Panhandling as prelude to a robbery?

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

OK, with the current discussion about crime I want to ask an opinion of the group. If you have a couple of youths ask you on the street for money, and they don't look homeless, is it a good idea to call the cops on them as "suspicious persons" or is it just me being suspicious?

Comments

[overstim.livejournal.com]

so, suddenly all homeless people look the same?

or you just somehow innately know when someone is homeless and someone isnt?

Or, its okay to panhandle if youre homeless, but not if youre not?

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

If you're asking for money and hoping people will give you money out of pity, that's one thing.

If you're asking for money and hoping people will give you money out of fear, that's another thing, especially if you're willing to escalate.

I have some sympathy with the position that a bunch of idle youths asking for money are more likely to be the latter than someone who is obviously in bad shape and down on their luck.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

(Not that I especially think well of panhandling in general. But as a crime, it's a long way from robbery.)

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Short answers: yes, yes, no-but-I-understand, and yes.

Long answer: Lots of robberies start out that way, including one reported in today's Journal.

[righteousness-1.livejournal.com]

There was a young guy asking everyone on their way into the T all week for 50c. I complained to the porter who said he would tell him to leave the station as it was not allowed. Old beardy drunks are one thing but an able bodied young guy should get a job. Don't give money to these guys unless you want to encourage begging and possible muggings.

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

He is REALLY obnoxious, and I've seen him get angry and threatening with women.

[jmorash.livejournal.com]

that guy used to hang out in Kendall Square! I'd greet him with a cheery "fuck off" every morning for a while.

[znhoward.livejournal.com]

He moved up to Central for a while, too. Last I saw him was this weekend outside the Davis Store 24. He made the same sing-songy pitch to us when we were stopped at the red light.

Never seen him get angry, but yeah, something about him gets on my nerves.

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

In Central he always asked me for 50 cents. When I said no he then asked for a dollar. That cracked me up every time.

[damsel-ophelia.livejournal.com]

I would if they were showing signs of aggression or harassing me - but if they're just asking for money I wouldn't do so. (And before a fellow hospital employee got stabbed for not giving a panhandler money, I probably wouldn't have thought to call the police over it ever.)

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not talking about agressive panhandlers. I'm talking about people who don't look like panhandlers at all. Believe me, if it was someone who looked down on their luck, who was hitting up everybody for money, and had a "need help" sign, I wouldn't think about calling the cops.

I'm talking about, if a couple teenagers is loitering in a low-traffic area, some random place on the street, not the place where a homeless person would solict change, and they ask you for money, and it's just you and them, you have to wonder.

[damsel-ophelia.livejournal.com]

Huh. *rubs chin thoughtfully* Haven't hit that one before. The low-traffic thing would make me wary, though.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Like (this is also for one of the previous posters) I don't expect everyone who's homeless to have beards and ragged clothes, and I used to work in a homeless shelter.

But there is a certain role that goes along with panhandling, and it includes choosing a place with very high pedestrian traffic. If someone asks me for change in Davis, Porter, Harvard, or Central square, I understand.

But if someone asks me for money in Teele square, yeah, I get suspicious.

[jadelennox]

I knew plenty of summer homeless in high school -- kids whose home lives weren't quite shitty enough to be homeless in a Boston winter, but were shitty enough that they went home a few times a month at most in the summer. There's nothing inhenrently suspicious about a not-poorly dressed teenager panhandling. Unless they act in a threatening manner, there's no reason to stress.

[dmcgettrick.livejournal.com]

It's high time for those punks to get a job then.

that situation happened to me last month

[elements.livejournal.com]

Two high school looking kids stopped me on my street in Ball Sq and asked to borrow my cell phone to call their mom because they were stuck and from Quincy and they couldn't find any place with a pay phone. It just felt very fishy to me because there are so many stores and restaurants around, and I'd think someplace would have a pay phone, or a store that would let them call, etc. And then they wanted money for the T to Quincy but I didn't want to stop walking and open my purse long enough to look for cash in front of them so I kept walking and told them I had no cash and to go to the convenience store nearby for a phone.

It seemed fishy in large part because I was just half a block away from Broadway, with tons of foot traffic and stores, yet they chose to stop to ask me on my quiet street, just far enough in that we weren't in earshot of the Broadway foot traffic. It didn't escape me that there was no-one else on my street and it was dark, so I figured I'd keep walking while responding to them and not engage long enough to provoke something. It pinged wrongly enough that I made sure they had turned the corner before walking up to my own house.

