Don’t profess to know my life just because I disagree with you. I happen to live and work in the Bay Area, which has one of the biggest homeless populations in the country. Do I often find some of them to be an annoyance? Absolutely- but that doesn’t mean I turn a hose on them. Hell, sometimes I’ll even buy them lunch.

How about formally pushing it over then? You’re right though, that help did qualify as “little.”

Anyhow, the last time I tried to push over a brick mailbox, I noticed it was firmly anchored to the ground, not mounted on wheels that elevate it’s center of gravity. Being 4 feet tall, there is plenty of leverage available for one reasonably-strong person to push it over.

And between the time you became homeless and the time you got your job (and presumably a home), if you’d been sprayed with one of these I’d bet you’d be pissed. Hopefully, you would recognize the fact that as per your definitions you were, at that point in your life, a “damned loser,” not to mention a member of “society’s scum,” which you called homeless people just before saying you’ve been homeless. I’m just sayin’…

And quit calling everyone here an idiot. I’m the only idiot around here, dammit.

BTW: Why not just chock the wheels of this thing? A small rock or stick should work…

Anyway, even if this guy is only harassing the homeless (which is QUITE CLEARLY not the case if we are to take this guy at his own word) there is a fundamental cruelty at play here that is really kind of disturbing/depressing and which is potentially a precedent for other kinds of DIY “law-enforcement” procedures that in the worst cases end up with some really tragic consequences. (See Howard Beach circa 1986 or the rash of bum-burnings in recent years.) I’m not making this shit up. Type “set fire to homeless” in google and see what comes up.

That would be that crazy kidder, Dollarhyde, not Uncle Hannie. Who is better in some ways since haven’t we all wanted to glue a tabloid journalist to a wheelchair and set him on fire? And now that I think about it, didn’t Lecter eat some census taker as well as some Jehovah’s Witnesses for disturbing his privacy? Hannibal’s schtick was only eating “free-range rude” – I love that man!

We have a lot in common in terms of rabid antisocial paranoia and exaggerated sense of the space we are entitled to. I too want to have a gated compound and acres of gently sloping,manicured lawns with clear fields of fire. Really. Regretfully, I have come to the accomodation one must reach when not winning the lottery and also living in developed society. I don’t expect much from my neighbours. They seldom dissapoint me. However,we refrain from shooting each other on respective holy days and will probably call the fire department for each other seven times out if ten. Not bad.

All I suggest to you is you need a longer fuse. Tolerate some stupidity graciously. It won’t be rewarded, but just in case – take the risk. I’m not saying jeopardize your physical health. There has to be some minimum standards. But you will live longer the less angry you are on average. It things are intolerable, get locally political. If all your other neighbours agree someone is a problem, then not only are you vindicated, you have help with the problem. Or if not vindicated, maybe help for yourself sometime?

I’m assuming that if you walk down the street and throw a cup of water at a presumed “vagrant”, you could be arrested (possibly for assault?). Is it not the same case with this individual sending out his bot to spray “vagrants” from afar? However, it does seem he was quite fortunate in his choice of target, as to produce a charge the victim would need to file a complaint, which a “vagrant” might not know to, or simply wouldn’t, do.

That is a fantastic idea!

The main problem I see with this is that well-to-do drunks tend to stand up for themselves (even in the absence of provocation) much more, and more aggressively, than do homeless people. Homeless people have discovered that in any dispute, they are automatically in the wrong. Drunks consider themselves to be automatically in the right.

On another point – I have a suspicion the people talking about how awful it is to live near homeless people. My suspicion is that they’re afraid that they can see themselves in that situation, and that’s what scares them. They’re not afraid of being robbed of whatever little bit of money they have, they’re afraid of catching homelessness.

For the record – I have never been homeless myself, but I live in a city with a bad homelessness problem, in an area with more than its share of that problem. Street prostitutes work in our area, and I’m pretty sure someone was selling drugs on my street corner on Saturday night.

What does that remind me of? Hmm. Homelessophobia.

Does something really count as “ingenious” if it’s ineffective?

Sure, one in a hundred, give or take, have genuine neurochemical issues. The remainder are more-or-less evenly divided between addicts who can’t get into a shelter because they won’t quit drugs, and responsibility-free bullshit artists who like easy money and gaming the system.

And, FYI, I vote Democrat across the board.

Now that could be a fun idea. I’m thinking someone could build a remote-controlled version of one of those vending machines they have at medical marijuana dispensaries, just to put the drug dealers back on equal footing.

yes, without soap it it is pointless.