Posted on 02/05/2008 6:03:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) - A police survey says panhandlers outside a Wal-Mart here can make $300 a day. Inside, it takes a clerk a week to make that much.
Police say people who have a problem with that needn't look to the law--asking for money is considered protected free speech.
"We are not going to target panhandlers," said Coos Bay Police Capt. Rodger Craddock, who spoke a recent gathering of business owners about panhandling. "We can't do that. But if they aren't getting money from us, they aren't going to stand on that corner."
He said most panhandlers are not criminals. "They are nearly as likely to be victims of illegal acts as they are of committing them," he said.
He recalled a panhandler who was hit over the head with a flower pot and had his wallet stolen. The money in it was from welfare.
"Most (panhandlers) have lived here a long time and actually have homes," he said. "This is just their chosen profession."
He said most are docile, and that people should report those who are not.
"They are there for the money and the money is there to feed their addictions," said Bob More, director of housing and emergency services at South Coast Community Action.
He suggested a voucher system involving tickets people could give that are good for a meal or bed in a shelter.
More said some panhandlers have mental illnesses and won't seek help if they are being given money. "These are broken people who will never be able to hold a job," he said. "They need disability payments."
Craddock was asked if telling people to ignore panhandlers hobbled the panhandlers' free speech. He and most of the business owners said they did not.
"We are trying to educate the community that they have a choice," More said. "That's not suppressing their freedom of speech."
Bookstore owner Kate Fox suggested putting placards in store windows discouraging giving money to panhandlers.
"This is about behavior modification," she said.
Mayor Jeff McKeown said at the meeting that it is a balancing act. "We have a responsibility to you business owners, but we also need to be empathetic to people in our community with these problems," he said.
What’s an Epilady?
I shot and killed a wascally wabbit with a b.b. gun last spring, he was terrorizing my garden, I had to shoot him a half-dozen times. I left his carcass laying for a couple of days to teach the others a lesson. It didn’t even slow them down. Three cats took up temporary residence under my nearby shed and that put a stop to their terrorism.
I think it's one of those little automatic tweezers that keeps my mom from having to go by the name of Greybeard. :)
I shot and killed a wascally wabbit with a b.b. gun last spring, he was terrorizing my garden, I had to shoot him a half-dozen times. I left his carcass laying for a couple of days to teach the others a lesson. It didn’t even slow them down. Three cats took up temporary residence under my nearby shed and that put a stop to their terrorism.
Those Daisy BB guns don't have a heck of a lot of oomph. I have a 1000fps single pump pellet rifle, and I also use a .22 with little tiny shotgun-like shells in it for when I'm riding the tractor. For some reason the ground squirrels aren't afraid of me when I'm on the tractor.
We're way out in the country, and I have a big garden. I've got over 300 onions and 50 cloves of garlic going right now. They're doing awesome! I hope to have my tomatoes in the ground in about two weeks, if the weather cooperates.
I don't mind the bunnies so much because they can't easily get into my garden area, which is fenced off pretty well... but those dang ground squirrels are on my hit list. They pop up in the yard and push up piles of dirt in the middle of the grass, and then the dogs try to dig them out, and it makes a real mess! I've shot a few of them out in the pasture, and the buzzards clean them up within a day.
Lay your handgun on the dash when they start to wash your window.
I agree. Plus, since when is begging a profession?
It's official, people. Not only is the average American woefully ignorant of what any of our laws actually mean, but the people in charge of enforcing those laws are just as clueless. "Free speech" is now a catch all term which means whatever the hell anybody wants it to mean, and nobody even knows enough to challenge even the most assinine interpretations. Complete oppression is the only logical outcome of this kind of ridiculous ignorance. Prepare yourselves.It's a pretty common precedent
The hell they do!
Pack 'em up, and ship 'em out to the Sheriff down there in Arizona!
And as for McCain-Feingold - it's complete BS. Why?Well why don't we like it? How might that reason relate to speech issues?
I wish I could just sit around, look as pitiful as I can, and have people give me money. They don’t even have to drive anywhere they just sit and the money comes to them.
No overhead, no tools except a piece of cardboard, don’t have to look decent for the customer, don’t have to be clean, don’t need insurance or any kind of license or permit, no taxes, no advertising, etc.
Just sit and look pitiful and make hundreds.
What a job!!!!!!!!!
Phrased another way:
Wal-Mart Employees Make Less Money Than Bums
I just read that story the other night!
Just got back into my Holmes fascination and plan to finish the original illustrated works and then go onto anything else in the canon and then to the Jeremy Brett PBS series.
A great Sherlock HOlmes story about an English noblemans wife who goes to Holmes to have him find where her husband disappears for days at a time.
Holmes follows the guy through an opium den and figures out the guy transforms himself in to a beggar. One of those guys on a platform on wheels who rolls around London with a cup in his hand begging.
Guy inherited a title, land and responsibilities but no marketable skills.
He makes loads more begging thane he can at any real job.
I am a little begger man
A beggin I have been
I put three score or more
On this little isle of green
I’m known from the levy
Up to St. Lu
And I’m known by the name
Of Ole Jimmy Do
Of all the trades that’s going now sir
Begging is the best
For when a man’s tired
He can sit down and rest.
Beg for me supper
There’s nothing else to do
Only cut around the corner
for me ole rigadoo.
I read the complete Holmes canon long ago when I was a boy. As I recall from thirty years back, the gentleman in the story was supposed to be some kind of journalist who was working on an expose about panhandling but found the lifestyle profitable and the ugly mileu stimulating and addictive.
I considered it Conan Doyle’s take on the “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” plot about the mild-mannered gentleman who likes to walk on the Wild Side.
Several years ago I was watching one of the few PBS programs that broadcast some common sense. Several Constitutional scholars discussing various aspects of the document, one man was opining on Amendment I. At one point, he described his interpretation this way: "Your right to walk on the sidewalk cannot infringe upon my right to be left alone." In other words, you don't get to slam your way into me just because we both happen to meet up at the same place on the sidewalk.
I compare his interpretation to this business of panhandling being free speech -- not so. Oh, you may beg all you wish, stand there on your corner and ask for spare change. But you do NOT get to harass me with it, you don't get to be *in my face* about it. There are limits to behavior, it's just too bad that precedent has been set to disallow these limits, good order of society be dam*ed.
Most all Holmes stories were great.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.