Feel good story..

[bigrun]

Saw this on the eve news...


Photo of NYPD officer giving boots to barefoot man warms hearts online,


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50007300

[joeydb]

Good stuff. God Bless the officer and the homeless man.

[jms62]

Saw that too. What a great guy.

[geeker2]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/h...boots-17865926

Say how about a bottle of Jack for these nice new boots - any chance you know a good lawyer too ?

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by geeker2

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/h...boots-17865926

Say how about a bottle of Jack for these nice new boots - any chance you know a good lawyer too ?

At least the guy knows how to save. Let him know that next year the law requires him to get healthcare. Of course he may have to put those boots on to get into the library to use the computer to shop NY's exchange so he may need some more help.

[GPK]

This may come across as crass, but I have found in my experience, that there are 2 kinds of people in this world that think you owe them everything. The filthy rich and the homeless.

[geeker2]

Originally Posted by GPK

This may come across as crass, but I have found in my experience, that there are 2 kinds of people in this world that think you owe them everything. The filthy rich and the homeless.

What are you going to do with your new boots Kev?

[GPK]

Originally Posted by geeker2

What are you going to do with your new boots Kev?

Probably send them to this Douchebag I know that lives in Jersey so that he can shove them up his ass.

[bigrun]

He says he's grateful for the gift, but he wants "a piece of the pie" because the photo was posted online "without permission."

Priceless...what the heck, might as well cash in...

[GenuineRisk]

Gawker article by a guy who knew this man.

http://jalopnik.com/5965238/the-jeff...ll-needed-help

Yet another veteran who ended up on the streets.

[pointman]

Looks like the homeless man is not . . . homeless. I'm very happy that my tax dollars help him panhandle, we need more entitlement programs in this country. Who cares that government is already in debt.

http://news.msn.com/us/shoeless-nyc-...less-after-all

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by pointman

Looks like the homeless man is not . . . homeless. I'm very happy that my tax dollars help him panhandle, we need more entitlement programs in this country. Who cares that government is already in debt.

http://news.msn.com/us/shoeless-nyc-...less-after-all

as a vet, i feel he's entitled to the services that we can give him. too bad he turns many of them down.

[pointman]

Originally Posted by Danzig

as a vet, i feel he's entitled to the services that we can give him. too bad he turns many of them down.

I agree. I just don't think he is entitled to services he refuses to use and certainly not a $75 pair of shoes out of a very kind NYC police officer's pocket he refuses to wear.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

as a vet, i feel he's entitled to the services that we can give him. too bad he turns many of them down.

He may be mentally ill. There was a piece on longform.org, originally in a CA newspaper about a formerly homeless man who, due to winning money in a discrimination suit he won against the city, was able to rent out a reasonably nice apartment. The piece detailed the lawsuit the building took up against him to evict him- some of the things they used against him is that he would never wear shoes in the building's common area and that he had a very strong odor. As a reader, I was thinking, 'For the love of Pete; just put on some damn shoes and take a bath so they'll leave you alone!" but mental illness is a tough thing, especially because it can also be so hard to diagnose and can manifest in so many ways, including things that seem so ridiculous, like not wearing shoes.

When I was in college, there was a guy who set up a fort made of books right outside my apartment building (back when the East Village was still called Alphabet City). He slept in a cardboard box and had hundreds of books piled around him. Very nice guy to talk to; talked about his own college days, and yet there he was, homeless and living in a box with his books.

I'll put up the link to the longform article if I can ever track it down again. It was an interesting read, because I wasn't really sure whose side I was on.

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by Danzig

as a vet, i feel he's entitled to the services that we can give him. too bad he turns many of them down.

That's the problem with many homeless vets, they don't seek help with the VA or other services..many have mental problems and are not capable of helping themselves..

About one-third of the adult homeless population have served their country in the Armed Services. Current population estimates suggest that about 131,000 Veterans (male and female) are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year. Many other Veterans are considered near homeless or at risk because of their poverty, lack of support from family and friends, and dismal living conditions in cheap hotels or in overcrowded or substandard housing.

http://www.nd.gov/veterans/homeless/

[Danzig]

yeah, it's all a shame when so many are just ill. not an easy problem to tackle.
but it's not people like him that are draining the system by a long shot. people keep focusing on someone like him, while lockheed martin and others like them roll in our dough.