Begging

[leahbee]

Would you give to a street begger?

[daftgrandad]

Whenever I used to travel,in UK cities,I always wore a sign around
my neck,in 5 different languages,saying "I GAVE"

[themorrigan]

When we were in Greece last month there was a female beggar sat on the road with a very young baby, no more than 3 months old, wrapped in the filthiest blanket I've ever seen . It really upset me but OH convinced me not to give her any euros and later that evening we saw her being picked up in a back street by someone in a huge 4x4, putting the baby, now sporting a nice clean babygro, in a top of the range car seat. We also saw the same car picking up the raggy kids selling roses around the restaurants. Apparently its quite accepted over there.

[Eve]

Not usually, just so many of them around the city and surrounds. I've given food, water or a tea/coffee before now and sometimes cigarettes. Some of them then seem to be offended and quite rude when I give them a menthol cigarette though but that's all I smoke!

There was a guy who became a bit of a local legend when he handed in a wallet with money in he found that someone had dropped. I got him a hat and some extra warm socks and such as he mentioned he had rheumatism, to help keep him warm.

They are the regulars and ones who have been about for years. There has been a bit of a culture of people being harassed sitting outside pubs, cafes etc... in certain parts of town and, more recently, there is at least one group of eastern Europeans, usually with young girls out, sometimes with a baby, who follow people and grab hold of them and such.

I keep a wide berth physically from any of those types as it's also becoming more common for people going round using distraction techniques to steal things like phones.