ack. point of clarification... i do not think homeless people should be wiped out. i want violent criminals neutralized without draining the resources of our community. id rather my tax money support social programs and not feeding and housing and caring for violent criminals for their entire lives.

You know, DC is mired in the race issue, and I am just glad to have left it behind. DC is a special place. Where I live now, there are problems, for sure, some of them racial, others not--but people aren't as tinged, aren't as pressed to make a statement. I can walk on the street without being abused for my skin colour, for the first time in years, and it feels good.

I might have had a slightly different experience in DC for reasons of carma or otherwise, and I admit to being a sensitive guy, so come on villify the sensitive guy, even gay people are good at that, when they thing straight guys who are cute are watching--remember that from high school?

And sudddenly, bang, as I write this, I remember high school, and I remember that sensible arguments never had any place there.

I'm just pleased its not me getting my jaw broken (though I didn't get 10,000 dollars from the boozers at JRs), its not me dodging bullets, or getting ganged-upon by a whole building full of racists. Glad its no longer me who gets beaten by the police because somewhere in town there's a nazi thing. Glad its not me in the subway car being abused by schoolkids.

I have so much to be glad for, but what worries me, is that no one is changing matters, no one is standing up and making things better, so that other people don't end up making pointless comments on poor jimbo's blog.

Before anyone flips out on the race issue, I never mentioned anything about race. Having lived in Portland, Oregon, I saw my fair share of burnt out, post-grunge, white heroin addict panhandlers too.

I have never been happier than when I moved away from 17th and P street. I don't know who I despise more, the apathetic whites or the racist blacks, but fuck to them both. SF is miles better than DC, homelessness and city issues exist here, but the softer living all around means violent crimes are all but unheard of outside of gangland.

Boy, Jim sure opened a can of worms! I go with Seamus, who has statistics to back his stance.

I agree with you too, Jimbo. I also live in that area and have seen an increase in the number of people asking for money. I ignore them. In an interview, a DC Policeman said that the Dupont area is getting to be more of a target for muggings and robberies because the criminals believe that the people living there have "deep pockets". Also, I believe that all the construction paraphenalia that has been on R Street for what seems like forever provides a perfect place for someone to hide.

Maybe this from a California blogger would help?

Last night, a helicopter was circling a little to the north of my house, its searchlight blazing toward the ground in the vicinity of El Cajon Boulevard. From a loudspeaker on the helicopter, the following words blared, over and over again, for at least twenty minutes:

There have been three armed robberies in the area. If you see three black men, contact the Police immediately.

That’ll be good for race relations in the neighbourhood, then.

http://www.pleonasm.com/

So Einerlei is "still not persuaded by the experiences Seamus cites." Sounds strangely similar to all the Bushites refusing to listen to hard evidence against their beloved "leader." Creepy!

Chrisafer
I was just agreeing with GURL, not suggesting that revive certain Nazi "Cleansing" policies.

This is a serious problem that DC has and its a shame that more resources are not being used to make the Nation's Capital a better and safer place. Its an embarassment.

Jimbo, you hit the nail on the head. DON'T FEED THE BEARS! I've had the misfortune of growing up in a town overrun by homeless deadheads, creating a hostile environment for the locals, lived in an area in SF in where the then-mayor was pushing homeless in our neighborhood and golly-gee-whiz wouldn't you know it, car break-ins and robberies increased dramatically, and now am working in downtown LA where panhandlers line the route of suits going to and from the subway. I've witnessed well-intentioned suits giving money to a panhandler, only to minutes later seeing that panhandler running, no SPRINTING, towards the area in downtown known to cater to illegal habits. I'll let you figure that one out.

I wonder if more investment in mental health services (along with other basic social services) would help the issue. Oh, and I can't speak for the rest of the country, but a big FU to Reagan for discharging thousands of mentally ill here in CA during his reign as Gov here.

And if you think the homeless issue is bad now, I wonder how many vets from Iraq are going to eventually end up in the streets due to cuts in veteran's benefits? Am I being too cynical? Hope so.

"They dont want food or to be helped. And yes I think they should be wiped out."

Dax, do you prefer gas chambers or just mass graves on the mall?

