The truth is buck-naked
Well, isn’t this an interesting coincidence?
This week, sitting outside at Drinking Liberally, a well groomed gentleman approached us and asked if we liked poetry. Now, being of the liberal persuasion, and one of us a professor of literature, we said, “sure, lay it on us”.
This man knew his audience and I wish I could remember the poem word for word, but the basic gist of it was, “The truth is buck-naked, while it’s the lies that have to be dressed up.” His philosophy resonated well with us and as we reached into our pockets and purses to hand him some spare change, two of Rochester’s finest walked up behind him (from their bicycles) and placed him under arrest. We objected, claiming he had recited poetry to us and we were paying for a service performed, but we were dressed down by the officers who told us never to give money to “these guys”, and “when our purses were stolen by these guys, don’t come complaining to us, because we don’t care.”
This man was handcuffed and made to sit on the curb until a patrol car arrived to take him away. but the patrol car stuck around for a while, and another joined it, and then another. So, now we have 3 patrol cars and 2 cops on bikes to apprehend 2 unarmed panhandlers. The officers made sure that we saw his crack pipe so they would be vindicated and we should hang our heads in shame for feeding this habit.
But you see, I am not hanging my head in shame, but rather, am wondering about the guys with guns who were NOT being apprehended by these policemen that night.
I’m sure RPD Officers would love to get the violent felons off the streets if only; a.) they would be so kind as to wait for a patrol car to be in sight before shooting someone or, b.) people witnessing the crime would come forward instead of living by a “no snitch” policy.
I’m sure you’re right, and 8 officers to 2 panhandlers seems like a good ratio for my money, especially on East Avenue and Alexander. Wonder how many were down on Joseph and Conkey Aves.
ahh, but how many suburbanites are out spending their money on Joseph and Conkey Aves…..
this is the kind of low hanging fruit that the amnesty program up the street was just targeting.
i could give you a huge list of teenagers from the burbs that buy their drugs from there. probably not a great use of resources for the rpd, but people do like quality of life policing, and technically these dudes were panhandlers because they approached someone. if they were sitting at a corner with an open guitar case, it may have been different.
And what violation was committed? Exercise of First Amendment rights in the first degree?
Apparently, it’s against the law to panhandle in Rochester.
Didn’t anyone tell you
Poetry is dangerous?
Luckily, the cops saved you
Free speech is cankerous
As of two years ago (I think) aggressive begging became a criminal offense in the city of Rochester. I remember reading the story about how the penalty for the offense was $25 or something like that.
I’m surprised that RPD took this case so seriously. In my experience in the East End, there are the usual cast of characters who the RPD knows and leaves alone because they’re harmless for the most part. This guy must have been an unknown to them…either that, or Zero Tolerance is extending into new neighborhoods these days.
It’s the Zero Tolerence thing. Plus this guy had approached a couple of older ladies who were coming out of Two Vines earlier in the evening. According to the cops-these women were so upset, they were shaking. Could be-I don’t know.