"chosen profession"

[Mondo]

May be a better alternative for women than stripping for their college tuition;)

 

 

 

 

COOS BAY, Ore. - A police survey says panhandlers outside Wal-Mart in Coos Bay can make $300 a day. Inside, it takes a clerk a week to make that much.

 

Police say people who have a problem with that needn't look to the law - asking for money is considered protected free speech.

 

Coos Bay authorities say most panhandlers are not criminals.

 

Coos Bay Police Captain Rodger Craddock says most have lived in the city a long time and they actually have homes. Craddock says, "This is just their chosen profession."

 

He says most are docile, and that people should report those who are not.

 

Bob More, director of housing and emergency services at South Coast Community Action, says many panhandlers are there for the money - to feed their addictions.

 

He suggested a voucher system involving tickets people could give that are good for a meal or bed in a shelter.

[yellowss7]

I worked in Downtown Philly for 20 years. One day while waiting for a friend for lunch I watched a young guy with a baby in a stroller as he asked passerbys for money "since I lost my job and have to feed my baby"

 

My friend was late and during the 15 minutes I watched he raked in a nice haul, I'd say 50% of the people he asked gave him a buck or two.

 

Shortly before my friend arrived I watched him go halfway down the block and into the State Store ( a Liquor store in Pa.) Out he comes with a bottle in a brown paper bag, stuffs it in the stroller and hands it off to his wife or girlfriend and she starts the action all over.

 

Never given to a panhandler since.

 

Tom

[gjslutz]

I was in Seattle some years ago picking up a A/C. Another person was driving and when we stopped at a light there was a proclaimed homeless man there with a sign asking money for food. He asked me to reach in the back seat and get two boxes of cookies. After he gave them to him, he told me, he never gave money for their drug habit, just food. I thought it was a great idea.