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Panhandlers Clash Over Prime Spot in Front of Starbucks in Palo Alto
San Jose Mercury News ^ | 02/02/2010 | Will Oremus

Posted on 02/03/2010 10:34:42 PM PST by nickcarraway

It appears Victor Frost isn't the only Palo Alto panhandler willing to fight to defend his turf.

On Monday, police said, one female beggar drew a knife and threatened to stab another who had taken her favorite spot, in front of Starbucks on University Avenue. Terry Barber, 51, was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, police Sgt. Wayne Benitez said.

Authorities were called to the scene at about 3:30 p.m. by the victim, a wheelchair-bound woman who said she had been threatened with what looked like a butcher knife, Benitez said. She said her attacker had gone into Starbucks and dropped off a bag, then walked across the street.

Officers arrested Barber moments later outside the Cheesecake Factory. She had a box cutter in her backpack and a metal folding knife in a back pocket, Benitez said. Neither looked much like a butcher knife, he said, but police believe the folding knife was the weapon Barber brandished.

"Apparently the suspect was upset that the other woman took her place on the sidewalk to beg for money," Benitez said. "That's when she pulled out her knife and said, 'I'm going to stab you if you don't move to another location.' "

He added, "I guess it's a pretty lucrative spot if you're willing to brandish a knife for that piece of real estate."

Barber didn't actually stab the victim, Benitez said, but she was booked on suspicion of assault instead of just brandishing a weapon because she waved it back and forth while making explicit threats.

In a similar incident, local panhandler and activist Victor Frost was arrested in September on suspicion of shouting racial slurs at a fellow beggar who took his spot on Homer Avenue across from Whole Foods Market.

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: paloalto; panhandler; vagrancy
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To: max americana
Hi max americana! Here in my new home of Santa Barbara (remember I used to live in LA) they are considering warming houses for the homeless. WARMING HOUSES IN SANTA BARBARA FOR THE HOMELESS!!!!!!!! Dear Lord. This is what 355 days a year sun or even more and at best two weeks to two and a half weeks total per year rainfall if that! Generally every day is 70+ with a few lows during the days of 55 to 60. Night maybe at lowest 40 or 50 in the worst of nights and those nights are not long lasting.

WARMING HOUSES MY ASS. Three people dies of Methadone OD on the cold days here and here we go . . . the sell is they died of cold. Talk about liberal media and liberal manipulation.

Warming houses . . . Sheesh! Lord help California.

21 posted on 02/03/2010 11:46:35 PM PST by GOP Poet (Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
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To: GOP Poet

DId I mention it will cost the city $40,000 for the warming houses? Yep. Tax dollars at work. But the school board is considering shutting down the gifted program as it makes the Latinos that aren’t making it in with their grades feel bad about themselves. What the?


22 posted on 02/03/2010 11:47:59 PM PST by GOP Poet (Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
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To: Allegra

Hell I need more money for my designer shoes and handbags. I can barely afford myself. lol. Maybe I should get my butt out there. Will of course avoid the Nordstroms, Neiman Marcus, and Saks. Don’t want them to recognize me when I come in the buy, buy, buy!!! LOL.


23 posted on 02/03/2010 11:50:44 PM PST by GOP Poet (Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
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To: GOP Poet

All you need dahling is to head back to L.A. and deal with the trannies, homos, freaks like I do. (sarc/) You are still in Mexifornia, may I remind you..


24 posted on 02/03/2010 11:54:33 PM PST by max americana
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To: max americana
:-) True. True.

Ah . . . The Soviet Republic of Mexifornia. Yes. I forgot for a second.

The good news? California is home to Free Republic. They haven't snatched us all up and drained us all of our true, red American blood much to their dismay.

25 posted on 02/04/2010 12:06:25 AM PST by GOP Poet (Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
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To: nickcarraway

26 posted on 02/04/2010 12:19:58 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: voteNRA
The wife and I couldn't believe it but we had witnessed the "shift change" at the exit ramp!

Maybe they have been unionized by the SEIU.

27 posted on 02/04/2010 1:04:56 AM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government)
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To: MaxMax

My thoughts exactly. That he was even arrested for it is outrageous. If racial slurs are now illegal why isn’t half of the NBA in jail?


28 posted on 02/04/2010 1:20:13 AM PST by phredo53 (Caution: This post does not comply with White House standards.)
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To: nickcarraway

My grandfather seeing a guy begging on the off-ramp said,

“Why is that man begging?”

“He looks healthy and he’s not blind.”

“Why doesn’t he work?”

“Has he no shame?”

Grandfather is from the “Old Country” and doesn’t understand the sophisticated ways of Americans.


29 posted on 02/04/2010 2:23:27 AM PST by PanzerKardinal (Don't give up any of your rights. They were purchased for you by blood!)
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To: nickcarraway
I live in Massachusetts, and if you drive into Cambridge (the Berkeley of the East) there are two main intersections where healthy people walk up and down with handwritten cardboard signs asking for money.

They have been doing it for years. These aren't people who are disabled (even though their signs occasionally say things like "disabled vet" and such)

Windows roll down, hands come out, usually with a dollar.

I won't give them money.

However, there is this guy on busy corner at the corner of Newbury and Arlington Streets in Boston, just across the street from the Boston Common. It used to be the Ritz Carlton Hotel, might be something else now.

I think he has cerebral palsy, and someone sets him up with a cooler full of soda. He has a box with a slot, and you put your money in the slot, and he reaches shakily down with one hand that still functions and opens the cover on the cooler so you can take your soda.

That is a man.

The other beggars on the busy intersections...not so much. (To this day, my wife and I suspect they are part of some kind of twenty year psychology experiment at Harvard. Hey, look what a Harvard education did for a no-load like Barack Obama...)

My wife and I have plenty of compassion, and we give a lot to various charity causes. But a healthy man, standing and begging for money is worse off than many of the physically disabled in my opinion.

30 posted on 02/04/2010 3:22:47 AM PST by rlmorel (We are traveling "The Road to Serfdom".)
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