(So what exactly do you think about this particular issue?
I think the comments which were posted on NashuaTelegraph.com immediately following this article are much more revealing about this subject than the article itself — see initial comment to this particular Thread.
On the one hand, you’d love to help out someone who’s genuinely needy. People are losing their jobs, as well as their homes. It’s really tough to pay your regular bills and buy food for your family to survive.
But on the flip-side of that, what about these panhandlers who post their exploits on Facebook with their i-Pads? Or dress up in more expensive clothes than you or I have? Or drive away from their popular begging spots, much of the time in Cadillacs or some other newer and pricey model vehicle? To donate money to folks like that, would make most people feel as if they’ve just been ripped-off.
And lets not forget that panhandlers who stand out and walk around busy intersections can easily cause accidents, hence that’s probably why most communities initiate laws against jay walking.
So do you think communities like, Hudson NH are just ignorant for denying panhandlers the right to get some money to help make ends meet — or do you feel they’re justified on instituting ordinances to prevent these types of practices?)
Beggars Beware: Hudson (NH) officials examine anti-panhandling ordinance
“We’ve talked to the police department on a number of occasions, and it’s becoming a big problem,” Selectman Ben Nadeau said at the board’s Nov. 26 meeting.
Nadeau said his inspiration for proposing an anti-panhandling ordinance came when he became witness to an accident caused by a motorist giving money to a beggar. Nadeau said the motorist had stopped at a green light to give money to the panhandler when they were rear-ended by another vehicle.
“It’s a big scheme,” Nadeau said. “People are feeding this problem by giving (panhandlers) money.”
Nadeau’s concerns were echoed by Selectman Roger Coutu, who said he hopes that Hudson follows a recent example set by the city of Lowell, which banned panhandling downtown after a controversial vote by the city council earlier this month.
Coutu said he has been in contact with Lowell City Councilor Martin E. Lorrey about crafting a similar ordinance in Hudson.
“The ordinance is well crafted,” Coutu said. “There is one exception that would be for nonprofits.”
Coutu said any anti-panhandling ordinance in Hudson should take nonprofit activities, such as the fire department’s boot drive, into consideration.
Coutu also elaborated on Nadeau’s suggestion that panhandlers in Hudson were operating as part of a “scheme.”
“They’re standing out there … and you can watch them as they leave,” Coutu said. “They go down to their new vehicles.”
Coutu said Nashua is also expressing interest in anti-panhandling measures that would replicate the ones in Lowell.
However, Selectman Chairman Rick Maddox was less than enthusiastic about the suggestion of an anti-panhandling ordinance and said it likely would have little effect.
“I think this is just a case of making an ordinance that isn’t going to do us much good,” Maddox said.
Selectman Nancy Brucker remained silent during the discussion and Selectman Ted Luszey said any ordinance should be geared toward enforcement, should the need arise.
No decision relating to an anti-panhandling ordinance was made at the Nov. 26 meeting but Maddox directed the two main proponents of an ordinance, Nadeau and Coutu, to “continue the search for good stuff about panhandling.”
Maddox said the board likely would revisit the idea of an anti-panhandling ordinance, once more information is gathered, at an upcoming selectmen’s meeting.
Meg Doucette · Operations Manager at Southern NH Emergency Alerts
OK…this video included….the woman has make up on….HELLO???? Make up isn’t cheap! One guy was clean shaven…..REALLY????? I don’t usually judge so quick, but crearly, these panhandlers have better options than vagrancy. If they have records and can’t get tax paying jobs, there are PLENTY under the table jobs out there. Even if you offer to rake yards, shovel driveways when it snows. Don’t just sit there like a bump on a log and expect people to pay u for sitting on ur butt!!! UGHHHHHHHH
· December 3 at 1:16pm
Janet Lefebvre Berry · Nashua, New Hampshire
there out there pretty much every day I see them walking to bridge first thing in the morning and bye 230 there in the store buying beer… if they can stand there all day holding a sign maybe when it snows go looking to shovel driveways for there money I work for mines and wont hand it to them
· December 3 at 2:36pm
Carolyn Goodwin
About time they do something!
