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Rise in street begging ?


Seaside Nipper

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Seems to me the numbers of people on the streets in towns and cities 'begging' is significantly on the rise ?

Not confined to one particular social demographic but recently the sheer volume of street begging , both direct and passive appears to be significantly on the rise. Recently in Glasgow we were approached directly on several occasions , to the point it was intimidating and un nerving. Dunno if I need a better filter but the amount of street begging generally is staggering to me and looks to be increasing almost daily.. This is no longer confined to the main street corners, but seems to be prevalent now every other shop entrance and bank cash machine outlet. A lot of the begging is now clearly coordinated amongst groups,  some of it still spontaneous and desperate in nature , some of it tbh is also clearly a piss take as some on street beggars seem to have a steady regular slot.

Irrespective of the politicking around this,, to me this looks like a problem on the rise, an issue  that has no obvious end and it certainly does not appear to be getting any kind of official attention apart from the odd street pastor attending to some random unfortunate. Couldn't tell you the last time I saw a policeman anywhere near any form of anti social begging taking place..

Don't know that there is a simple solution to this, but the inaction or inability to stem the numbers involved in this seems to be a clear and obvious problem imo, one that is only going in one direction. Is this just to be the new normal, and we should we learn to simply develop a tolerance ?

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I haven't experienced it in Glasgow city centre but have heard it is getting pretty aggressive in some cases.  i cycle through the centre so I see the individuals without getting accosted but would worry about my wife or daughter in town.  I am pretty torn about it, when I give money to beggars I know i am likely funding their drug habit or even crime but i can't get past the notion that someone who is willing to sit on a soaking wet slab all day in the hope of getting a few bob is in a much worse situation than I am.   I do worry that it will soon degenerate into mugging soon

You do sometimes see people arriving at certain pitches around 7:30 am with their sleeping bags, etc and by 9 am they give the impression that they have been there all night-maybe they have been sleeping rough and have just moved to a place on a main street or maybe they have a home of sorts and just want to look more forlorn.  I am pretty sure that it is divvied up and regulated by gangs, the romanian sector seems to be renfield street to George square and there are other pitches that always have the same people.   You definitely get a sense they are being supervised and it is really a form of slavery.

There is a charity you can donate to in Glasgow as an alternative way of giving so if you want to give cash, food or goods you can use it and know that only people in true need will get the benefit, it is currently working through the Simon community but I think it goes online sometime soon.  the best way to eliminate the begging is for everyone to give via organised channels and not feel so guilty that you just lash out dosh on the street

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You should try London. The problem of aggressive begging is out of control. I personally witnessed a beggar following a young woman up a street from Tottenham Court Road and a group of them spitting at a young couple who wouldn't give them anything. One of them came up behind me and my daughter and screamed near the Shakespeare Globe before storming off. Honestly I was torn about chasing the bastard down and giving him a thump. I just managed to stop myself going into full blown chimp mode.

Nobody should EVER give money or food to these people. That advice comes from homeless charities. There are plenty of organised places they can go to get food.

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Interesting replies so far, tends to indicate my fear of the blindingly obvious I suppose, this issue is going to grow, the dam is breached and this is going to turn to a flood of street hassle.

Based in my recent experience and as BoK says you start to fear for your family/kids getting hassled. There seems to be a definite increase in the sinister presence of 'organised begging', its really blatantly obvious in main areas of Glasgow now, so why is no one making a stand on this.

I mean there must surely be a policy or at least practical political will somewhere to eradicate this from the streets ffs.

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We had a regular one in Bodmin always asking for change for “food”. It’s well known he has a place to stay and that he’s a heroin addict. He used to come up to me when I used to deliver in the evenings, even followed me back to my flat once in the hope I’d give him some change.

He’s banned from begging in town now and his face is posted up in a number of shops to raise awareness of this ban. It’s been said that if he approaches you then you have to contact the police - but they want you to stand up in court against him for the evidence and most aren’t willing.

