Comments about ‘Salt Lake City drops cases against panhandling’

As I've said before, I sometimes give to those holding signs asking for help/money. I've given rides to those hitchhiking too. But just one thought came to me as I considered the problems involved with both hitchhiking and panhandling: if the person who is holding the sign or hitchhiking is in an area that has heavy traffic - and therefore a greater chance of receiving a ride or a handout - then they are also in an area that could be seen as dangerous for motorists to stop or slow down enough to offer aid. Recently I saw a vehicle in front of me slow down to hand money to a man on at a busy intersection. The light was green so we were all proceeding forward so this slowed me down and then those behind me. I'm lucky to have not been rear-ended.

These panhandlers need to be controlled.

Barnard needs to be spanked. Panhandling is not free speech. The Constitution guarantees my rights not to be bugged by panhandlers. Read the Preamble some time. My Domestic Tranquility is constantly messed up when a pan handler comes up to me asking for a hand out.

Isn't it against the law for people to falsify and lie to get money?

When the same pan handlers tell me the same story week after week. For example one classic lie, is that they need to get to Idaho and need money for a bus ticket. They have a family friend that can repay you if you give them your address. But lo and behold they are here a month later with the same story that they need to get to Idaho because someone passed away. Even better when they claim their car is broken down. When you ask where the car is they tell you an address about a mile away. But they always have family on the way but just need the cash right now and will repay you when the family arrives.

I'm tired of being lied to by these people who have done nothing but lie and take from those that do work. I explain to them that they can get a job just like anyone else. If they can beg for months, they can be a cashier or a janitor or anything at that point.