ATLANTA - A proposed ordinance to bar panhandlers from accosting people in Atlanta's tourist section has run headlong into the politics of race in this city of the New South that likes to portray itself as having moved beyond black and white.
Hoping to boost convention business and tidy up downtown, the City Council is considering a measure to prevent visitors from being hit up for money by homeless people around Olympic Centennial park, CNN Center and some of the South's finest restaurants.
Read the story at Yahoo!/AP
Posted by Skywalker at June 25, 2005 08:46 PM | TrackBackWhat the article doesn't tell you is that the majority population of Atlanta is black and most of the city council including the mayor is black. So of course, most of hte pan handlers wil be black! In my suburb of Douglasville we have some pandhandlers too. What do you know, most of them are white as most of the people in Douglasville are white. Wow, real shocker.
It also doesn't tell you that most of the panhandlers in Atlanta fall into 3 categories: drug addicts, fugitives and people formerly held in insane asylums.
Simple fact, people don't want to be bothered with con artists and lazy bums who are to worried about feeding their crack habit to hold down a job when they are playing in the park or touring CNN center. I get accosted by them all the time down town. There is one guy who is constantly begging for money on this corner where I get off the interstate to go to school. I never give him money, he reeks of alcohol and looks like he smokes enough crack to kill most men. Instead I occasionally hand him a sandwhich or a drink.
There are places in Atlanta that will house and rehabilitate these people. My father used to work for one. They do this as charity, no money involved and these bums refuse to go get help because is means getting off their booze or drugs or getting turned in to the police.
In my not so humble opinion, the race warlords such as Jesse Jackson, are the people who are more evidently bigoted than anyone I have ever seen.
Posted by: skywalker at June 25, 2005 08:57 PMHey Sky:
You might want to try putting up either one of these links because the link you put isn't working:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-06-24-atlanta-panhandling_x.htm?csp=34
http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0506/25/natio-227499.htm
Both of those articles I found told more about what you also mentioned:
"What the article doesn't tell you is that the majority population of Atlanta is black and most of the city council including the mayor is black."
You can feel free to erase the links I gave above once you've straighted it out.:-)
Posted by: mrs. muddy at June 25, 2005 10:33 PM