I Want to hear your opinion.

SPEEDY MCCREADY

Then after a while, I guarantee, I will anger a few of you here...
And I will give you my opinion....

http://hsrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Agd_AsGEFxx_ ... 58145.html

neilybabes86

SOLD THEM FOR DOPE

an ungrateful bum addict

love my hometown

SPEEDY MCCREADY

neilybabes86 wrote:

SOLD THEM FOR DOPE

an ungrateful bum addict

love my hometown

"I want a piece of the pie"

neilybabes86

SPEEDY MCCREADY wrote:

neilybabes86 wrote:

SOLD THEM FOR DOPE

an ungrateful bum addict

love my hometown

"I want a piece of the pie"

he meant pipe

mikalina

How very sad that he chose to sell his boots and become barefoot again in order to have his drugs. But, that doesn't surprise me at all.

DS1119

He says he hid the boots. Maybe, maybe not.


As far as wanting money for his picture. When you have nothing you want something. When you have something you want more. I can't argue with the guy wanting to be compensated honestly. If I were in his shoes I'd try for the same thing. On a side note I hope I never end up in the same situation as that gentleman but you never know. I tend to think I work hard enough for it not to happen.

Jamminonthe1

I can't even fathom how people get into this position and I hope I never find out. Maybe he didn't have a PJ vinyl collection to sell when he was down and out.

KB262864

Clearly he is mentally ill, like the vast majority of homeless people. He is paranoid: I could lose my life. He is delusional: I want a piece of the pie (as if there is financial gain to be made from being an internet meme).

There is a broad spectrum of mental illness and clearly he falls somewhere on that spectrum. Try to show a little sympathy for someone who does not have the wherewithal that you do.

dougfloyd

DS1119 wrote:

He says he hid the boots. Maybe, maybe not.


As far as wanting money for his picture. When you have nothing you want something. When you have something you want more. I can't argue with the guy wanting to be compensated honestly. If I were in his shoes I'd try for the same thing. On a side note I hope I never end up in the same situation as that gentleman but you never know. I tend to think I work hard enough for it not to happen.

If you were in his shoes you'd be wearing a free pair of boots :fp:

This is why I never give money to beggars on the street. I'd rather give it to a charity or a homeless shelter where there's a better chance that it's spent on something worthwhile.

Green Circle

"SOLD THEM FOR DOPE an ungrateful bum addict "

"How very sad that he chose to sell his boots and become barefoot again in order to have his drugs. But, that doesn't surprise me at all."

WOW! Merry Christmas!! Jeez!!

No where does it say they was a drug addict, or a suspected drug addict. No where does it say that he is mentally ill and paranoid. AND NO WHERE does it say he sells them. He just says he hid them...Way to speculate and profile people!! How sad.

Is it so far out of the realm of possibilities that another homeless person just as cold or colder would or could kill this man while he sleeps to take his new 100.00 boots?

I have to agree with DS1119, He is a homeless man, if there is even the slightest chance where he can get some money for it, why wouldn't he say that?

I think there needs to be a little more compassion here. I pray that I am never in that situation or any of you get into that situation where no one would help you in a time of need.

neilybabes86

Green Circle wrote:

"SOLD THEM FOR DOPE an ungrateful bum addict "

"How very sad that he chose to sell his boots and become barefoot again in order to have his drugs. But, that doesn't surprise me at all."

WOW! Merry Christmas!! Jeez!!

No where does it say they was a drug addict, or a suspected drug addict. No where does it say that he is mentally ill and paranoid. AND NO WHERE does it say he sells them. He just says he hid them...Way to speculate and profile people!! How sad.

Is it so far out of the realm of possibilities that another homeless person just as cold or colder would or could kill this man while he sleeps to take his new 100.00 boots?

I have to agree with DS1119, He is a homeless man, if there is even the slightest chance where he can get some money for it, why wouldn't he say that?

