Street Beggars
I'm not kind and charitable to your run of the mill street beggar. It's the entire menacing, looming, dirty in your face with a complete bull manure story that basically makes me shake my head and walk past in disgust rather than wax altruistic. If they guy on the street were to ask me, "Hey you got a couple spare bucks so I can score me some smack?" I might actually think about giving dude some money (provided of course it's in a well lit area and I have some cash ready that is not inside my wallet. Never pull the wallet out in front of the beggar types unless you have an earnest desire to not have said wallet much longer). Dude wants a bottle from the corner store. I understand. If I had the cash to spare I might even buy em a better label of booze. Even someone well mired in their addiction likes a bit of the primo when it comes their way.
What I really can't stand is the utterly false story. Get some twenty something (even a hard twenty with heavy abuse) claiming to be a "nam" veteran and you almost want to ask em if he can't think up something more age appropriate like maybe Bosnia or if they are really beat up or in their thirties or forties the first gulf war. I can't stand the guy who will spend hours working the same part of a block claiming his car broke down and just needs a few bucks for a tow or a cab ride home. "I'm not begging but ..." Then their is the heroin junky white boy who stands by the suburban Metras and claims he is a student and lost his wallet and needs money for the train. This is more of a weekend scam hitting up people coming into the city for a bit of fun who wont recognize the junky. The weekday commuters all pick up on it after hearing the same story a time or three.
The repeat story is the worst. These guys have so completely blasted their memory they can't remember who they hit up from one day to the next.
I was out walking the other night and a guy on Western Avenue asks me if I have jumper cables or a quarter or if I live nearby. (all at once) He is no where near a car and a little to loud and twitchy to be just a regular guy who is down on his luck. The fact that I'm obviously walking should tip dude off that I don't have jumper cables, but lets be charitable and assume maybe he thinks I parked nearby, still there is the problem of the quarter. What is he going to do with a quarter. Just finding a public phone is hard enough and even supposing he does a local call will cost at least 35 cents if not more. Dude would be better of making a collect call than trying to beg money of people to make a call.
So the next night I'm out walking again around the same time and just a block from my previous encounter dude again makes the same appeal. I'm wearing the same jacket, the same sweat shirt and the same hat. My appearance should stir some kind of memory seeing as he hit me up just the day before but I can tell that he has absolutely no idea that we have had previous interaction. His memory is completely shot.
I get home and discuss this odd occurrence with my brother thinking I may have to vary my route a bit so as to avoid the beggar and my brother notes that a man of similar appearance used to work the car wash and the Walgreens parking lot at the corner of 103 and western using the same story. So either this story works for the goof or he is just so whacked out he can't remember that people just don't buy his plea. I know their are enough soft headed types who think they might be doing em some kind of charity by giving em cash but I have got to say please just stop. He is close to being non functional now. Don't be the one that makes em slip right over into a vegetative state. If it is self destruction he is looking for make sure to give extremely generously so he can do the job up right instead of becoming a vegetable ward of the state.
In Summary: Hand out Placards that read "Need money for booze" to beggars. Never pull out your wallet. I'm just as unemployed as they are and will waste your hard earned money on things like books and coffee. Feel the urge to just throw money away? I can spend it more meaningfully then they will.
What I really can't stand is the utterly false story. Get some twenty something (even a hard twenty with heavy abuse) claiming to be a "nam" veteran and you almost want to ask em if he can't think up something more age appropriate like maybe Bosnia or if they are really beat up or in their thirties or forties the first gulf war. I can't stand the guy who will spend hours working the same part of a block claiming his car broke down and just needs a few bucks for a tow or a cab ride home. "I'm not begging but ..." Then their is the heroin junky white boy who stands by the suburban Metras and claims he is a student and lost his wallet and needs money for the train. This is more of a weekend scam hitting up people coming into the city for a bit of fun who wont recognize the junky. The weekday commuters all pick up on it after hearing the same story a time or three.
The repeat story is the worst. These guys have so completely blasted their memory they can't remember who they hit up from one day to the next.
