My stupid pet peeves.

[Jackalope]

Since it is starting to get colder up north the annual panhandler southern migration has started. It usually lasts about a month while the local PD and citizenry make them feel unwelcome enough that they move on.

I don't think anything sums up the problem better than seeing them with their sign tied to their bike or leaned against a pole. Your work ethic is so incredibley shitty that even when you're homeless and begging for money you're too lazy to even hold the friggn sign. That's the bottom rank of every possible skill imaginable. It's the very last resort to make money. The requirements only go up from there in difficulty. The shear laziness is SO strong that they don't even hold the damn sign.

 

[Tipmoose]

I will never understand why we don't put more emphasis on combating vagrancy.

 

[Creamer]

Since it is starting to get colder up north the annual panhandler southern migration has started. It usually lasts about a month while the local PD and citizenry make them feel unwelcome enough that they move on.

I don't think anything sums up the problem better than seeing them with their sign tied to their bike or leaned against a pole. Your work ethic is so incredibley shitty that even when you're homeless and begging for money you're too lazy to even hold the friggn sign. That's the bottom rank of every possible skill imaginable. It's the very last resort to make money. The requirements only go up from there in difficulty. The shear laziness is SO strong that they don't even hold the damn sign.

I've seen this in travels, and it sort of strikes me as "new age panhandling." Do you see cars on the road with writing in their back glass saying stuff like "Just graduated college, Venmo me at @________ and buy me a drink!" or something along those lines. I don't particularly care for seeing someone in a $40k SUV asking for a handout, but that's just me.

 

[Buckmaster]

….recently saw a sleeping panhandler at an intersection. Fell asleep in his chair.

 

[Jackalope]

I will never understand why we don't put more emphasis on combating vagrancy.

Because everything a city tries to combat panhandling the ACLU and others immediately file a lawsuit. Our city does it a couple. of different ways. When the homeless try to set up tents on vacant woodblocks that investment groups own. Places like the 4-5 acre wooded lot beside Walmart that a company out of California owns. Code enforcement sends them a letter about it threatening code violations. In that same letter, it includes instructions on how to file trespassing enforcement request with the local PD. That allows the PD to go on the property and remove camps, issue trespassing citations etc. The homeless move to another property but they don't know if that one is legit or not and may end up getting run out again. If they try any public place like under an overpass etc they're told to move on pretty quickly. The city also gives them free bus tickets to democrat shitholes like Mobile & New Orleans. The local PD also offers to give them a ride to a local shelter, if they refuse either of those things they're informed to move along or they will be charged with wilful vagrancy, incarcerated for 10-30 days, and forced to pay a $200 bond upon release. It doesn't take much, you just have to keep bothering them and they move on.

The residents play an active role also. If they're sleeping on a bench, sidewalk, etc it doesn't take long for someone to call in a welfare check to the local PD. The last thing the PD wants is to be doing welfare checks on homeless people, and the last thing homeless people want is to be constantly woken up by the local PD.

They find out pretty quickly this isn't a good place to over winter, but it takes about a month for them to all trickle in.