Boston Police report arresting a man for attempting to make money by going up to cars stopped at Arlington and Boylston streets and cleaning their windshields with a squeegee.
Officers on patrol nabbed Patrick Walker, 34, on a charge of "aggressive panhandling" after spotting him washing a van's windshield around 11:25 a.m. yesterday, police say:
Officers immediately recognized this individual as an individual who has been warned on several occasions about washing the windshields of cars in traffic. This action is in direct violation of the City Ordinance drafted against Aggressive Solicitation. The individual in question could not claim ignorance of the law given the fact that he had been issued both verbal and written warnings about his actions in the past.
Walker was also charged with possession of the crack pipe police say the officers saw him toss to the ground when they moved in.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
Back Bay?
By DotWatcher
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 12:38pm
Can we send these same officers to Columbia Rd & Dot Ave? Or melnea Cass & Mass Ave
Same things goes on there too.
The Columbia Rd and Dot Ave guy...
By Greene
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 3:47pm
walked up to my car and gestured with his squeegee. I made eye contact, mouthed "no" and shook my head at him.
Didn't seem to phase him, he just went right ahead and cleaned my qindshield, while I continued to tell him to stop.
Then he got mad when I didn't pay him.
Some days I want a $2 windshield-wash, but I'd like to be asked first.
inflation
By anon
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 4:23pm
Two dollars! In NYC in the 80s, squeegee men only charged a quarter.
Tactic and counter-tactic
By anon
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 8:44pm
At the height of the problem in NYC (before Bratton), motorists started turning on their windshield wipers to deter them...
... and the squeegeemen started snapping off the windshield wiper blades of motorists who did this.
Modern technology
By Molly
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 10:26pm
OK, so I'll be ready to snap a cell phone photo of the guy snapping my wiper blade.
What if we all put really sharp knives on our windshield wipers? ;)
wait what?
By eekanotloggedin
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 12:43pm
So why have they not done anything about the people doing unsolicted windshield washing ALL THE FREAKIN TIME at Mass Ave and Melnea Cass and at Columbia Rd and Dot Ave?
blergh, I had that happen to
By jeveuxsavoir
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 2:14pm
blergh, I had that happen to me when I was renting a Zipcar at Mass Ave and Melnea Cass, and I was kind of freaked out because I tried to wave the guy away and I didn't have any cash on me (not like I would've handed it over anyways). Man, was he pissed....
Panhandlers-in-traffic are out of control in Boston
By O-FISH-L
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 1:15pm
I understand the economy is in shambles but these aggressive panhandlers in traffic, squeegee or not, need to be stopped, a la Giuliani and Bratton's NYC. The intersection of Morrissey Boulevard and Freeport Street has one (or more) on every corner meandering through traffic with homemade signs. Now I see them over at Leverett Circle, among other intersections too. They are a hazardous nuisance/menace and I'm glad an arrest has been made.
Kneeland and Surface Road
By anon
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 1:27pm
Has a few who actually "live" in the area. One of them has a bottle of Windex and several towels. They routinely push the walk buttons to stop traffic. This is when the window cleaning guy makes his move.
Newspaper vendors in traffic
By Ron Newman
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 1:30pm
This used to be a common way to sell newspapers, though I don't see it that much anymore. I recall in particular a Globe vendor at Mass. Ave. and Route 16, at the Cambridge-Arlington line.
Rt. 16 an Mass. Ave.
By anon
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 1:57pm
I never see newspaper vendors there, but there is a panhandler there very frequently. Also, a little further up at Route 2/16 -- often 2 of them.
And there was that coffee seller by the airport tunnels
By HenryAlan
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 2:16pm
He'd walk around the cars waiting to pay the toll in East Boston with a machine strapped to his back that dispensed coffee. It was one of the coolest thing I ever saw.
Still happens
By eekanotloggedin
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 3:13pm
There's the dude in the snazzy suit in the median of Blue Hill near Grove Hall Stop and Shop who only offers to sell issues of The Final Call to carloads whom he perceives as Black. It's kind of fun to take various combinations of people in your car past him to see whether he decides your group is worthy.