Re: that situation happened to me last month

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

A while back, which is what got me thinking on the matter, is that I had a couple high-school aged kids stop me on Holland St asking for bus fare.

What was odd was, this was a quarter-mile away from Davis, why not ask for change there? Two, one of the kids was on a bike, and three, I grew up around here and believe me, even picking up a quarter off the floor was considered extremely uncool, never mind asking strangers on the street.

[chivesthebutler.livejournal.com]

once i was getting off a bus in south station and this guy asked me for money, he said he needed a few bucks to catch a train...then a few weeks later i saw him in the same place at the same time doing the same thing. annoying. i don't like being taken advantage of.

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

there are always a few people around south station trying that plan. I used to pick up a friend there periodically and they'd always hit me up because I didn't look like I belonged in Boston (as I'm a suburbs kid)

[dmcgettrick.livejournal.com]

The old "I need to take a bus to Worcester ploy" ah yes...

[pushupstairs.livejournal.com]

no one needs to go to Worcester. that should be your first sign that something is amiss.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Too funny.

There was a lady around Davis a year or so ago who asked me three times in two weeks for money to buy a train ticket to see her sister who was in the hospital because she had just been in a car accident that morning. That's one unlucky sister.

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

Older lady, gray hair? Very nice and sweet, like a grandma who bakes cookies? I'd been on the wrong end of that scam too many times to give her anything. I was simultaneously sad for the state of the world if she were telling the truth, yet nauseated that the nice grandma was straight-face scamming people on the street.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sounds about right. What clued me in was she was too rehearsed with her story--if it was me, and I was broke and desparate to visit a sick relative, I would have been freaking the hell out.

Oh, her

[somjournal.livejournal.com]

She stopped me outside the Journal office and gave me the "my sister's hurt" routine. When I grabbed my cell phone and said I would call the cops on her behalf, she called me a bitch and ran away into a waiting car.

[sly-salkie.livejournal.com]

When I was waiting for a train in Philly, a guy actually waited for my boyfriend to go outside and have a cigarette to address me while I was eating, telling me that he needed to go to Jersey so that he could go to the hospital there, and proceeded to show me his gangrened foot and tell me that he had AIDS. Then, when my boyfriend came back and sat down, he called him a racist and got angry when we told him we didn't have enough money to give him.

I also felt terrible for an old woman begging on the street once, saying she was hungry. I didn't have cash, so I bought her a bagel with my debit card. When I brought it out for her, she yelled that there was nothing to drink, and asked for cash.

I wish there was universal panhandler etiquette, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to come with the nature of the job. I also don't like being taken advantage of. I still give to people when I can, but I have gotten a lot more choosy about it.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

I always find myself having the debate of "is it better to give someone money on the street, or give it to an organization that help homeless or poverty-stricklen people?" I always wonder which one ACTUALLY helps hungry people more.

[ifotismeni]

yea, that's an old, old panhandler trick. go pretty much anywhere urban and someone's trying to pass that off on you. i've heard that line in (no exaggeration) boston, nyc, philly, DC, paris.

[mrpet.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of youth homeless in the gay community. Their parents toss them out when they come out. Most come from pretty affluent homes so they may have nice clothes on still. I'm not saying that all youth homeless are safe by any means, but there are quite a few that are not trying to rob you but legitimately have no idea how to survive since getting kicked out of their homes at an early age for something that they have to choice in being.

The "bus to Worcester"

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

I got taken by that once... in Chicago. He wasn't going to Worcester though - I don't recall - maybe Oak Grove. He hit me up while I was in my car waiting for a light. Said he was a teacher stranded on a class trip, shined some teacher ID, was wearing a suit coat and tie. I gave him some $$ and then as I was pulling away I noticed that along with his suit, he was wearing high tops or some such footgear. Doh!

I don't give to pan handlers much any more - esp. the ones who seem to line the traffic stops (Alewife/Mass Ave etc). Maybe it's way non-PC of me but my thought typically is: why don't you get a JOB? But maybe it pays better than any job they could get? There is a woman who is often over on Comm Ave by the BU bridge hitting the traffic and looking abject. I haven't spoken with her so I have no idea what the deal is.