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1 minute ago, Cornwall_Saint said:

We had a regular one in Bodmin always asking for change for “food”. It’s well known he has a place to stay and that he’s a heroin addict. He used to come up to me when I used to deliver in the evenings, even followed me back to my flat once in the hope I’d give him some change.

He’s banned from begging in town now and his face is posted up in a number of shops to raise awareness of this ban. It’s been said that if he approaches you then you have to contact the police - but they want you to stand up in court against him for the evidence and most aren’t willing.

There must literally be hundreds in Glasgow now , numbers seem to be for ever on the up

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When starting an early shift in Glasgow, city centre, Greggs & tesco just outside Central station, you can sometimes have quite a few asking for money. You do tend to see a trend, normally same people for a number of days, then they move, then a few days later they are back again.

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2 hours ago, oaksoft said:

You should try London. The problem of aggressive begging is out of control. I personally witnessed a beggar following a young woman up a street from Tottenham Court Road and a group of them spitting at a young couple who wouldn't give them anything. One of them came up behind me and my daughter and screamed near the Shakespeare Globe before storming off. Honestly I was torn about chasing the bastard down and giving him a thump. I just managed to stop myself going into full blown chimp mode.

Nobody should EVER give money or food to these people. That advice comes from homeless charities. There are plenty of organised places they can go to get food.

That's an odd thing to scream

Best to remember they are rarely on their own, even if they appear to be.

i drove through Glasgow in august and saw someone say something to a beggar on Renfield street at 5pm on a saturday, next thing there were three people on the guy and no-one on the street was helping

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5 minutes ago, pod said:

Some are being flown in from Romania. One way ticket.

There is a group of Women and girls (big age range) who appear to be "escorted" by a couple of guys occasionally on the train to Ayr.  The younger girls are dressed in normal jeans and jumpers and as the train approaches Ayr they go to the toilet and change into the traditional garb.  They then set about begging at strategic locations around town while the 2 males play those hideous violin type contraptions in a different location. They meet up outside Greggs at lunchtime then go back to work in the afternoon before heading for the train home back of 5 like any normal worker where they make straight for the loos to change back to their "civvies" . It's clearly organised and I suspect it's gang master driven with these poor women having been brought over here specifically to beg.  How it's allowed to happen like this so blatantly on the street of the UK in this day and age is beyond me.

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2 hours ago, oaksoft said:

You should try London. The problem of aggressive begging is out of control. I personally witnessed a beggar following a young woman up a street from Tottenham Court Road and a group of them spitting at a young couple who wouldn't give them anything. One of them came up behind me and my daughter and screamed near the Shakespeare Globe before storming off. Honestly I was torn about chasing the bastard down and giving him a thump. I just managed to stop myself going into full blown chimp mode.

Nobody should EVER give money or food to these people. That advice comes from homeless charities. There are plenty of organised places they can go to get food.

Con men are everywhere in sales, Ebay even beggars. But it cant take away the fact food bank use is up. Homeless is up , children in poverty is up all have been on the news recently and news paper articles. We cant even begin to imagine what it's like to be in such a position. The whole problem became a lot worse when austerity kicked in cuts everywhere. But hey hoo top bankers who were at fault for austerity walked away with lottery equivalent wins for collapsed banks Should never be forgotten that's why we are where we are today creating poverty on a whole new level. The same banks now closed many rural banks. No Royal bank in Bute now. Got a letter telling me if I wanted to bank business cash at night to use Largs . Now the same banks are closing more and more cash machines with more cash machines charging for taking money. Quite unbelievable this is aloud to happen given they brought the country to its knees.  Today there are more millionaires and billionaires living in the UK than ever before. Worker rights are vastly disappearing also. The whole political system is in shocking need of a fix. Thank God I'm not coming out of school today to the work place. The poor pay the highest price dont let con men or woman beggars take away the fact there are people out there needing help. My job took me to some of the most poverty stricken places in the world. These places have the highest crime rates in the world. The link between poverty and crime is huge for obvious reasons. 

