Persistent panhandling with a child

[iris lilies]

You social workers and SJWs care to comment on the following?

In my neighborhood is a woman who panhandles with a child in tow. The little girl is about seven years old. I've seen this duo twice last week, I've seen them before, I distinctly remember seeing them last March on a Sunday when it was a nice day outside.


The last time I saw her, I watched where she was going, I got out of my car walked over to the business where she was headed, and I sat on a bench outside to listen to her spiel which went something like this " can you help me out with something? My daughter is hungry."


Having ascertained that she is in fact panhandling, I called the cops. It is wrong to parade a child around on the streets and as a prop. This is an ongoing gig, it is not a one time emergency request for help.


Comments? I posted this event on our neighborhood chat list and got a couple of responses which were surprisingly calm. No shit storm followed, a surprise for NEXTDoor. In another post I will tell you what I learned about this pair.

[bae]

See, if we had a system of publicly-funded childcare/daycare, this poor woman could work in peace!

[Ultralight]

This is messed up!

[iris lilies]

This is messed up!

But not unusual in my neighborhood.

[iris lilies]

According to a neighbor who posted on Nextdoor (and took me to task for saying this mom was using her daughter) they live in a homeless shelter, presumably one downtown about a mile from my neighhborhood. The woman brings her child to my neighborhood because we have a nice public park that is safe for her daughter. Accordong to the post, the woman and her daughter are the nicest and most grateful people she knows, and they love dogs! They dont want money. This has been goong on for a couple of years. The woman has an illness and also cancer, and the daughter cant eat wheat or nut products, so that limits what they can get a food pantries. All this courtesy of a post on Nextdoor.

Meanwhile, another neighbor contacted me privately to say, yeah, the woman panhandles for money, he sees them do it. And he had some empathy for the pair until he observed them stealing dog biscuits from a bowl set outside at a restaurant, and they the offered a bIscuit to each dog they met up with. That is their "in" for talking to people on the street, they chat up the dog owner, and a lead in for asking for "something" (i.e. Money.)

It is hard to know what is really going on, but I think its not a bad move to call the police and let them interview this woman and sort it out. Often the police are well acquainted with street people of an area.

Teacher Terry, to your point, I dont know how long she keeps Allie out on the street, but I will say that the days I saw them were nice days, the weather was decent. Not too hot, not too cold. If they are coming from a shelter they may not be able to stay there during the day, but our downtown also has day shelters.

in the world of theft, stealing a few dog biscuits isnt a big deal, not like a shopping cart for instance! Haha.But it is more the routine of it hat bugs ne a little, still, if the little girl likes dogs, it is good entertainment for her to meet and pet dogs.

[Teacher Terry]

Child abuse plain and simple. States usually have laws on the books about how long a child can be kept out without shelter, food, water, etc. One summer when I lived in Wichita pro-lifers spent the entire summer with their kids outside in hot weather picketing an abortion doctor. Some local businesses went under because customers could not get to them. The next summer they tried that shit in Milwaukee, WI. The cops timed how long the kids were out and then arrested the parents and put the kids in foster homes. Needless to say they left Milwaukee and did not ruin the summer like they had in Wichita.

[jp1]

The same thing happens here. There's one woman with one or both of her kids (maybe 4 and 5 years old) that's often near the entrance to the train station. I'm no more inclined to give to them than to anyone else. There's plenty of free food and services here so that no one will go hungry.

[iris lilies]

The same thing happens here. There's one woman with one or both of her kids (maybe 4 and 5 years old) that's often near the entrance to the train station. I'm no more inclined to give to them than to anyone else. There's plenty of free food and services here so that no one will go hungry.

In SF the only panhandler I gave money to was a woman who had a cat with ner. She seemed really off to me, but the cat got to me.

[catherine]

I always struggle with panhandlers. I was compelled to give a couple of bucks to someone the other day in LA, but most of the time I don't. When I was traveling into NYC on almost a daily basis with my kids I started packing an extra half sandwich and offering that to panhandlers, until I learned they weren't interested in tuna on rye.

I can't judge the woman with the child because I don't know the story. If she has other resources for survival at the woman's shelter, it does seem exploitative to parade her child around, but poverty forces some choices that none of us would normally make. So I suspend my judgement on those two.

[mamalatte]

My first thought was, what is the mother's alternative? Perhaps since there is no school during summer, she needs to keep the child with her all day? It might be preferable in some ways if she took the girl to the library or park or some other free place (if any), but that's not going to generate any $$. From the facts that you've given us, they seem to be in a pretty hard place and perhaps the mother is doing the best she can at the moment. I feel like I have read several times that many people can make more money "panhandling" than at low-paying entry-level-type jobs, and most such jobs also would not be compatible with the mom watching the girl, assuming she even could work if she has some sort of major illness. So, it kind of feels complicated to me. I feel for the girl and wish she had a better situation, but don't necessarily judge or feel angry at the mother. What did the cops say/do?