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3 homeless people beaten, 1 dead, 2 critical condition. >:(

That is so sick. I posted a link which had similar traits by a millionaire in the UK.

Interesting dichotomy...we recoil in shock at these acts, but then, Florida, on the same page, is trying to criminalize homelessness.  Sort of a NIMBY issue...

Of course, in New York, some homeless people would smear a grimy rag all over your windshield unless you paid them (or so I've heard...it may not be true...)

Of course, in New York, some homeless people would smear a grimy rag all over your windshield unless you paid them (or so I've heard...it may not be true...)

I speak as I find. On a recent trip to London I smiled at a homeless chap settling down for the night in the Tube station. He was kind enough to direct me to the platform I wanted without me even asking. It saved me getting lost & I felt guilty afterwards for not giving him something for his trouble but he didn't seem to expect it.

While I do feel bad for them, I don't give them money. I mean, for all I know that $2 I give him he could turn right around and get some heroin and shoot up. How could I know? And if they aren't a drug addict, well I guess I'm going to hell.

I understand people have hard times and desperately need money..I don't mind someone coming up to me and asking for an extra dollar to by him and his wife a sandwhich or something...

what I do not like is the person who comes up to me at the gas station and says the following:

"Yo man, you gots some money so I can run over to the KFC and by myself a bucket of chicken?"

At the time I had only 5$ in my pocket and that was my lunch money for almost two weeks! And he wanted enough money to go buy a bucket of chicken for himself?

Then you've got the people standing on the side of the road day after day looking for money....ummm quit standing there and go out looking for a job like the rest of us.....

rant over

While I do feel bad for them, I don't give them money. I mean, for all I know that $2 I give him he could turn right around and get some heroin and shoot up. How could I know? And if they aren't a drug addict, well I guess I'm going to hell.

That's up to you but if I drop some loose change in their cup I don't think what they use it for is any of my business. I learned a very valuable lesson many years ago when my marriage was breaking up. My solicitor (lawyer) looked me in the eye & asked me if I'd seen the poor devils swigging meths in the parks in Brighton. When I said yes he told me that many of them were ordinary people that had been through a rough time like me & lost everything. He said if I wasn't careful I might be joining them. That gave me something to think about.

The thing that gets me though, are normal people (your definition of "normal") who come up and ask for money.  

An example would be last month my dad and I went down to Trenton to pick up my sister at the train station. We were standing on the platform waiting for the train, and this random guy comes up telling my dad, and I quote;

Heya, buddy. Listen, I'm from Long Island. My sister's supposed to be on this train but she got on the wrong one and is going to Hoboken. I'm out of cash and I have just about enough gas to make it to the gas station. Could you lend me twenty bucks?

First how I knew he was lying is that rail dosen't go to Hoboken. Secondly, if you're in that kind of jam, you don't go up to random strangers asking for money. You go to the police so they can sort it out.

Why he asked for money? Dunno. However I'm pretty sure it wasn't for him to buy gas to drive to Hoboken.

The thing that gets me though, are normal people (your definition of "normal") who come up and ask for money.

Depends on your definition of normal. Some are genuinely homeless but many are not. In fact I've heard that some make a better living at it than many people doing an honest job of work. They give the others a bad name. There are plenty of rogues about in all walks of life.

Some of these people can be very aggressive & demanding money with menaces is against the law in this country. This is unfortunately becoming more common now but it's a mistake to class them all the same.

Yeah well.. I guess we should all be glad for what we have.

When I worked downtown, we literally had to come up with criteria for which homeless people we would give money too.  In the end, it came down to if they were "businessmen"-twice, while we were in the train concourse getting lunch, a guy would come up, very polite, compliment us, and ask for some money for lunch.  We had no problem giving money to people like that. Outside of that, you can't simply give to every person and there's no reason to feel sorry about it.

While I do feel bad for them, I don't give them money. I mean, for all I know that $2 I give him he could turn right around and get some heroin and shoot up. How could I know? And if they aren't a drug addict, well I guess I'm going to hell.

thats th recent problem with society. you want to do a good deed like help a homeless person by donating money, but you DON'T know what they're going to do with it. it's saddening...

Ramos

Thats the recent problem with society. you want to do a good deed like help a homeless person by donating money, but you DON'T know what they're going to do with it. it's saddening... Ramos

It's not that recent and I encountered it when I was quite young (I had more to my name when I was underage than now ).  Then there was the time I actually bought a packet of tuna for a guy rather than give him the money he was begging for.

 A while back I was going into a local pawn shop where I always find awesome deals on music equipment and I was approached by a rather ragged looking woman who asked me for five dollars, of course I didn't give it to her because I never carry cash and even if I did have it I wouldn't have given it to her.
 So I head on into the pawn shop and start looking at the guitars and other gear when pretty soon the same woman comes into the store and proceeds to buy a gigantic boom box, I wondered how long it took her to beg for enough money to buy it.

 The other thing I sometimes see is these guys standing at intersections with the "will work for food" signs, maybe they should take the money they use to buy the cigarettes they always seem to be smoking and buy some food instead, or instead of working for food, maybe they should work for money like normal people.

Having lived and worked in London for some years I had got used to the passive beggars, when I arrived here I discovered that the beggars are rather err forward.
I only got it wrong once, I was in Budapest and didn't have any experience of beggars here and I got accosted in the street when one grabbed me.... alas having worked in one of the roughest parts of London for a year my reactions kicked in that anyone grabbing me was trying to mug me so I spun around and KO'd the bloke. Then my mate asked me why I'd punched his lights out when he was just asking for money