Ninth Avenue under the supervision of a fifth man who directed them like an air traffic controller.</p>

They were the ultimate symbol of the lawlessness and blight of the 1980s and early 1990s — and now they’re making a comeback. Squeegee men are menacing motorists across New York City, including spots near the Holland, Lincoln and Queens-Midtown tunnels, as well as the Queensboro Bridge, The Post has learned. Residents and drivers who pass through the areas said the panhandlers are spraying and wiping windshields without permission to shake down drivers for cash. Benthins, who has also been seen with a squeegee near Times Square, was using a wadded-up copy of the amNewYork free newspaper as a rag....

FLORENCE, Italy - Florence, Renaissance city of art and history, is trying to clean up its streets by cracking down on squeegee men, saying they were causing "great danger" to drivers and pedestrians alike. Mayor Leonardo Domenici issued a decree last week to force the squeegee men — people who wash drivers' windshields and demand payment — off the streets, imposing fines and detention of up to three months. The decree, which is valid through Oct. 30 but can be renewed, alleged the squeegee men were hindering traffic, inconveniencing pedestrians and abusing drivers, particularly women. While the measure was applauded...

Two of their favourite targets were drivers parked at stoplights and people withdrawing cash from bank machines. But a decade after New York introduced laws to end "aggressive'' panhandling, the streets are still worked by folks seeking free money. Tougher policing under former mayor Rudy Giuliani and efforts to reduce homelessness under current Mayor Michael Bloomberg have yet to eradicate begging in the city. That panhandling persists is leading an increasing number of municipalities to look to New York to see what has worked and what has not with Toronto heading a list of Canadian cities interested in the Big...

SPRING HILL — The co-owner of a Spring Hill newspaper was arrested yesterday after a police officer said he witnessed the man screaming at a woman in a McDonald's fast-food restaurant and then threatening her with a window washer's squeegee. Paul Holland Overton, 67, of 5045 Port Royal Road, co-owner of The Informer, was taken to the Williamson County Jail, where he was released last night after posting $1,000 bond, a jail officer said. A telephone call to Overton's home yesterday was not answered. Overton is charged with assaulting Pam Morrow, 39, of 2506 Pitts Court, Columbia, while she was...