· December 3 at 4:29pm
Lawrence Artz · Nashua, New Hampshire
Oh Yes. I just happened to have coincedently observed the Tyngsboro panhandlers for a couple of days in front of the Pheasant Lane mall while getting coffee at Dunkin Donuts. This man and woman…he walks down to the Dunkin Donuts – she has a wireless tablet, he has a cell phone and they leave in this brown Cadillac parked at the donut shop with NH plates. Make no mistake – they are raking in huge coin, and you don’t need a PhD to determine that they do not pay state or federal income tax on that cash.
· December 3 at 5:07am
Rob Bates · Owner at Rob And Big Landscape Design
iv never hopped in a car and left i dont have a car…we are out there cause we need to be….I CANT GET A JOB IF YOU HAVE ONE TO OFFER PLEASE HELP ME THEN CAUSE I WOULD LOVE TO WORK!
· December 4 at 11:05am
Eric Finn
Rob Bates, You may want to change your facebook profile from reading Owner at Rob And Big Landscape Design it may help your cause a bit.
· December 6 at 1:12pm
Mark Scanlon
What’s the difference between standing on a corner panhandling asking for money and sitting behind a town office desk demanding my money? Nothing they take both take my money, get in a nice shiney car and drive away.
· December 3 at 4:09am
Melissa Holmes · SOS/Credit Coordinator at Lowe’s Home Improvement
Keep them out of Hudson. I work, so can they! That guy makes 100$ a day?? WOW. Tax free thats more than I make!
· December 3 at 12:53pm
Chris Berry · Business Analyst at ACS, A Xerox Company
The majority of these people are scammers in my opinion. I have seen to many stories of that being the case. The time it takes to sit down there and beg for money is time wasted. How about earning money the old fashion way by working for it. There are plenty of jobs put there looking for holiday help. There are plenty of resources in NH for people down on there luck. I’m for banning this all the way.
· 18 hours ago
Melissa Troville · Works at Stay at Home Mom
Listen my husband got laid off and within a day later had a new one he didn’t have to hold out a sign asking people for their hard earned money….. And if you’re that desperate to be out in the freezing cold begging then you prob shouldn’t of spent money on the cigarettes I’ve seen you smoking maybe if you put your priorities first then you wouldn’t have to beg… It’s a damn shame
· December 3 at 2:41pm
Erin Cahill Smart · Nashua Community College
We moved into our house a year ago and that same man in the pic has been begging right there on the bridge since we moved to Hudson!!! There’s no way he can’t find any job by now!!! And yes I’ve seen him smoking and at Dunkins!!!!
· December 3 at 2:53pm
Rob Bates · Owner at Rob And Big Landscape Design
for your information.his name is arik and people give us ciggerates…he cant find a job cause he is sick and dying by the way…so before you talk bad about him know that life is never easy..some of us didnt have our lives handed to us on a silver tray…noone wants to hire someone with cancer..you obviously either have no heart what so ever or you are stuck up enough to think your better than all of us….thats not the way life is suppose to be and if you believe in god than def shame on you .open your bible and strat reading…BLESSED OUR THE POOR FOR THERES IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD!
· December 4 at 11:04am
Kailah TheDogfish · Nashua, New Hampshire
Rob Bates how are you on facebook? maybe sell your computer or use it to look for jobs on craigslist?
· December 5 at 6:25am
Daniel Workingclass · Works at Warehouseman
This is disgusting!
· December 3 at 6:14am
Eric Finn
I assume that someone like Rob based off his status saying “Owner at Rob And Big Landscape Design” collects unemployment durring the winter months and is having a hard time making it on just that. and the fact that he is on Facebook responding to these critics says he can afford a phone plan or internet so things can not be that tough. However I think a bigger part of the problem is that when you are strugling and attempt to go to welfare for assistance the guidlines are so out of whack to qualify that unless you live under a bridge in a cardboard box collecting cans or are lying about your income you can not possibly qualify. So you can either cheat the system and collect a check from welfare and live in public housing then turning that check into drugs and resale to make more money, or you can Panhandle and give people the option to help or not. you people are not required to stop and donate regardless of what reasons you think they are doing it for. And these public servants complaining and making acusations that cars are getting rear ended due to this…get off your high horse and take a different rout home if it hurts your eyes after all it is you and others like yourself that have completely cut the middle class out of society with all your money grab laws and taxes. go collect your govt pennsions and govt funded insurance and leave the rest of us to try and survive on our own.
