We’ve Found Possibly The Best Reason Why You Should NEVER Give Money To Panhandlers!

I have a member of my family that does fairly well for himself. He runs his own business and while he is not wealthy, he has more than an ample amount of discretionary income. Once a week, he will go to this park in the town he lives in where several homeless people tend to congregate. He will pass things out to them.

He will hand out little six bottle cases of water, he will give them non perishable food and he will do whatever he can to make sure that they get a meal in them that day. He has done this since he married into the family and I have been on a couple of these excursions with him. Not one time has he given anybody money. The reason he told me is that you can’t get drunk off a jar of peanut butter.

Giving money to someone that’s panhandling can be an extremely foolish proposition. I recall when I was ten or eleven years old walking out of a grocery store with one of my aunts when this guy claiming to be homeless, with a dog in tow mind you, asked us for money. My aunt said she couldn’t do it and kept on walking.

The very next night I was waiting in the car with my uncle outside a different grocery store when this same guy came up to the car with, get this, a garbage bag full of tennis balls wanting to sell them for gas money. I asked him where his dog was and he got REALLY nervous and just walked away…

People who give money to the homeless do so to feel good about themselves for helping someone down on their luck. The reality is most bums are drug addicts and drunks who use that money to feed their additions. Much like feeding wild bears makes them unable to fend for themselves, giving money to panhandlers means they will never get their shit together and be productive members of society. This fact that liberals deny was demonstrated perfectly by some cops in Wyoming.

The Cheyenne, WO Police Department arrested a bum recently and put details about on their Facebook page: Yesterday, July 22, we arrested a transient for public intoxication. This is a person we frequently deal with, but we want to illustrate that there are better ways to help the transient population than to give them money for panhandling. This person collected $234.94 in just a few hours of asking for money. Rather than feeding someone’s alcohol addiction, you can donate directly to local charities such as the Comea Shelter where your money will assist the homeless in a much more effective way.

There are a couple of amazing things here: First, this bum made $235 in couple of hours, when most people who bust their asses don’t make that in an 8-hour work day. The second is that a bum hauled in this sum of money panhandling in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where I’m assuming most people don’t make this kind of money working hard all day.

The Cheyenne PD was bombarded with comments from liberals who were appalled that they arrested this guy and took a picture of his money. Some were pissed that the cops “stereotyped” homeless people as drunks and drug addicts, despite the fact that this bum was drunk when he was arrested, which by the way is the reason he was arrested. Others accused the police of arresting this panhandler just to steal his money.

There was so much outrage from the left that the police had to issue a response to explain to liberals how shit works in the real world: We want to clarify several things regarding this post. This person was arrested for public intoxication, having an open container of alcohol, urinating in public and refusing to obey commands. Subsequent to that arrest we logged in his property for safekeeping. Of course this money is his and will be returned to him when he is released from jail. The money is counted and all of his property is inventoried so that it can be returned to him upon his release. This is standard for every arrest we make in which property is held for safekeeping.

Now here’s a question for outraged liberals who think it’s inhumane to arrest bums for breaking the law: Do you think this guy was going to use that $235 to A) rent a room, clean himself up, buy some decent clothes, and get a job or B) get totally and thoroughly f*cked up? Anyone who said “A” is not living in reality.

Read More