I think there needs to be a little more compassion here. I pray that I am never in that situation or any of you get into that situation where no one would help you in a time of need.

i have compassion..i give money to a homeless person at least once a day in NYC
but ,i doubt he is walking around barefoot in DEC. becasue he is "hiding them"
let's be honest

SPEEDY MCCREADY

Green Circle wrote:

I think there needs to be a little more compassion here. I pray that I am never in that situation or any of you get into that situation where no one would help you in a time of need.

Hold on a second.
Somebody did help him. Somebody went and bought that man a $100 pair of boots, that are no longer on his feet. But the pair of boots were not enough, because now he wants "royalties" because his little story made youtube.

Some might perceive this homeless man, as an ungrateful piece of shit.
Mentally ill? Maybe
Did he sell the boots? Maybe?
Does he have a drug/alcohol problem? Maybe.
Is he an ungrateful piece of shit? hmmmmm

rick1zoo2

maybe he is afraid that someone would kill him or beat the crap out of him for his new boots and he truly had to hide them.

maybe he keeps his feet bare so that people would have more pity and he can get more of their spare change that way. would you hand over cash to someone with brand new $100 boots, or barefoot in December?

maybe someone has already stolen them from him

maybe his priorities are such that he traded them for something like drugs or booze

BinauralJam

Crack Wins again!!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

neilybabes86

BinauralJam wrote:

Crack Wins again!!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

sadly...thats what i think

RKCNDY

again, I do not give 'needy' people money. I will give them food.

Perfect example, while waiting in line, JMo brought a box of donuts. He was offering them up to people in line, and not many were taking. A homeless person (assumed, but he was in need of freshly laundered clothes and a shower) came up to us, and asked if he could have a donut. We all said to help himself, they guy obviously was hungry. He took a donut, said thanks and left.

Not that all people are cruel and don't care about the homeless/needy, but there are people who only care about the drugs/booze, and ruin it for the ones who really do need a helping hand.

dimitrispearljam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8QHsbKgRes

Horos

I don't know what this guy did with his boots.

I don't know about the rest of you but I have been homeless. Fortunately I always had some shoes but if someone bought me a $100 pair of boots I'd be looking to return them or sell them. I could get shoes at Goodwill for a lot less and $100 could feed me for a week or two.

shep

neilybabes86 wrote:

BinauralJam wrote:

Crack Wins again!!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

sadly...thats what i think

I'd be inclined to agree with this... most likely the boots were returned or sold to fund a drug or alcohol addicition...

However, that being said, a vast majority of people homeless are mentally ill, and if that is the case here, he may not even be aware of what he did with them...


I'm on the same page as others here... I do not give homeless people cash. I will give them food, buy them a cup of coffee or a meal, donate to charities that support them, but cash is a no-no. There is a lot of help out there for people who are willing to seek it out. Giving them cash only fuels dependency on drugs and alcohol... sure when I give money to a charity I know a portion of it is lost to administrative fees and sometimes corruption, but if I need to donate money to someone's alcohol fund, I can just leave the money in my own bank account.

mydogmookieblaylock

most times it is a lifestyle choice. I have a friend whose brother has decided to live on the street and yeah he seems mentally ill now -- drugs and street living can do that to you - was he mentally ill when this started ?- sure if you consider being a drug addict a mental illness. Was he mentally ill before becoming a drug addict? No -not at all.
When you have nothing and everything you get is given to you by a handout - nothing has any value to you.

unlost dogs

Interesting thread, Speedy.

I had a couple of thoughts reading it.

First, when you give a gift, you give the gift. And that doesn't necessarily mean that the recipient will use that gift in the way you intended.

I learned that lesson the hard way a while back, when I gave a relative an SUV that I was going to get a really poor trade on. The relative immediately sold it, which really annoyed me (and Mr. Unlost) until we came to the conclusion that a gift given is a gift gone.

Much later, the relative admitted it was sold to support a drug habit that I didn't know about at the time. I would not have given it to that person had I known that, but what can you do.

And having taken care of more than my share of Boston's homeless when I was an emergency department nurse, I can say that in my experience many have a sad problem at the base of their homelessness. Addiction, mental illness, depressed socioeconomic status, learning deficiencies, etc.