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1 minute ago, FTOF said:
6 minutes ago, HSS said:
The homeless guy who used to beg at the bank at Neilston Rd/Stock St had a taxi booked every night at 6pm to take him.....................HOME!!!

I notice he's shifted to bank machine outside the co-op.

Naw,that's another one.The guy I'm talking about died last year.People actually left flowers at his begging spot.

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Guest TPAFKATS
The homeless guy who used to beg at the bank at Neilston Rd/Stock St had a taxi booked every night at 6pm to take him.....................HOME!!!
Legs had probably cramped up from sitting on the pavement all day.
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Guest TPAFKATS
Naw,that's another one.The guy I'm talking about died last year.People actually left flowers at his begging spot.
That was nice of them. Obviously felt some empathy and sympathy towards a guy that they had interacted with and I'm sure in some cases tried to help at times.
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2 hours ago, TPAFKATS said:
17 hours ago, HSS said:
Naw,that's another one.The guy I'm talking about died last year.People actually left flowers at his begging spot.

That was nice of them. Obviously felt some empathy and sympathy towards a guy that they had interacted with and I'm sure in some cases tried to help at times.

It's completely transparent, utterly meaningless virtue signalling designed to assuage guilt. Don't build it up to anything more than that.

If people were genuinely interested in solving rough sleeping they would start lobbying their MPs.

Edited by oaksoft
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On ‎10‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 10:21 AM, oaksoft said:

You should try London. The problem of aggressive begging is out of control. I personally witnessed a beggar following a young woman up a street from Tottenham Court Road and a group of them spitting at a young couple who wouldn't give them anything. One of them came up behind me and my daughter and screamed near the Shakespeare Globe before storming off. Honestly I was torn about chasing the bastard down and giving him a thump. I just managed to stop myself going into full blown chimp mode.

Nobody should EVER give money or food to these people. That advice comes from homeless charities. There are plenty of organised places they can go to get food.

Spot on

 

 Glasgow City Council have told all their staff not to give money or food, there is help available, how some of this is organised. Sauchiehall St must have 30/ 50 all with their regular pitches, and in some cases a cute dog for the sympathy vote...…..

 

I am sure there are genuine cases, however these are getting somewhat diluted with frauds ……………. what happened to the Big Issue ?  

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23 hours ago, Ayrshire Saints said:

There is a group of Women and girls (big age range) who appear to be "escorted" by a couple of guys occasionally on the train to Ayr.  The younger girls are dressed in normal jeans and jumpers and as the train approaches Ayr they go to the toilet and change into the traditional garb.  They then set about begging at strategic locations around town while the 2 males play those hideous violin type contraptions in a different location. They meet up outside Greggs at lunchtime then go back to work in the afternoon before heading for the train home back of 5 like any normal worker where they make straight for the loos to change back to their "civvies" . It's clearly organised and I suspect it's gang master driven with these poor women having been brought over here specifically to beg.  How it's allowed to happen like this so blatantly on the street of the UK in this day and age is beyond me.

Yup, seen similar across recent tams in particular, clearly a blatant form of coordination.

My gripe is simple, what are authorities ( agencies too numerous to mention ) actually doing to mitigate this, it appears absolutely hee haw. Presently it seems we are simply providing a blind eye, almost an assist to blatant begging in all its guises rather than doing anything about it. The trend looks like increasing and basically changing the street dynamic completely.

If we the great Joe Public can see and express concern over this, why cant the authorities  ? I suppose a zero tolerance approach to this is simply not acceptable in human rights parlance.

I'd just love to hear our politicians , local , regional national, express some concern and propose and implement some policy to recognise and eradicate this horrendous blight, both on beggars and the pavement walking public. Its blatantly unacceptable, but yet is clearly becoming the new norm.

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Guest TPAFKATS
It's completely transparent, utterly meaningless virtue signalling designed to assuage guilt. Don't build it up to anything more than that.
If people were genuinely interested in solving rough sleeping they would start lobbying their MPs.
In your opinion with no knowledge of the individuals involved.
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