Oh and
By eekanotloggedin
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 3:14pm
The Herald hawkers in traffic on Morrissey right by Freeport and on Old Colony near the Dunkies.
Aggressive panhandling?
By East Cambridge
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 1:23pm
If that were an actual crime, I could walk from Clarendon to Dartmouth down Boyslston every day without being accosted by eager, dauntless tee-short clad clipboard carrying youths who want just a moment of my time, sir.
They're worse than pigeons down here.
I agree! Can we get some of
By EM
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 1:50pm
I agree! Can we get some of the Greenpeace kids arrested for aggressive panhandling? I understand they probably have a quota but they are really pushy and annoying.
Ugh, they hound me all the
By anon
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 2:02pm
Ugh, they hound me all the time at Porter Sq and along the common near Park St Station. Needs to be a swift stop to this "professional" panhandling.
Elm Street in Davis Square, too
By Ron Newman
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 2:39pm
Just try walking from CVS to Dunkin Donuts without either being stopped by the clipboarders, or pointedly ignoring them.
Chuggers
By JohnAKeith
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 2:17pm
Londonists call them "Chuggers" - charity muggers.
Charity panhandlers
By Neal
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 3:19pm
I call them charity panhandlers. I don't see how they are doing anything different than what this guy was arrested for.
I usually walk by, earbuds in, and either sidestep around or don't even acknowledge them.
Easy solution
By Jay Levitt
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 8:10pm
Catch their eye first, and say:
"Hi! Join me in a minute of silence for hurricane victims!"
Confuses the hell out of them.
Squeegeephobia. Free the
By NotWhitey
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 2:21pm
Squeegeephobia. Free the Squeegeeman!
So, just to recap today's
By MattQ
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 4:19pm
So, just to recap today's news, Boston cops will stop and arrest a panhandler for washing windshields for spare change, but when a biker nearly gets clipped by a driver who then get's out and tries to start a fight, and all of this is caught on tape, and there is nothing they can do? Yup. That sounds about right.
Well someone who "nearly"
By foxorian
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 10:09pm
Well someone who "nearly" gets in an accident and a guy who gets uppity about almost having to deal with it isn't really something the cops are going to try to solve an "almost" case on. If they were there by chance, they would've told the guy to calm down, and that everyone should just go home and be happy nothing worse happened and to be more careful next time.
An arrest like this is something more like on a check-list -- they know it's going on, and it was about time to do something about it in this particular instance if it was come across.
Bike riders
By Steve c
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 10:27pm
Bike riders in Boston should be ticketed for aggressive driving , I don't know how many times I almost it a bike rider because they blew thru a stop sign or intersection
This has been a problem at
By Pat Roberts
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 5:11pm
This has been a problem at Melnea Cass and Mass Ave for a very long time. Sometimes when I've called 911 to ask them to send a car to get rid of the squeegee guys, the 911 operator has said it isn't against the law to do that I'm glad to see a public record of someone getting arrested for it, so next time I call 911, I can use that example to teach the 911 operator that it's not okay behavior.
It's surprising to me to see so much panhandling at that intersection, with the new hotels and other new development around there. I wonder how many people who come to Boston from out of town never come back, at least to that location, because of that aggressive and unpleasant behavior.
911
By vne
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 9:50pm
Well I'm not in favor of aggressive panhandling and can certainly see reporting it but I'm surprised people call the emergency number for it. Don't most police depts have a non-emergency number for complaints like this?
911 is the number for BPD
By HenryAlan
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 10:06pm
for any dispatch request.
Adam
By eeka
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 10:21pm
There really should be a "read me" on here with helpful information such as this.
Srsly, every time someone mentions 911, some asshat says that people should call the non-emergency number instead, then someone points out that that's actually not the policy in Boston.