· December 6 at 1:29pm
David Paul
That could just as easily be any one of us out there too; including the Hudson selectmen, who are obviously so complacent with their own situations that they clearly do not realize this fact. Gods forbid that any one of us on this Earth should have to live off the charity of others, but for some people it’s a reality, and banning panhandling doesn’t make it any easier for someone who finds themselves having to resort to it to find a job. Here’s an idea for the Hudson selectmen: maybe they should go out and personally talk to these people and try to understand their situation because they just might have some connections that could help people in need to find food, work, housing, or even all of the above; at least then they’d actually be doing something about the *real* problem here… the only issue with the panhandling itself in this situation is the location its being done at; I do understand the concern about traffic safety… *but…* since every driver is responsible for the person in front of them, the only people who are “causing” accidents are the distracted drivers who should be paying attention to their surroundings regardless of who or what is on the side of the road, not the people begging for help.
· December 4 at 4:35am
David Paul
Finally: Judge not lest ye be judged.
· December 4 at 4:37am
David Paul
I both can and cannot believe the rude, hateful, spiteful, judgmental comments in response to this article and about these people. If the comment “contributors” are so worried about their own pocketbooks and whether they are personally being taken advantage of that they can’t even give someone who is begging for help the benefit of the doubt, then I don’t know what to say for them.
I would say that you who make/made such comments should be ashamed of yourselves, but if you can’t even give a penny without asking yourself whether a person “needs” that penny first, then asking you to be ashamed is probably too much to ask.
· December 4 at 5:02am
Rob Bates · Owner at Rob And Big Landscape Design
THANK YOU FOR BEING UNDERSTANDING…..
· December 4 at 10:51am
David Spears · Custodian at Reformation Covenant Church
I think the issue of panhandling is a very difficult problem for civil leaders. I really feel for cities trying to address this issue. As an aspiring economist, I recently conducted a field experiment to satisfy my own curiosity on just how much money panhandlers can make. I went undercover and spent 80 hours panhandling at an exit ramp. My average hourly wage was considerably north of minimum wage ($8.90 an hour). I also collected interesting data on the people who donated. I wrote about my experiences in a book called Exit Ramp: A Short Case Study of the Profitability of Panhandling. I think any city dealing with this problem needs to acknowledge that there are both those who panhandle because of an inability to get steady employment (mental health issues), and those who panhandle because it is possible to earn good money doing it. Figuring out how to help the one and discourage the other is no easy task.
· December 4 at 12:33pm
John Shea · UMass Lowell
Professional Panhandlers UNITE! Don’t take this abuse from working taxpayers. Panhandling is hard work. Standing on street corners begging for money and taking in donations from guilt ridden chumps takes shameless dedication. No one really appreciates how difficult it is to say “God bless you” without laughing out loud when you take in a score. Go ahead, join one of the Obama favored unions. You may get even more free stuff besides your “Disability” payments, EBT cards, Food Stamps, Cellphones, Who knows? Maybe God will give you what you deserve.
· December 4 at 12:22pm
Cathy Ducharme Souza
I am not a fan of pan handling…that being said, these people do not have new cars. They are drug addicts and as far as I am concerned, I would rather they be on the street asking people to voluntarily give them money then breaking into peoples houses taking what they want. These people should be offered treatment. If they make them stop the panhandling there, they will do it somewhere else and will also probably start robbing people. They no longer have the luxury of just “stopping”.
· December 4 at 4:21pm
Mary Moons Ago
This would force those who panhandle to become more in your face, can’t hold a sign then when they see you walking down the street,especially Main st, will approach you & get in your face about it..I am unsure what may be worse?
· December 3 at 6:44am
Melissa Troville · Works at Stay at Home Mom
I have a huge heart I just won’t give my hard earned money to someone who begs for it ..
