Just wanted to give an update of some of the accomplishments of the Handling-Panhandling online forum over the past week. If you are fed up with panhandling in Memphis, you need to be on this forum.
- We learned the identity of one of Memphis’ most aggressive panhandlers, the woman pictured below. Having a name for her will make it easier to file criminal complaints and authorizations of agency against her. We also learned a little bit about why she behaves the way she does. Hopefully, the next time she’s picked up on criminal charges, she can be funneled to Environmental Court which will get her the help she needs.
- We sent out letters to six business in front of which Sharp Dressed Bum commonly panhandles – McEwen’s, LoLo’s Table, the Rendezvous, the Holiday Inn Select, the Peabody Hotel, and Peabody Place. We have his name as well, and we know that he has an outstanding warrant (mug shots from that arrest below). Again, we’re hoping that sharing information will lead to more criminal complaints and authorizations of agency against him, disrupting his “business” on the streets of Downtown.
- We printed business cards, featuring the URL of the Handling-Panhandling forum, to hand out to interested parties. If you want some of these cards to hand out, let me know. (Pic is a little bit fuzzy – the print on the cards is not)
- We sent invitations to three of the top police officers in the city, including the head of the Downtown Precinct and the head of the Entertainment District Unit, to join the group. We hope to get the police involved to make this a true police-community partnership.
Group currently stands at 126 members and we’re just getting started… we plan on having a presence at National Night Out at Court Square Tuesday afternoon 4 to 7, so come on out and join us.