Homeless People

When I visited the States some guy asked me for 'a dollar as he was saving up for a Condom' I of course wondered why he was asking money from me so he could by a 'johnny' ho ho.  My friend I was with explained he meant a Condominium a flat! Ah I see and I gave him a dollar for the laugh.

When my brother and his wife had their wedding in May 2009, we took the train from Orlando, FL to Fayetteville, NC.  The first thing that happened after we got off the train was some fat, loud guy came up to me, shook my hand, told me he thought I was a nice looking guy and could I give him a few bucks.  I declined.  He cursed at me.

After we loaded the luggage into my mom's car, he approached me again.  When I declined to give him money once more, he hurled more abuse at me, told me what a greedy f**king punk I was and f**k me and all that.  He gets into his truck with his buddy.  Some fat white girl comes out of the Subway restaurant, screaming profanities (I haven't the slightest clue why) but she got in the bed of the truck, saying she got enough for some sh*t and they just needed to go on back to the hotel.

"I'm home," I said to myself. 

Equality 7-2521 wrote: I used to think all of those stories were complete BS. Then one day I'm stuck in NYC and need $7.00 for the train back to Philly =/ In general though, yeah you see those same people doing the same story every wek.

It wasn't the only time I was conned either.  One guy downtown told his sob story and begged me for a ride home, insisting he didn't live far.  He kept asking me to go farther and farther.  His f**king house was nearly 20 miles out of town. 

I sh*t you not, a few months later, this same guy comes up to me at a gas station (not in downtown) and tells me the same bullsh*t and that he needs a ride home.

Turns out, he's pretty well known for this story around town (my parents even gave the guy a ride once).  Harmless, but a terrible liar.

I used to think all of those stories were complete BS. Then one day I'm stuck in NYC and need $7.00 for the train back to Philly =/

In general though, yeah you see those same people doing the same story every wek.

Most of the beggers in Paris are Romanian gypsys (or other Romanians), so I know that I'm not doing any kind of good by giving them something. 

And in general I'm not giving money to beggers on the street, but sometimes I fall in the trap of people who look decent and have a story to tell ("I lost my train and I don't have where to sleep tonight", "my arm is broken, here's the certificate, and I can't work for a month", etc), only to discover that this is their "day job", when I see them doing the same thing long time after I "helped" them.

Equality 7-2521 wrote: Negoba wrote: Maybe your inner city is different than mine, and maybe you were lucky.   Folks don't know how much you are or aren't carrying until they roll you. How much you're carrying has nothing to do with it.     There are many many different reasons for being homeless. But the typical homeless person that beg in a busy downtown is extremely different from the people walking around where I work. Exactly, so I'm not sure why you think handing money out to the homeless is dangerous. I've been mugged plenty of times and none of them for any non-racially related reason.

Negoba wrote: Maybe your inner city is different than mine, and maybe you were lucky.   Folks don't know how much you are or aren't carrying until they roll you. How much you're carrying has nothing to do with it.     There are many many different reasons for being homeless. But the typical homeless person that beg in a busy downtown is extremely different from the people walking around where I work.

Exactly, so I'm not sure why you think handing money out to the homeless is dangerous.

I've been mugged plenty of times and none of them for any non-racially related reason.

Snow Dog wrote: Never...f**k 'em.

Payment in kind?

JJLehto wrote: rushfan4 wrote: Nope, panhandling is illegal, and giving money to panhandlers only encourages more panhandling.    People make choices throughout their lives, and if those choices made them homeless and living on the streets, then that is their problem.  They could have stayed in school, paid more attention in class, not chosen to start drinking, smoking, drugs, got a real job instead of become a musician, etc.........  Not to paraphrase but you're more or less taking the "poor people are poor because they choose to be" route? Although worded not quite that harshly. ....I was hoping that mindset died with the 19th century

OK I can agree with the first part that giving panhandlers money may encourage them.  If you assume every person begging for money is doing it because of bad choices, like say getting laid off when their jobs are shipped to a low wage country, not being born into a wealthy family, having mental health issues but no insurance to get treatment, etc., well unless you were just trying to be funny there's really nothing to say.


Edited by Slartibartfast - February 28 2011 at 20:42

You have a valid point Jay... obviously it depends on where you live, the risk of giving. I mean I don't know what you guys know of England, but Birmingham (where I live) isn't exactly the mushroom kingdom. Even so though, I give money when I feel it's safe. Once you know the area better, you soon learn which places you are most likely to get mugged and the places where you're not very likely to get mugged.

The point I'm making though is I imagine no-one walks around on their guard constantly surely? From my experiences there are safe and dangerous parts of every town or city.