So many judgmental people! There are no absolutes in anything. True, there are a fair share of scammers that panhandle. But there are scammers in just about everything. Look around you.
However, there are many truly needy people that are out there panhandling because they have no choice and are just trying to survive.
Its unfortunate that the phonies always ruin it for the genuine.
Stereotyping is everywhere too.
I currently live in my 30 year old van. I get EBT food assistance and I panhandle. Am I a bum?
What if I added that I don’t drink or drug and never had a problem with it? Or that I’m a U.S. Veteran? Or that I used to live a normal life, with a job as a chauffeur? I have a 5 year old laptop and a Tracfone cell phone. I would much rather have a regular job, and am trying to get back on my feet. In the meantime, I do what I have to do to survive.
The next time you want to judge someone, look in the mirror.
I’m not a bum or a bad person. I have, like most of us, hit bumps in the road of life. I didn’t chose this lifestyle.
I pray for people who are in your situation, D.M. But how do we distinguish the “genuine needy” from the “scammers”?
That’s the big question here. I tithe about 10 percent of my gross income to my church, I give another $50 per month to the overseas Missionary program which is also through my church, and then another $26 a year to the Wounded Warrior Project through the Combined Federal Campaign at my work.
But like the panhandlers mentioned earlier on this Thread hanging around the highway entrances of the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua NH, some of these folks are dressed up in a lot more expensive clothes than myself. I feel like these are the types of folks who REALLY exploit sensitive, sympathetic people for all they’re worth. As though, if you don’t give to them, you sort of feel guilty and condemned. On the flip-side, I’d feel like a real schmuck if I were to give one of these panhandlers $5 to $10 a couple of times a week, and then read afterwards in the newspaper that this supposed “needy individual” guestimates that he grosses about $50K annually TAX FREE just for simply begging on the street. Incidentally, if that’s their situation, they’re a lot better off financially than myself.
I fully understand that the employment situation in the United States absolutely sucks right now. It seems like people who were born and raised in this country are now competing with millions of illegal aliens for simple unskilled labor jobs. Even companies paying near minimum wage salaries like Walmart, Home Depot, McDonald’s, UPS, etc., pick and choose their applicants while eliminating people who may have experienced a bad divorce or a traffic violation decades earlier. What ever happened to hiring the best available applicant for any given job?
When Mitt Romney said on the Presidential campaign trail a little more than two years ago, that if elected, he hoped to put America back to work — did that promise HELP his campaign, or actually KILL his chances??? Is the employment situation in the USA honestly any better with Barack Obama running the country for the past six years? I often wonder where the majority of the American people put their priorities these days.
I don’t know. Again, I’ll pray to God for people like yourself, D.M., that He’ll give me the discernment and the wisdom to separate the Scammers from the truly Needy. I thank you for your military service to America, and I hope and pray that God gets you over your “bump in the road” and “back on your feet”. Take care, my friend, and may God bless.
Hudson selectmen reluctantly settles with panhandler
By John Collins
jcollins@lowellsun.com
02/17/2015
HUDSON, N.H. — Settling a lawsuit that was brought against the town by the state’s leading civil-liberties organization, charging that a dozen Hudson police officers “routinely threatened, and violated” a homeless Nashua man’s rights to “peacefully panhandle in public,” selectmen have agreed to pay the plaintiff and his attorneys $37,350 in legal fees and damages.
Jeffrey Pendleton, 24, the panhandler at the center of a 35-page lawsuit filed Aug. 20 in federal court in Concord by the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union on Pendleton’s behalf, will pocket $7,350 of that amount, Selectmen Chairman Roger Coutu announced.
The board voted 3-1 at its Feb. 10 meeting to approve a motion made by Selectman Richard Maddox to heed the town counsel’s advice to pay the settlement amount, using the town insurance company’s money, rather than take the case to a costlier jury trial the town was not likely to win, Maddox said.
“Sometimes the board is forced to do something it does not like doing,” Maddox said on his motion to have Town Administrator Steve Malizia sign the Pendleton case settlement agreement on the town’s behalf. “This is one of those cases where the volume of the opposition is greater than our ability to sustain a legal position. So it is better to settle with our insurance company’s money and move on.