Some homeless are good people, some are assholes. Just like the rest of the population.

Green Circle

Horos wrote:

I don't know what this guy did with his boots.

I don't know about the rest of you but I have been homeless. Fortunately I always had some shoes but if someone bought me a $100 pair of boots I'd be looking to return them or sell them. I could get shoes at Goodwill for a lot less and $100 could feed me for a week or two.

Thanks for sharing Horos I am glad you made it "out" and are doing well now...

but really are you sure you know what you are talking about, because clearly
you must be an addict and or mentally ill since you were homeless.

Honestly people...get a grip!!

81

this guy is a total fraud.....not even homeless

pandora

oh crap I said that to JB ... he will hock them or they will get stolen right off him

He's right though when he said it meant a lot to the officer,
probably much more than to the homeless man.

It is always better to give than receive.

pandora

Horos wrote:

I don't know what this guy did with his boots.

I don't know about the rest of you but I have been homeless. Fortunately I always had some shoes but if someone bought me a $100 pair of boots I'd be looking to return them or sell them. I could get shoes at Goodwill for a lot less and $100 could feed me for a week or two.

Oh Horos you have wise words ... he probably did just that.
I have not been homeless but that is something any of us could face one day.
And as the man said it's dangerous to have expensive stuff on the street.

josevolution

My opinion is that it's such a sad thing for anybody to be totally alone with no home or family , i hope no one from here ever has to experience that feeling ......Does it really matter what happened to the boots ..

pandora

you're so right jose in all your words

comebackgirl

I don't know enough about this man or his situation to sit in judgment of him. I do know that a NYC police officer did a very kind thing in randomly choosing to help someone in need. That act of kindness is not undone no matter what happened to the boots. When I was in undergrad I worked at a drop-in center for the homeless mentally ill. Some of the consumers had addictions, all of them had mental illness of some sort; some had families, some had no family or had been cut off from them. They had all had different paths into homelessness. There was one guy who had a masters in chemical engineering, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in college, and was pretty stable on meds until his parents died in a car accident. He didn't have any other supports, his symptoms intensified, and by the time I met him he had been homeless for some time. There was a deli on the same street as our center and the owner was very kind, used to give food to the consumers every day. The guy I mentioned before used to promptly throw the food in the trash each and every time, convinced it was from the government and that they were trying to poison him or that the container had been bugged to track him. He wasn't an addict, but when he decompensated he would get very paranoid until he was hospitalized and re-stablilized. So who knows what the deal is with the boots in this story. We can only speculate. It

PJ_Soul

Wtf. My opinion is that unless the homeless man has a mental condition, he's an asshole. He "wants a piece of the pie"??? What pie would that be? A portion of all that money that pours in when someone posts something on youtube or facebook. :fp: And then not even wearing the boots that the cop gave him solely so that his feet were warm and dry? It's a big slap in the face for the cop. So yeah. Homeless man is potentially a dickhead. Unless he's mentally ill of course, and there is a very good chance of that (I believe it's estimated that 65% of the homeless are suffering from mental illness). In that case, it would be nice if this attention got him some more permanent help if he'll accept it. It's just too bad that he's too ill to realize that those boots would be put to better use on his feet rather than hidden, because sorry buddy - they're not worth shit. What a kind man who went and bought them though. He could have bought some boots from a second hand store for $5, but he bought some nice Sketchers instead.

perfectlefts14

josevolution wrote:

My opinion is that it's such a sad thing for anybody to be totally alone with no home or family , i hope no one from here ever has to experience that feeling ......Does it really matter what happened to the boots ..

Very well said!
Really..........calling the guy names :fp: got to love the compassion around here sometimes.

dimitrispearljam

josevolution wrote:

My opinion is that it's such a sad thing for anybody to be totally alone with no home or family , i hope no one from here ever has to experience that feeling ......Does it really matter what happened to the boots ..

that was amazing answer....much respect Jose...