Street Kids

Most of you can't escape knowing how bad Portland's street kid population is, especially within a ten to fifteen block radius of where I work.

Today was just another occurrence of hostility toward me for not giving them what they wanted. In this situation, a girl and her male companion asked JB and me if one of us had a cell phone she could borrow. Of course, we said no politely. Then she asked for fifteen cents. Again, we apologized. Then they muttered (with intent for us to overhear) some obscenities at us. They then proceeded across the street and bitched for an entire block about how we wouldn't give them fifteen cents before proceeding to ask every other passerby for use of a phone or money. And these two were among some of the less brazen.

I am all about personal freedoms. But do these people have the right to harass pedestrians? Is it our right to be able to walk down the sidewalk without being accosted, harassed, and even assaulted in some cases over change? Would vagrancy laws that prohibited panhandling in downtown be inhibiting any rights at all? The Constitution doesn't mention begging for money as a protected right.

One hardly need mention the major benefit of enacted vagrancy laws: increased desirability of downtown for renters and businesses which has a positive effect on the crappy economy.