Last week, I profiled “Dallas,” one of our local bums\/scam artists who is one of the main people targeted by the new aggressive panhandling and single beer ordinances.\u00a0 Earlier this week I reported that he got arrested for robbery.\u00a0 Last night I got more details.<\/p>\n
“Dallas” was panhandling in one of his favorite spots, Beale Street.\u00a0 The panhandlers like the Beale Historic District because it’s outside the patrol area of the Downtown safety patrol, and because there’s heavy foot traffic and a lot of tourists.\u00a0 Apparently Dallas wasn’t having a profitable day panhandling, and decided to resort to other tactics.\u00a0 He begged a couple for money, then followed them down the street and attempted to rob them.<\/p>\n
What “Dallas” didn’t know is that he was being watched.\u00a0 MPD has cameras set up all over Beale, which they monitor from a command center.\u00a0 They already knew that Dallas had a long criminal history, and were keeping their eye on him long before he approached that couple.\u00a0 When he attempted to rob them, the cops rolled right up on him and caught him in the act.\u00a0 Fantastic job, MPD!\u00a0 The police\u00a0have really been proactive taking measures to prevent crimes Downtown, and this is one of the many instances in which it paid off.<\/p>\n
Of course, the reason Dallas was on Beale in the first place was to panhandle.\u00a0 If the ordinance passes on April 13, Beale will be part of the panhandling-free zone.\u00a0 So, not only will the ordinance prevent panhandling, but other, more serious crimes as well.<\/p>\n
Click here<\/a> to read more about this proposed ordinance, to sign a petition in support, and to learn how you can contact City Council members and ask them to pass it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week, I profiled “Dallas,” one of our local bums\/scam artists who is one of the main people targeted by the new aggressive panhandling and single beer ordinances.\u00a0 Earlier this week I reported that he got arrested for robbery.\u00a0 Last night I got more details. “Dallas” was panhandling in one of his favorite spots, Beale … Continue reading “On Beale, MPD is watching to keep you safe”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5979,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977\/revisions\/5979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}