Thanks to Jimbo for providing the opportunity for the thoughtful--and much more temperate than my own--post from Seamus Not The Irish Paperboy (that's not meant to disparage The Paperboy himself, just to clarify). Although it seems a bit ungrateful to quarrel with someone who has been actively engaged in trying to solve complicated social problems, rather than just commenting from the sidelines as I am, I am still not persuaded by the experiences Seamus cites in support of Jimbo's original proposition that giving money to panhandlers "ultimately leads to more dangerous activities." Clearly the topic can’t be addressed adequately in this forum. (Indeed, it's a distracting intrusion into the world of "my life" blogs, a rapidly growing literature of which I find Jimbo himself one of the more fascinating exponents.) So I'll stay off MY soapbox, too, and just say that for a very complete examination of whether the assumptions underlying "broken windows" theory can be demonstrated to be true, rather than merely asserted for their admittedly strong intuitive appeal, see Bernard Harcourt, "Reflecting on the Subject: A Critique of the Social Influence Conception of Deterrence, the Broken Windows Theory, and Order-Maintenance Policy New York Style," 97 Michigan Law Review 291. For a quick overview of pros and cons, see D.W. Miller, "Poking Holes in the Theory of 'Broken Windows'," Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 Feb. 2001 (available at http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i22/22a01401.htm). And apologies to Jimbo Himself if I offended him. Thanks. Einerlei

i totally agree...the situation is freaking me out...and I have already been mugged TWICE in the last year in Dupont (once at gunpoint). Something really needs to be done.

Yay for Seamus (who isn't me) for verifying what I've pretty much said and believed for years. Good to have my beliefs confirmed by someone in the know.

As some of you know, I used to be the senior director of marketing and communications for the Downtown DC Business Improvement District, a private not-for-profit organization that helped to revitalize a 128 block core of downtown Washington, DC.

As part of our mandate, we employed a full time homeless services director and operated a full service Homeless Services Center at 9th and G Streets, NW. As the communications director, I had to have full command of the issues of homelessness and panhandling. I also had to review the weekly crime stats for the neighborhood that were provided to our organization by the Metropolitan Police Department.

These crime stats were fed into a GIS system and we would get a map of the neighborhood that showed crime "hotspots" and identified repeat crime in certain locations of the downtown.

I must respectfully disagree with an earlier post that the "broken window" theory is not accurate. Our organization counted homeless people on the streets of our neighborhood twice each day. Once at noon and again at 6:00. This twice daily count allowed us to see how many homeless people were taking advantage of shelters, and sadly a total of about 10 went to shelter on a daily basis. The rest, an average of 200 people chose to stay out on the street.

There was a corresponding link to elevated crime in the area where the homeless congregated. Some of this crime was one homeless person doing something to another homeless person, but the majority of it was crime of opportunity. For example, we had a rash of car break-ins and it turned out is was caused by five homeless men who broke into a total of 128 cars in the downtown to get the change left in the ashtray of cars or to steal cell phones that were attached to their charger and the car's cigarrette lighters.

Those neighborhoods that attracted the homeless did so because both the homeless and the criminal element believed that no one was watchng the neighborhood because of its run-down appearance.

We found that increased patrols, replacement of the broken windows, improved streetlighting and removal of trash made the neighborhood less desireable to both homeless panhandlers and the criminal element. We also worked to disperse large gatherings of homeless on private property because in larger numbers they became a serious safety concern.

This became evident in the evening hours after our Homeless Services Center closed each afternoon and the homeless panhandlers would become desperate and turn from panhandling to out and out robbery. This all took place in the alley between the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and the First Congregational Church. It was a mess and we could do nothing to break up the homeless/panhandling/robbery ring because they were on public property and it is legal to panhandle in the District.

So I stand by Jimbo on this one, and this statement is made with five years of daily contact with these problems.

And one last time -- there is no need to give money to a panhandler. It only makes you feel less guilty and gives the panhandler money for drugs and alcohol. Of the 200 average homeless in the downtown, 98% had a mental illness (90% of which was schitzophrenia) or a substance abuse problem. There over 54 feeding programs in the city, our services center alone fed 400 people both breakfast and lunch every day. We also offered job training and resume writing workshops, weekly dental care, weekly physican visits, and wardrobe assistance for job interviews. So let the professionals handle the problem, because panhandling in a neighborhood DOES lead to more serious crime down the road.

