Mayor Reed pledges aggressively address panhandling

[SoBuKev]

Originally Posted by Mossberg

There needs to be a major push to enforce this on BOTH sides. If you give to a bum and are caught, you should be fined. Screw being PC.

Can someone please drive this home with Reed?

That idea right there would solve the problem by itself and would help pay for the other costs that we incur to handle the homeless.

[cityrover]

and if you are a bum, you will pay the fine? that is even more retarded than thinking you can just do away with bums.

the only way to remove them is to just chase them away, quite literally. load them up and ship them somewhere else. or just make life so unbearable for them they leave..

other than that.. i dont see anything being changed. its sad when the only parts of downtown that are harassment free are those that have 3 cops on every corner guarding the place. i feel like a vip, but wouldnt want to live in such a situation.

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by disgusted with crime

Dear City of Atlanta:
You are such a pretty city. You have such great spirit and talent, yet you elect leaders that often fall short. Here we go again, I want to fix panhandling, but it is hard, well Mayor with all due respect, things are not always easy, so step aside if you already feel defeated and Let Norwood take over because we citizens are disgusted with the crime, panhandlers, day laborers and overall poor crime handling by your predecessor and before

Please call New York City and Chicago and ask them how htye fixed it as starting in the latre 1980s after Dinkens runied the city, Guilliani and bloomberg have cleaned it up, Bloomberg did such a good job, he got a third term and guess what, he works for free, so let's move beyond our whining stage and take hard, measurable, action
YTou may offend a few voters, but you have to govern with the majority and the majority wants to live here safely
Please expand the panhandling ordinance to be citywide, step one, step two actuall;y areest agressive panahndlers and keep them in jail versus letting htme out, let them work for the jail to clean up as the nes claims the jains are dddddirty, etc or let them clean up grafetti and pay them with food and shelter
Let's be real, not lal of these peole want to work, some want money for drugs and drink and why should thye tear apart the city and scare off tourists as tourists are flockign to new york and chicago, but not Atlanta, so that hurts the rets of us because when city revenue is don due to lack of tourists you jack up the mil rate and gauge we good citizens to pay for the ills of the govt in this city that cannot make lawas
so, step up, and get with the issues, no panhandlers, no day loabrers and charge them fees, fiens, arrest them,e tc, but stop this
Thsnk you and very best of luck

It is not hard, just stand tall and don't let the special interest groups get to you
You may only be one term if you don't do what the lobby groups want, but aftwr all if you really care about the public, then you will be happy know we are all safer
it is mor eimprotant fo ru to be safe than for you to be a 2 term mayor, but if you are as good as bloomberg, let's make you a 3 term mayor, but we need proff, not excuse, kind Mr Mayor

Actually if I may correct you.Due to a jump on band wagon mentality instead of fact checking.The blame for NYC crime during the David Dinkins era was a culmination of 30 years of rising crime in which his policies actually did reduce crime well before he left office.

He was hurt by the perception that crime was out of control during his administration, although crime actually declined during the last 36 months of his four-year term, ending a 30 year upward spiral and initiating a trend of falling rates that continued well beyond his term.[4][5] Dinkins also initiated a hiring program that expanded the police department nearly 25%.[6]

Gotham Gazette -- Giuliani's Legacy (http://www.gothamgazette.com/commentary/91.barrett.shtml - broken link) and according to an article written in
2003 by the International Conference on Crime.

[AcidSnake]

I have to agree with Georgia on this one. I despise it when folks try to front on being veterans. I had a young guy downtown told me that he was a military police officer in the Air Force who had PTSD because of service in Iraq. I told him that he couldn't have been a military police officer in the Air Force, because number one, they are called "Security Police", and number two when AF Security Police are deployed OCONUS they are known as "Security Forces". The Air Force is very particular about their lingo.

My progressive tendancies end when guys try to use the Veteran card to scam people. I hope that Mayor Reed goes in hard on the Woodruff Park/Ansley square bums.

Originally Posted by Georgia

I did notice a comment about "many being veterans". Note from a Veteran, many homeless folks are not veterans. The "bum" asking to help a vet is mostly not a vet at all but a poser. Yeah, some of the troop did get into the bottle and drugs and they are out there but small in number. A couple months ago I went bonkers on one of the bums when I heard " hey bro, can you give a Veteran a hand" I said sure, then asked when did ya serve, what branch, then the closer.... What was your MOS and unit. Uba Uba Uba..... True veterans know the military lingo and nothing pisses me off more than a darn poser, esp., when we have our guys in harms way today. Sorry, but that is how I feel about it. Gives the military a bad rap. Of course this is another avenue by the homeless avocates for more money.

[Adric]

When I was in Chicago, I walked from the Sears Tower all the way to Navy Pier and back to the theater district and the loop (about an hour walk) and wasn't harassed even once. I dont know what kind of laws are in place but all of the panhandlers there simply sit on street corners and shake a cup with some change in it. They dont talk to you. Maybe I just got lucky but this is the kind of light I would like to see Atlanta in.

As far as crime is concerned, I think the best weapon against it is education. You can enact all of the laws you want but if someone feels backed into a corner, they're going to find a way out. The United States really needs to emphasize public education and getting families involved (most importantly getting families involved). In a perfect world, I would like to see serious federal tax breaks for families who's children make honor roll at school. I would bet that that would do wonders over the long term as far as crime and staying competetive with other nations -i.e. China, Japan- are concerned.

[jhtrico1850]

Don't take this the wrong way but I was watching the VH1 show about Fantasia and she had a poor brother named Teeny that's living in a homely roach infested apartment. I imagine his situation would be even worse if he didn't have sis being a big star. I think there's probably a lot of folks that are surviving off of welfare and are just trying to get a little extra by pan handling. I saw someone give out $5 to a bum on MARTA the other day, and if he does that enough times an hour he's almost got minimum wage.

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by Adric

When I was in Chicago, I walked from the Sears Tower all the way to Navy Pier and back to the theater district and the loop (about an hour walk) and wasn't harassed even once. I dont know what kind of laws are in place but all of the panhandlers there simply sit on street corners and shake a cup with some change in it. They dont talk to you. Maybe I just got lucky but this is the kind of light I would like to see Atlanta in.

As far as crime is concerned, I think the best weapon against it is education. You can enact all of the laws you want but if someone feels backed into a corner, they're going to find a way out. The United States really needs to emphasize public education and getting families involved (most importantly getting families involved). In a perfect world, I would like to see serious federal tax breaks for families who's children make honor roll at school. I would bet that that would do wonders over the long term as far as crime and staying competetive with other nations -i.e. China, Japan- are concerned.

Not trying to be funny but was it during the 20 below winters that Chicago is known for?LOL.If you gotta stand outside during crazy weather to earn some money,isn't that a bit too much like actually working?lol

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by jhtrico1850

Don't take this the wrong way but I was watching the VH1 show about Fantasia and she had a poor brother named Teeny that's living in a homely roach infested apartment. I imagine his situation would be even worse if he didn't have sis being a big star. I think there's probably a lot of folks that are surviving off of welfare and are just trying to get a little extra by pan handling. I saw someone give out $5 to a bum on MARTA the other day, and if he does that enough times an hour he's almost got minimum wage.

Yeh if she does not cut off some of those family members she is supporting, then she too will be in the welfair rolls.