Ha! Busted. [BooHoo]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yho0SvuOoVE
We had a guy that parked his BMW on the edge of town and walked in to beg.
Some of the beggers, in Boulder, can bring down 30k a year.
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Ha! Busted. [BooHoo]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yho0SvuOoVE
We had a guy that parked his BMW on the edge of town and walked in to beg.
Some of the beggers, in Boulder, can bring down 30k a year.
She seems like a sweet old lady. NOT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09R_iUrh3EE
Exactly why I don't give to panhandlers. Ever.
I try not to encourage or provide incentives for people hanging out in traffic. It isn't safe for them or the other motorists. Volunteer fire departments should know better, so they are some of the most discouraging when I see them "boot begging."
Giving cash to strangers on the street is not quite the same, but pretty close to handing out cheap booze in front of a homeless shelter. There are better ways to help people in need.
I gave a lady money for her meds once. She walked across the street and bought a pack of cigarettes. I never wanted to f' up an old lady more in my life. Never again after that.
No $ to begger.
No Charity.
I am trying to quit my tithes and other offerings at church too.
The only time I give them anything is when they ask for food and only when a little voice inside of me says to help them.
I'll go out of my way to buy them a burger or something... Cold hard cash??? No freaking way.
When I worked in downtown Chicago, I became immune to the begging.
Listening to Mike Rosen over the years- every year around Thanksgiving he interviews and hosts a fundraiser with the director of Step 13. He talks about how many of those vouchers they hand out, and how few get turned in by bums serious about getting clean. Those interviews are eye-openers. Never give a beggar one thin dime- ever.
Had a guy, ride up on a bike in Home Depot parking lot, ask for a couple bucks. After asking him what he honestly was going to do with it he stated "he was having a really bad day and, honestly, was going to get a drink". I gave him 5 for being honest and wished him well.
Call me insensitive, but I have very little compassion (or tolerance) for the homeless. I know I have never been in their shoes and really have no business judging them, but I figure if you are truly homeless and living on the street it's probably because you are on drugs or have a serious alcohol problem or are just one of the laziest human beings on the planet. I mean if I suddenly lost my job, my vehicles, and everything else and my wife walked out on me and I had absolutely nothing, I still wouldn't have to be out on the streets. I would have a friend or family that would shelter me and I would bust ass finding a new job and would take whatever I could get to get me back on my feet.
I remember one of those "investigative reporting" shows once, where they repeatedly drove up to several different street people with "will work for food" signs. They offered them a giant meal for raking leaves, mowing a lawn, etc. Not once did one of them actually take them up on the offer.
If someone is juggling. doing magic or palying some decent music, they might get a buck. Just sitting there with your hand out? Zero.
Wife and I were just talking about this last night. How many bridges did you burn, to where nobody will give you a roof to help get on your feet, and how did you burn them?Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
Deleted
Eventually friends and family gets worn out or wise to the enabling part of the addiction cycle. Those closest eventually understand that there is nothing they can do to help someone who is on their ride to the bottom.Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
Mental illness with self medication are major factors, but ultimately, the individual either finds their bottom they can live with or seek appropriate intervention and works to overcome their demons.
Then there are the con-people (so much easier to say con men). They have always been there and they always will be.
The USA will never be like Singapore [Coffee]
An overwhelming majority of homeless have major addiction or serious mental illness and will never improve with handouts. Every handout some one gives them is another hammer stroke on the nails of their coffin.
With the assorted govt and charitable programs out there for homeless people, there is no excuse for healthy(no mental or addiction issues) people to be homeless for long.
The primary reason govt programs for the homeless are generally failures is the govt refusal to force homeless to deal with major addiction or get help for mental illness. "Bunks for drunks" (term coined by Bob Cote founder of Step 13) is an utter failure and waste of public money.
I will occasionally give a dollar or few to a talented street musician because I appreciate musical talent. I haven't done it in a while, but it used to work at the Marian House soup kitchen in a Colorado Springs. It's very clear that most of the homeless have drug addictions or mental health problems. There are very few that simply choose to be homeless. Unfortunately, there are also relatively few who will jump at an opportunity to get off the streets. If you want to help these people, a soup kitchen is a good and humbling place to start. Beyond that, there are many outreach charities that offer opportunities to clean them up and get them on their feet. Here in Colorado Springs, there is a "Veteran Stand Up" day (in November, I think) that is basically a job fair. Volunteers lead homeless vets around the fair and get to know them while getting them cleaned up and leading them around to stations that help get them going again.