Seamus - who is now off his soapbox

hey jimbo, you're absolutely right. and einerlei's entry is unfair and leap in reasoning is bizarre.

you're correct in saying that people unaccustomed to urban to life don't yet realize that their largesse feeds into a cycle of petty crime that's detrimental to the community. it may not be directly responsible for murder but it will definitely encourage more panhandling and muggings.

Being from Baltimore, and now living there again. I have to say it is not as bad as it is in DC. And I mean all of DC not just the 17th street area. You have beggers walking up to you inside the Metro Stations for gods sake.

I agree with Gurl 100% They dont want food or to be helped. And yes I think they should be wiped out.

I did not say that the murdered man was walking around unawares. I was saying that the yuppie population generally does. You connected two different parts of what I wrote into your statement, and got offended by what you constructed.

I do know that if the fishing is good in one part of the river, a person will continue to fish in that part of the river until the fish dry up. If the fish stop biting the hook, a person will fish elsewhere. On 17th St., the fish just keep biting.

And I do know that I have not gotten mugged in my part of the 'hood. Where I live people do not give money to the crackheads, so the crackheads generally just shoot each other over money. I do not give money to anyone in my 'hood, nor do any of my neighbors, because we know right where it will go. It is stupid to invite trouble by opening your wallet in front of crackheads.

Gee, Jimbo, can you cite any studies that show a correlation between panhandling and armed robberies? The classic "broken window" theory that small "unimportant" stuff like panhandling leads to general lawlessness hasn't held up very well, I believe. When you say "the new yuppie population of 17th street should not give to panhandlers, because it ultimately leads to more dangerous situations," is this based on more than your belief, however fervently held? I'm not trying to beat you up, but frankly I think you're making a big leap. And, please, don't assume the murdered man, a longtime D.C. resident, was "walking around without the awareness that a high-crime area demands." You don't know that, and it's a little offensive that you think you can make that judgment.

OK, I see on re-reading this that I am trying to beat you up, but the notion that this man was murdered because he was somehow not as hip to urban life as you think he should have been is, well .... unworthy of you.

I probably wasn't clear enough...I'm not saying the panhandlers are the ones doing the robberies. No way. The panhandlers can barely wipe their own asses. I am saying that the panhandlers AND the robbers have identified an easily exploitable resource with the new residents of 17th street: young, rich, formerly suburban, naive and easy separated from their money - either through white guilt or through violence. The word is out on the street that there is a new exploitable resource on 17th and 18th Streets.

And I'm saying that both the panhandlers and the robbers will keep coming back if we give panhandlers money and keep walking around without the awareness that a high-crime area demands.

Yeah, I don't see panhandlers being behind these violent crimes. I think the bigger problem is that with so many police resources being used for Code Orange Crush silliness, the neighborhoods are getting patrolled less and violent robbers are taking advantage of this.

Jimbo, in this I disagree. Most of our panhandlers are in such bad shape I doubt they could pay for a gun, and coordinate a string of robberies (involving a getaway car in at least one case). Most of our panhandlers are drug addicts trying to get money for drugs (one reason perhaps why the voucher system in SF didnt work? They dont want food, they want drug money. Ive offered food to homeless people begging for money outside the grocery store and it has been refused) or mentally ill people who would be in large mental hospitals if they hadnt been shut down. The robberies are perpetrated by so called people who will take a life in order to get 100 bucks...for them I have no compassion. They are a threat to our community and need to be wiped away.

Yep - SF and DC are brutal. I feel SF is worse; my experience is one of expecting a violent outburst from every homeless person, because more often than not, that's what happens. It's not quite that bad in DC yet, but it's heading that way.

Aside from San Francisco, DC has the worst homeless problem I've seen. In SF, Gavin Newsom (now the mayor) started a program called 'Care, Not Cash', which encourages residents and merchants to give out vouchers for food, rather than money. I don't think it's been very successful, but it certainly was a large part of Newsom's winning mayoral campaign.