View Single Post
Old December 1, 2009, 01:41 PM   #19
zukiphile
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 13, 2005
Posts: 4,439
Quote:
Quote:
Aggressive "panhandling" is a chronic problem in our downtown area. I have been asked for change or a couple of bucks "for the bus" daily for the last two decades.
I never give a panhandler money for the same reason I do not feed pigeons; it creates a problem.
"Panhandling" from a "$40,000 truck"? Seriously? You don't make that kind of money by "panhandling".
You would be surprised. Some of the men who do this full time, make a very good living at it. We've had examples of professional panhandlers living in middle income homes.

Quote:
There are really only a couple of options. This guy was either completely straight up and, having fallen on hard times, needed $10 for his daughters prescription or he was a normal dude, fallen on hard times, and was looking for money for some beer to drown his sorrows, or he stole the truck. Really, you don't "panhandle" from an expensive truck.
There is a third option. Aggressive panhandling does not rely exclusively on the guilt of a mark. It instills fear and discomfort in the mark who can buy his way out of the situtation at a modest price. Remember that Bernard Getz was just asked for a couple of dollars...by a lad holding a screw driver.

Blocking in a vehicle and asking/demanding money is pretty aggressive IMO.

Quote:
Quote:
More pertinent to this thread though is the danger you create whenever you touch your wallet in public. You let everyone know that you have it and where to find it.
That seems a bit over the top. I touch my wallet in public on a daily basis. I can honestly say that it never occurred to me that doing so would be dangerous. For one thing, 90% of men keep their wallet in the same place.
Pick pockets like to know the location of the wallet they will lift. I get my wallet in a restaurant or the post office or the gas station, but pulling your wallet out on the street serves no good purpose and invites attention you cannot want.

The person asking you for money need not be your real problem either. It can be a person simply observing those who interact with a panhandler. I've noticed that when I see someone stopped to pay a panhandler, they are invariably people who are not from the city and may not have their wits about them for other urban problems. If I were looking for a target, I imagine I would like someone like that.

My point isn't to feed any paranoia, but to suggest that giving money on the street has problems some may have not contemplated.
zukiphile is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.03676 seconds with 8 queries