Posted on 08/24/2008 5:57:52 PM PDT by Lorianne
A new generation of shakedown artists hampers America’s urban revival.___ Barbara Bradley, an editor with the Memphis Commercial Appeal, moved into the River City’s reviving downtown about a year and a half ago, loving its “energy and enthusiasm.” But a horde of invading panhandlers has cooled her enjoyment of city life. Earlier this year, she recalled in a recent column, as she showed some visitors around the neighborhood, “a big panhandler blocked the entrance to our parking area and demanded his toll.” Now a nervous Bradley avoids certain downtown areas, locks her car when fueling up at local gas stations, and parks strategically, so that she can see beggars coming before getting out of her car. “When I hear someone call out ‘ma’am, ma’am’ anywhere in downtown or midtown, I run.”
Just say “no”.
Here in Seattle it's almost intolerable. These slackers are helping to make cities across the country unlivable.
Some won’t take no for an answer. They can get quite aggressive.
Most shakedown artists will try to hold you up if they think they have a chance.
Within the last couple of years (after some Katrina refugees hit our area, I suspect), I had this fat black woman plop herself down in front of my door and beg me for money with a long-winded sob story—on not one but two different occasions. I didn’t give her anything... on top of everything else, money’s been tight for us too. She got embarrassed the second time. I guess she had forgotten that she’d already attempted to hit me up once before.
Rudy Giuliani for Mayor of Memphis!
Here in Tampa Bay they have tent cities set up. They set one up in a city park and all the lib whackos were up in arms when the police kicked them out.
The favorite for me is a young lady about 30. One day she’s pregnant, next her car broke down and she’s stuck far from home.
She could be working but she probably makes more begging. Its impressive to see these folks standing all day begging for money in the Florida summer.
DON'T FEED THE PIGEONS AND DON'T GIVE MONEY TO THE PANHANDLERS!!!
On the door to your house????? Yikes.
“Spare change? Can you spare some change?”
Sounds like an Obama-mercial.
I had a very similar incident happen to me...big panhandler, scruffy-looking, bad odor, the whole nine yards...came up right in front of me, blocked my path, and asked for money. I asked him flat-out, “What are you going to do if I don’t give you any money?”
He looked shocked and quickly walked away.
Of course, if you’re not prepared for things to get worse, it’s probably best not to say something like that. But I was pissed.
My sister-in-law saw one standing next to the guardrail at an off ramp in Northern Virginia. She felt so bad with what his cardboard sign said, she went to the store and bought a couple of bags of groceries for him. She went back and gave them to him. Later that night she went by the same location and he was gone...but the groceries had been tossed behind the guardrail. That cured her forever.
Does anyone disagree that the homeless roaming the streets is an example of liberal values in practice?
It was a liberal idea to make it much more difficult to commit someone for psychiatric care. Many homeless have mental problems.
It was a liberal idea to do away with laws such as vagrancy laws that used to be a way of dealing with loitering and people living on the streets.
The exsitence of so many homeless is due to liberal values being applied to the problems of people who can’t live in society properly.
A good conservative value would be to get these people off the streets and then get to the roots of their problems. If they can be helped to living on their own, fine. If not, maybe they are better off getting the mental help they need. But the liberals prefer to let this problem fester, by saying people have a constitutional right to sleep on the streets. They protest efforts to get homeless off the streets by charging we want to put them in jail. But the liberals have no solutions to the problems of the homeless. They just want them to stay downtown or in the slums, while the liberals enjoy their nice homes on the Upper West Side, or Berkeley, or La Jolla, or Bel Air, or all the other nice neighborhoods of our cities. They would protest if the homeless were in their neighborhood, but if they are not in their neighborhood, the liberals don’t care. How compassionate are liberals if they want to let someone sleep on the street?
Hey, I think I’d actually give money to this guy: he appears to be honest about his debauchery. Other than that, I despise these people. If they’re really hurting, they should take advantage of the Salvation Army and other charities (and yes, I have given, thank you very much).
Now THAT's "in yo face!"
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