Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 24, 1992 TAG: 9202240189
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONTY S. LEITCH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BEGGARS CAN BE CHOOSERS
"WILL WORK FOR FOOD"That's what his sign said. He stood by an exit ramp from a shopping center and I whizzed by him, with my eyes turned away, just like everyone else.
That was the right response, I'm told. Maj. Don Shields of Roanoke City Police Department's Patrol Division tells me almost all beggars are running a con. "They know how to play on your conscience," he said.
Indeed, they do.
My first experience with a beggar was more than 30 years ago. I was with my parents on Kirk Avenue; I think we'd just left a movie. A raggedy man approached my father and asked for some money to buy himself lunch. My father gave him something - maybe a dollar - and my little heart swelled with pride. What a kind and generous man my father was!
But then my father carefully explained to me that usually when approached by a beggar, he declined to give money, but offered instead to take the fellow into a restaurant and buy him some lunch. And usually that made the beggar skulk away.
"You mean," I asked my father, "that man was telling a lie?" It was a crushing, if vital lesson, in the sad workings of our world.
Shields thinks there may, indeed, be people on the streets whose requests for money are sincere. But, he reminded me, "There are numerous agencies in this valley to provide help to people in need. Let them seek those agencies out."
"Begging and Soliciting Alms," according to the city code, is a Class 4 misdemeanor. Conviction carries no jail time, but a fine of up to $250 can be imposed. Usually, a summons is issued and no arrest is made, unless the officer has reason to believe the accused won't appear in court or if the accused is without identification.
"For the most part," said Shields, "we don't consider beggars dangerous." But he recognizes that beggars can be intimidating, even aggressive, particularly when they approach women.
"The best response," he said, "is to ignore them, if possible. Just don't respond." If that doesn't work, "give them a very firm `No'."
Under no circumstances, says Shields, should you give a beggar money - "because all you're doing then is supporting an abuse problem.
"Even 27 cents perpetuates someone's alcohol drug abuse," he said, because beggars often work in groups, pooling their "income" and sharing in the rewards.
Easier said than done. And Shields knows this.
"Certainly there's a long history of begging and a biblical precedent for opening your hand and giving freely," he said. But "streetwise beggars know how to play on the guilty conscience of people."
Several months ago, I passed a family parked in front of an abandoned restaurant on U.S. 460. They displayed a sign that said "NEED $ FOR GAS AND FOOD." I was on my way to a funeral and remembering the many generosities of the man who'd died - a man who liked to pretend curmudgeonliness.
I stopped and emptied my wallet into the woman's hand, while her dirty little girl smiled at me from the open back seat of their car.
"These people are very good at selecting their victims," Shields told me. "Sometimes they'll even use a child."
That beggar on Kirk Avenue 30 years ago used a child, too. He used me.
Monty S. Leitch is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.