I was out walking the other night and a guy on Western Avenue asks me if I have jumper cables or a quarter or if I live nearby. (all at once) He is no where near a car and a little to loud and twitchy to be just a regular guy who is down on his luck. The fact that I'm obviously walking should tip dude off that I don't have jumper cables, but lets be charitable and assume maybe he thinks I parked nearby, still there is the problem of the quarter. What is he going to do with a quarter. Just finding a public phone is hard enough and even supposing he does a local call will cost at least 35 cents if not more. Dude would be better of making a collect call than trying to beg money of people to make a call.
So the next night I'm out walking again around the same time and just a block from my previous encounter dude again makes the same appeal. I'm wearing the same jacket, the same sweat shirt and the same hat. My appearance should stir some kind of memory seeing as he hit me up just the day before but I can tell that he has absolutely no idea that we have had previous interaction. His memory is completely shot.
I get home and discuss this odd occurrence with my brother thinking I may have to vary my route a bit so as to avoid the beggar and my brother notes that a man of similar appearance used to work the car wash and the Walgreens parking lot at the corner of 103 and western using the same story. So either this story works for the goof or he is just so whacked out he can't remember that people just don't buy his plea. I know their are enough soft headed types who think they might be doing em some kind of charity by giving em cash but I have got to say please just stop. He is close to being non functional now. Don't be the one that makes em slip right over into a vegetative state. If it is self destruction he is looking for make sure to give extremely generously so he can do the job up right instead of becoming a vegetable ward of the state.
In Summary: Hand out Placards that read "Need money for booze" to beggars. Never pull out your wallet. I'm just as unemployed as they are and will waste your hard earned money on things like books and coffee. Feel the urge to just throw money away? I can spend it more meaningfully then they will.
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 4:44 AM
8 Comments:
I hate being asked for money when I am in debt like six figures and my husband is unemployed. I almost never give anyone any money, but, really...I'd be screwed if it weren't for financial support from various friends and family throughout the years...and we're taking way more than a buck or two.
For some reason the begging thing made me think of that movie Chicago Cab and that crazy cokehead guy.
Your post sounds so much familiar to me. I never knew, problem of begging existed in US. I thought it existed only in India.
Beggars are a big big problem in India. So much that calling a beggar a beggar seems politically incorrect.
We have beggars everywhere in India. Railway stations, all religious places, every traffic signal, outside hospitals, inside trains and every place you can think of. They will harass and irritate you. They will make you feel that its your duty to pay them. They are those people who have made begging a full-time profession.
They are the things I dont like.
Rachelle- The bums around here are real keen on the hungry pet ploy. Getting yourself a street dog is the "thing to do" because EVERYONE loves the little doggie who's mastered holding the change cup. The sad thing is that dog works all day long, and when the profits are counted at the end of the day drugs, not dog food, are bought.
Homeless people are homeless because they want to be. (Don't shoot me yet!) You should hear the answers I get from the beggars who ask me for money only to have me ask them why they don't show up at the LaborReady office in the mornings (a daily job service with a first-come first-employed policy).
Begging is quite profitable. I used to do it in highschool. Yep. Cut class and sit out by the grocery store asking for money, soda, cigarettes, you name it. Why? Because it worked! While the rest of my classmates busted their asses at McDonald's for 5 hours after school, I had discovered a much easier way to exceed their hard earned pay. That's right. I made more money than a part-time minimum wage earner.
Having the first hand knowledge makes it easy for me to pass them by without a second thought. There is an abundance of help available for those who seek it. Begging is a "career" choice.
Hmmm many comments and not a word on my books and coffee fund. Not popular enough. Maybe my adult version of netflix fund (do a google search not only do these services exist but their are websites dedicated to price comparing services offered versus selction and number of films at a time.)
homeless employment
It's like a do it yourself guide to living on the streets. The advice against smoking and drinking needs a bit of work. People may wake up one morning and decide to quit but actually making through that day is much harder.
"Homelessness is a choice". That makes me want to vomit.
I used to wear a side pony tail and blue eye shadow in junior high school, that doesn't make me an expert on 80's fashion.
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