Another photo of the fake Spare Change guy

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

I took a photo of the fake Spare Change guy at Kendall last night. (For those of you who haven't heard about this before, here's the Boston.com article about it.) I noticed that the photo anomie666 posted here in March isn't available anymore, so I figured I'd post mine.

Needless to say, he wasn't happy I took his photo. He came up and yelled at me, calling me a "skinhead" and saying, "You couldn't even sell yourself, because you're bald!". For the record, while my hair is very short, I am neither bald nor a skinhead, in any sense of the word. ;-) I was a little worried he was going to try to take my phone, but he didn't make any moves to touch me or my stuff.

Please pass this photo along to anyone you know who rides the Red line in Cambridge/Somerville. What do folks think: Is it worth it to email it to the local newspapers or the MBTA? It seems like the Spare Change people are well informed about who he is, so I don't think they really need a photo.

Comments

[cos]

If your way of making ends meet were to cheat people, though, I think it'd be legitimate for them to do that to warn each other away from being cheated. If this guy were not cheating people, then there'd be no need to warn people away from him, but since he is, a photo is very useful: people who see the photo can recognize him and prevent being cheated.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Yes, and he's not only cheating me (which, whatever)--he's cheating other homeless people who are working hard to make Spare Change work as an organization, and to make some money from their (authorized) Spare Change sales.

Think about it (not you, cos, the person who's all pro-Scammy McScamster)--if someone has a bad experience with this guy, they might assume that all the legit, hard-working Spare Change vendors are also abusive con artists. That would deprive a lot of people of an opportunity they value, just so this guy can get his $$.

If he wanted to sell Spare Change, he could have gotten a badge and papers and been a legitimate vendor. What he's doing is ripping off passersby and hurting fellow homeless people by doing so. I think that naming that behavior is actually supporting homeless folks in general, since most homeless people are honest and just trying to get from day to day, just like everyone here.