This is my exact thought process. What exactly are they doing that they don't have a SINGLE friend or relative that will let them sleep on a couch until they have the money to rent a room? How many bridges have they burned that there is NO ONE who cares about them enough to ensure they don't sleep in an alley?Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
The one and only scenario I feel for are vets who are so emotionally and mentally scarred that they sleepwalk/lash out/have psychological episodes that make it too dangerous for them to stay in a relative's home. And the disposable nature of vets in the govt's eyes means the VA will do next to nothing about it. Unfortunately, a lot of the drug-addicted street cretins will buy some BDUs at the Goodwill and claim to be a vet to cash in on that sympathy. At which point I'm left to a default of no.
Hell, if I lost my job I'd be embarrassed to say I was on unemployment and welfare. I grew up in a single parent home and was quite poor. Didn't have shit. Had to work for everything I had because there was no money. That's a good, hard lesson to learn right there about working hard for what you have. I have too much pride in myself to stoop to begging. In an insensitive prick so fuck them.
I carry gallon ziplock bags of prepackaged food in the truck. I hand them out every chance I get. If they're really hungry, they get fed. If they're scamming, I'm only out some food items that were close to expiring in the pantry.
As Michael Jordan says, "If they can ask you for spare change they can say 'Welcome to McDonalds, can I help you please?'"
i was in SF back in the Christmas of 2000. A guy came up to the window and asked for $100. I said "what for?"
"That new PS2 that just came out"
I separate the homeless and beggers. A good portion of beggers have a place to sleep and are employable.
I hate buskers more than beggers. Plopping your ass down, in front of a business, and (attempting) playing your guitar for hours on end is just plain inconsiderate. Add singing and it's fire hose time.
Just a week or so ago, I had a lady roll up to me in a Home Depot parking lot in a nice Suburban. She put on her sad face and told me a story about how she blew all her money on this tank and now she needs gas money to make it to Green Rivers (sic). I told her that's a long drive and she wouldn't make on one tank, good luck.
Once a kid asked me for cash while I was down drinking in Denver. I told him no, but offered him a pull off a cigar I was smoking. He opened his jacket and had a nicer cigar in his pocket already. This thread is making me angry.
No, stranger, I won't buy you a drink, but would you like to slobber on my cigar???? Just...Wow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irving
I told you I was drinking.Quote:
Originally Posted by crays
Yeah, I got that part, but I had to rib you a bit. [Coffee]
Oh I knew it was coming. It was the first thing my friend said to me while it was happening.
Don't get me started.....I can't stand beggars.
But in all fairness, I have to say that I've encountered a few, very few, that obviously looked like life had shit squarely upon them and were lucky to even be out begging. I've seen guys that had been severely burned or badly injured and were obviously struggling to just survive and even just get around, and felt bad because I didn't have a dollar on me to help them out. But they're rare exceptions. The drunks and the junkies, I wouldn't piss on 'em if they were on fire. But the ones that really piss me off are the kids - the teens and twenty-somethings that are obviously just lazy goddamn punks.
Now that CO has made pot legal, there's been a huge influx of turds migrating here just so they can legally smoke weed. And guess what? Nobody will hire these dreadlocked, tattooed, pierced, smelly turds even if they DID want to work! "Let's legalize marijuana, it won't cause any problems!" Oh no, not at all.
Grrrrr
For the record, I do not equate busking with begging. If done correctly, busking is a voluntary performance in exchange for gratuities. Most buskers perform in public areas and do not block traffic, although if they are good, the crowds they draw can sometimes block pedestrian traffic.
To me, good buskers earn anything I choose to give them. Bad buskers just cause me to walk away a little quicker. Squeegie people are not buskers [facepalm]
I just wanted to add that distinction to the mix, as for me, it seemed relevant.
This summer, I went to Telluride for the 1st time in a few years. Our group decided to have lunch in the park and there were two 20 something year olds playing hacky sack. Listening to them you could tell they were stoned and were smoking weed in public. As we were leaving they approached us and asked if they could have what was left in the cooler. I said no. They asked why, and I asked them why do they deserve any of our stuff, what have you done to earn this? This was a play off of what I heard them chatting about, how they couldn't get a job, how the gov was wasting money on the military, THC = total hacky control and other nonsense. They kept following us to the parking lot, get a bit more aggressive in their asking. Well as soon as I open the hatch of my truck to put the cooler in, I think they saw the rifle case in the back and quickly disappeared.Quote:
Originally Posted by rondog
But this is the 1st time I had been to Telluride and saw this type of begging. I have seen them on the main street playing music, but not like this. Coincidence with the new pot laws? I think it is a direct consequence of the new laws. I have nothing against people using drugs, but this is the reason we need drug testing for gov handouts, let Darwin win a few more times.
