Are the tourists being harassed along the banks of that open sewer that runs downtown? Maybe the beggars could just get TF accounts and wishlists. Teehee!

ZAZ: CraicBaby

I read the article. Aggressive panhandlers are a problem. The city's solution is to pass a new law. My solution is to let panhandlers know there's a man in town who will shoot them if they ask him for money.

You sound scared.

San Antonio is in the panhandle? Wow... thought I knew where the major Texas cities were...

Diogenes: Technically, it is illegal for panhandlers or solicitors of any sort to stand in the traveled portion of the roadway, but the law is seldom enforced.

So the standing law fails because it's not enforced. The solution? Let's make a new law that penalizes the people already being harassed!

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but "Fix old, no new."

Yeah, because giving a panhandler a fine or jail time is going to scare them? Do the same to those bastards that give out the money and keep em around.... maybe, just maybe .... eh it wont work.
/would love to see someone fined for giving out money.

REMEMBER THE ALAMO!
http://tinyurl.com/ycgotrd
(copy and paste)

TheOther: Are the tourists being harassed along the banks of that open sewer that runs downtown? Maybe the beggars could just get TF accounts and wishlists. Teehee!

sewer? damn, i hope you aren't talking about the river. i freakin' bathed in that thing once.

I'd give that guy a buck just for creativity.

FTA: "Technically, it is illegal for panhandlers or solicitors of any sort to stand in the traveled portion of the roadway, but the law is seldom enforced."

Geez, is this the best politicians can do? Make another law that'll probably hurt people it wasn't intended to hurt when the current system can't even properly enforce the laws in place?

NO WOAI!

I farking hate beggars.
Got more respect for thieves than beggars.

Signs like the one he's holding might have been funny 15 years ago, but in today's day and age, he's begging for an asymmetric response from a gun owner in a bad mood.

If you are in your car and you give money to somebody who walks up to you, I could see how the government could define that as a moving violation.

But what about when two people are face-to-face in the street? Thanks to politicians and their campaign contribution laws, money has been established as another form of speech. So, this law aims to disrupt free speech between the people.

A city could argue that being a beggar is a profession, and that one requires a license to do so. You could then regulate them into oblivion.

2wolves: Solty Dog: Time to round em up, give em a gun and ship em off to war.
Let them be useful somehow.

That may be the least well thought out idea of 2010.

Dunno about that... There's been so many just from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue alone.

you are a puppet: ZAZ: CraicBaby

I read the article. Aggressive panhandlers are a problem. The city's solution is to pass a new law. My solution is to let panhandlers know there's a man in town who will shoot them if they ask him for money.

You sound scared.

You sound poor.

/

(What someone who needs a drink looks like)

Merky: /

(What someone who needs a drink my penis looks like)

FTFY

voodoowizard: /would love to see someone fined for giving out money

That's complete bullshiat. The government has no business telling me who I can give money to. No way that's constitutional.

/Have never given money to a panhandler.

mrEdude: I farking hate beggars.
Got more respect for thieves than beggars.

You'd rather someone break into your house and steal your TV than ask you for a dollar outside of 7/11?

Dinjiin: If you are in your car and you give money to somebody who walks up to you, I could see how the government could define that as a moving violation.

But what about when two people are face-to-face in the street? Thanks to politicians and their campaign contribution laws, money has been established as another form of speech. So, this law aims to disrupt free speech between the people.

A city could argue that being a beggar is a profession, and that one requires a license to do so. You could then regulate them into oblivion.



These guys agree.

"The government"!

"Potato salad"!

mvalpreda Stupid black Irish women. We all knew this day was coming when the lazy and shiftless blacks meet up with the lazy, shiftless, and drunk Irish.

silent tom: TheOther: Are the tourists being harassed along the banks of that open sewer that runs downtown? Maybe the beggars could just get TF accounts and wishlists. Teehee!

sewer? damn, i hope you aren't talking about the river. i freakin' bathed in that thing once.

Yeah, that's why it's a sewer now.

TheOther:

Are the tourists being harassed along the banks of that open sewer that runs downtown?



0/10

Your panhandling signs. Show me them.

Ball Zitch: silent tom: TheOther: Are the tourists being harassed along the banks of that open sewer that runs downtown? Maybe the beggars could just get TF accounts and wishlists. Teehee!

sewer? damn, i hope you aren't talking about the river. i freakin' bathed in that thing once.

Yeah, that's why it's a sewer now.

sigh....keyboard/monitor...all that.

The 'original'

A lot of panhandlers are not homeless. A lot of them don't want to work. I've seen a few that I think are real and if my gut tells me they need some help I'll give them money.

Once I gave $5 knowing it would more than likely go for booze. Like eddiesocket said, it's my money and I should be able to give it to whom I want to, even beggers.

If you are going to have a law about panhandlers, it should be they can't directly come up to you to ask for money. Make it illegal to come up to the cars to ask for money.

Dinjiin: If you are in your car and you give money to somebody who walks up to you, I could see how the government could define that as a moving violation.

But what about when two people are face-to-face in the street? Thanks to politicians and their campaign contribution laws, money has been established as another form of speech. So, this law aims to disrupt free speech between the people.

A city could argue that being a beggar is a profession, and that one requires a license to do so. You could then regulate them into oblivion.

Lots of people may have read the article, but apparently few understand it.

They aren't able to enforce the law because A) beggars can't and won't pay the fines, and B) there's no space in jail to put them without letting more serious criminals go free.

So it doesn't matter if you make it a profession, enforce the existing law, make up a new one, whatever. Nothing phases them. I doubt they'd care if you DO put them in jail. 3 hot meals and a roof is better than what they subsist on (detox and lack of alcohol might be a problem).

So the city is looking at how it might disincent the other half of the transaction. That one they COULD enforce.

PawisBetlog:
So the city is looking at how it might disincent the other half of the transaction. That one they COULD enforce.

All they have to do is change the penalties for the existing laws to be doing community service, then they'd have no legitimate excuse for not enforcing the law. The stated intent with the proposed law is to "move the problem" by driving the panhandlers into a shelter, which is as unconstitutional as interfering with people's freedom of association.

/get the beggars to clean-up that open sewer, for starters

I just despise the ones that aren't even trying. Come on! Shaking a cup at me is not entertaining. Do something interesting to watch. Then I might consider throwing some spare change your way, but probably not. Don't do that sympathy crap by bringing your dog with you (Think of the dog!), or your baby, or sobbing for five hours straight. I see through that and I see you are just lazy and have a place to live.

Dexter's Next Victim yes, a lot of homeless people are not at all homeless. It seems every year a local TV station does an "investigative report" where they watch a panhandler all day, complete with following him when he is done for the day in his SUV on his way to his very nice suburban home. The best policy is to just shake your head saying, "No" or to say, "Sorry, I can't help you."