Selectmen Ben Nadeau and Patricia Nichols also described their reluctance to vote in favor of the settlement.
“It’s something we have to do, but I’m not happy with it either,” said Nichols, who seconded Maddox’s motion. “I’m not happy at all, but it has to be done to get it off our books.”
Beyond the $7,350 that will be awarded to Pendleton, the NHCLU stands to receive $28,000, while attorney Christopher Cole of Manchester gets the remaining $2,000 of the settlement amount, reported a highly agitated Coutu, who cast the sole vote against approving the settlement.
Selectman Nancy Brucker was absent from the meeting.
“On principle, I’m going to vote ‘no’ on the settlement, because I don’t believe the ACLU can just shuffle a couple of papers around and get $28,000,” Coutu said before the vote. “I think there are some good lawyers out there that could fight this and win this.”
By conceding victory to the New Hampshire office of the ACLU, Hudson has “opened the door for the Civil Liberties Union … to run rampant in Nashua and every other town they can — as they have been doing in Lowell, Worcester, and everywhere else in Massachusetts and the New York area,” Coutu said.
Referring to Pendleton, Coutu said, “To have this guy violate a town ordinance and the ACLU pick up $28,000, another lawyer $2,000 and the gentleman, who I feel was illegitimately and illegally soliciting funds, to get $7,350 goes totally against my principles.”
In the lawsuit filed by the NHCLU on Pendleton’s behalf, the organization’s lead attorney, Gilles Bissonnette, told the court that from March 2011 to March 2014, “at least 12 Hudson police officers in at least 18 separate incidents told panhandlers that panhandling was illegal, or that a permit was required to panhandle,” Bissonnette wrote. “These panhandlers were then told to be ‘on their way,’ and at least two panhandlers — including Mr. Pendleton — were cited and directed to go to court.
“However, there is no state or town law that makes panhandling in public places illegal or requires a permit for this form of expressive activity,” Bissonnette argued.
In the lawsuit, the NHCLU quoted its client’s published remarks that he was “just trying to get by.”
“And when we go to Hudson, the Hudson police just don’t care if you want to get by or live or anything,” Pendleton was quoted as saying. “They just don’t want you there doing it.”
Describing the plaintiff’s personal history, Bissonnette wrote in court papers that Pendleton is one of five siblings who was raised by a single mother; he graduated from Palestine-Wheatley High School in Palestine, Ark., before he spent “several years” at East Arkansas Community College in Forrest City, Ark.
Since Pendleton’s arrival in Nashua with his then-wife in 2009, “he has steadily worked low-wage jobs,” Bissonnette wrote. “At the time he and his ex-wife divorced in 2013, he lost his job, and his life steadily went downhill. He has been homeless since 2013, and sleeps outside in the woods. He survived the brutal 2013-2014 winter while sleeping outdoors in a tent with blankets. He is not on government assistance, and is working on getting back on his feet again.”
According to the NHCLU’s website, the organization is also currently representing Pendleton in a pending lawsuit versus the city of Nashua, as a result of his May 2014 arrest by Nashua police for “trespassing” in the public park next to the city’s library.
During the public-input segment of the last week’s Hudson selectmen’s meeting, Coutu directed more of his anti-panhandling ire toward another panhandler who has been seen increasingly at busy Hudson intersections, holding signs claiming that he has two children to support, and that he’ll work for food.
“People are stopping and offering this guy a job, and he won’t take the job,” Coutu said. “To me, that’s a scam. … He’s a miniature Bernie Madoff is what he is. A dollar at a time. You’ve seen him on his cellphone. You’ve seen him with his shiny metal briefcase, and with his Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. I don’t mind helping poor people. I do my fair share, as do a lot of us. But it’s not about housing and food. It’s about tax-free money.”
Coutu advised the public to stop giving money to panhandlers in Hudson, and to take videos and photos of any panhandlers who are traffic hazards to provide evidence of same to the police.
Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_27541265/hudson-selectmen-reluctantly-settles-panhandler