A few months back I got hit up by a guy asking for money outside an Einstein's I frequent. Asked the guy what he wanted the money for, he said he was hungry. I took him inside, gave a $5 the guy behind the register (I'm a regular, they all know me), pointed out the beggar and said the $5 was for food/drink for him. Walked over to my table and finished my coffee while I read the paper. The beggar came over to me after and wanted to give me a buck and change that was left over (their bagels and coffee are cheap). I could see that he did indeed eat. Yes, I took back the change and gave it to the guy at the register to "hold" in case someone ever came in and were short some cash for food. A couple of days later I was told that it went to good use.
Beggar vs Hustler
I worked about 9month at a gas station cross road of LongBeach and Compton Blvd. I've seen it all that I even hustle the hustler on the street.
90% of those beggars and hustlers are up for no good.
You're blind if you think this is new because of marijuana laws. I knew guys like that when I started going to college in '05. And the only way pot will ruin your life is if the cops decide to bust you for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric P
Notice that I wrote "decent music". Crap gets crap. You're not gonna have to start banging some bongos soon in front of VNBC are are you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ah Pook
Or if your employer cans you because you come up hot on a random test.....Quote:
Originally Posted by Ridge
Or you can't get a new job because every prospective new employer tests you and you fail, because you won't stop smoking "because it's LEGAL, and I have RIGHTS".....
Or you get pulled over for some traffic infraction, you're found to be under the influence, and have weed on you, AND you happen to have your CCW pistol on you or a loaded handgun in your glovebox.....
Or you get kicked out of your apartment or rental house for smoking weed "because it's legal and I have rights", despite clear rules prohibiting usage on the property written in the lease that you signed.....
Etc., etc.....
That may not matter soonQuote:
Originally Posted by rondog
http://www.cpr.org/news/story/colora...ical-marijuana
That's not because of pot. That's because of DUI. And smoking marijuana keeps you from passing a background check, not from owning a firearm. Nothing so far suggests you will lose a CCP because of it, either.Quote:
Or you get pulled over for some traffic infraction, you're found to be under the influence, and have weed on you, AND you happen to have your CCW pistol on you or a loaded handgun in your glovebox.....
That's up to the property manager. It's not going to ruin your life to find a new apartment.Quote:
Or you get kicked out of your apartment or rental house for smoking weed "because it's legal and I have rights", despite clear rules prohibiting usage on the property written in the lease that you signed.....
Etc., etc.....
After tomorrow I'm leaving my options open. I do have a couple of HD 5 gallon buckets... Stocking up on cardboard sign material too.Quote:
Originally Posted by GilpinGuy
Pot laws haven't had much effect. We get the drainbows every year. The more recent crop is more needy. They get off the bus expecting to be taken care of. When they are given a sad dose of reality, they usually get back on the bus and go away. The scammers stick around longer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ridge
Funny (or not) EricP's contact isn't uncommon. Some people just don't get no.
a few summers ago, this ok looking chick walks up to me in the west side kingsoupers parking lot and told be a sob story about getting ditched by her boyfriend here, and needing a ride to las animas. I asked, "the street"? and she tells me she needs to get to the town. I laugh and tell her she could borrow my cell phone, but insisted on a ride. I told her no, and she dissapears.
I hear from a family friend in LE that they usualy have you drive somewhere they have someone waiting, and rob you of everything, sometimes even your car.
three weeks later, I see this same chick, lower cut shirt than before, but this time in the walmart parking lot. She tells me the exact same sob story, but asks for money for a pay phone. I tell her she can suck me off for $10, she calls me a perv, and storms off.
about a month later, she comes up to me in the big 5 parking lot, starts to tell her story, sees its me, calls me an asshole, and storms off again.
Either she was litteraly the wost judge of dudes, and was realy getting ditched 90 miles from home, or she was a theif. She was not however a parking lot porn star. I probably used that ten for a range fee that weekend.
This. I have one cousin who I no longer even consider family. He is specifically written out of my will; I'd rather have anything left go to the Humane Society than his lazy dope-smoking con-running arse.Quote:
Originally Posted by cstone
That's a load of crap. Yes, many people can smoke pot without ill effect but there are people for whom pot takes away all incentive to work or get ahead. You might argue those people were already lazy but pot is an enabler for them. Depending on the case, it can be more of an enabler for their laziness than beer or liquor.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ridge
On the bright side of things, I used to offer street food to the vent men near my college. Only had one who didn't accept and eat the food gratefully so not all beggars are scum - but I still won't give out cash or even take notice of the ones begging in the street.