There's a lot of anecdote in this article on panhandling, so it's a bit hard to know how seriously to take much of it. But in DC at least, the wry style of panhandling -- "I won't lie, I need a drink" -- seems to have gone out of vogue, and we've moved to a more subtly aggressive phase. A couple times a week now, someone will come up, politely ask me to stop, then tell me how he just got out of jail and is trying to do this "the legal way," and can I help him. There's no real way of knowing when it's true or not, but it is an interesting approach: By making prison a part of the conversation, the reality of violence is indirectly introduced. It's not a threat, really, more of a gesture. The other night, walking with my friend Ben, neither of us had any change, and the guy cursed at us and said, "fine, but just so you know, I tried to do this the legal way" before stalking off. Meanwhile, this PBS-affiliated site touting "market research for panhandlers" is sort of weird and interesting.Image used under a Creative Commons license from Sand Castle Matt.. PANHANDLING.
There's a lot of anecdote in this article on panhandling, so it's a bit hard to know how seriously to take much of it. But in DC at least, the wry style of panhandling -- "I won't lie, I need a drink" -- seems to have gone out of vogue, and we've moved to a more subtly aggressive phase. A couple times a week now, someone will come up, politely ask me to stop, then tell me how he just got out of jail and is trying to do this "the legal way," and can I help him. There's no real way of knowing when it's true or not, but it is an interesting approach: By making prison a part of the conversation, the reality of violence is indirectly introduced. It's not a threat, really, more of a gesture. The other night, walking with my friend Ben, neither of us had any change, and the guy cursed at us and said, "fine, but just so you know, I tried to do this the legal way" before stalking off. Meanwhile, this PBS-affiliated site touting "market research for panhandlers" is sort of weird and interesting.Image used under a Creative Commons license from Sand Castle Matt.. 