(Said file could also contain such facts as that bikes can legally use the whole lane, it's not called the Boston Commons, you're jaywalking if the walk signal is displaying a big red hand, Brighton is not a town, etc.)
My apologies, since I did not
By vne
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 11:03pm
My apologies, since I did not know what is apparently common knowledge. But I object to being called an "asshat" since I took some pains to word my comment politely.
:o)
By eeka
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 11:06pm
Hey now, I didn't call you an impolite asshat.
Actually, I didn't call you one at all, buttcap.
617-343-4911
By dirtywater77
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 11:08pm
617-343-4911 will get you the same BPD dispatchers, without tying up the phone company's 911 circuits.
It's a reasonable question for people to ask, since 911 is almost universally understood to be "emergency only."
Not to mention
By Dan Farnkoff
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 12:17am
If you call 911 from a cell phone you get the state police first and have to be transferred. If you know you just want the police for a nuisance call like this, or to report your neighbors for making too much noise or something, it doesn't seem unreasonable to call the other number- provided, of course, that you can remember it. But I do feel like we've had this conversation before at some point.
Maybe
By eeka
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 11:05pm
I'm not familiar with how phone routing etc. actually works, but that number gets you to 911. They answer it "911, this line is recorded, what's your emergency?" and you can request police, fire, EMS. Not sure it affects anything any differently than dialing 911 (except for the cell phone issue mentioned below).
Technical reasons
By dirtywater77
Sat, 09/17/2011 - 6:55am
Yes, both methods get you to the same people. But when you dial 911 the call travels over a special phone company circuit between your carrier (Verizon, RCN, Comcast, Sprint, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, etc.) and the police department's carrier (Verizon). These 911 circuits have all sorts of unique properties: they can convey your GPS coordinates, they can be routed to another city's police department if the one you called is busy, they receive priority treatment from the phone company if they need to be repaired, etc. There are a limited number of these circuits, so by dialing the direct number in a non-emergency, you're leaving the 911 circuits free for real emergencies.
Back Bay Station is the pits
By anon
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 9:05pm
I saw a guy charge a guy to use the mens room. The guy said your not paying to use the mens room you are paying for protection
what kind of protection?
By Sarcastic Sam
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 2:11pm
Maybe he was a condom vendor!
I met him tonight!
By cybah
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 9:43pm
So funny story...
I was waiting for the bus in Somerville around 8pm today (Thursday) and this guy comes up with a bucket, a squeegee and Glass Plus. He asks if I am waiting for the bus, and I said "yeah, in 4 minutes". Then he asked how I knew, so I explained. (this is unimportant to the story)
So I asked him "are you cleaning windshields" and he responded "yeah" and I said "I just read an article about a guy downtown who got harassed by cops for that, I'd be careful if I was you.". He's like.. "That was me". So I had UHub open on my phone, and proceeded to read him the article. Then he showed me his ID and the ticket he got (and court summons). It was definitely him.
Small world.
And I'll correct the article, he told me he was a crackhead, and I said the article stated that he got a ticket for that too. He's like.. "umm no, look for yourself" and I didnt see anything in the summons for it.
Nice enough guy. Sadly, he had more money in his pocket than I do, but more power to him though.
I'm sure I am forgetting details but that was the gist of it. I wanted to post this before I went to bed. I should have snapped his picture but eh.. :) I'll leave the mystery.
PS - He said he was on Page 2 of the Herald on Nov 10, 2010 with the article headline of "Boston Police Fail to Stop Window Washer". Check it out.
Squeegee avoidance possibility
By Molly
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 10:15pm
So what happens if you just...turn on your windshield wipers? Has anybody tried? What if you use your sprayers?
The only times I've been threatened by squeegee (at Melnea Cass and Mass Ave), the guy backed off when I shook my head.
Wipers
By anon
Thu, 09/15/2011 - 11:05pm
See post #4 above: at one point the squeegee-muggers in NYC were retaliating by snapping off the wiper blades of people who did this.
which would then be
By cleokid
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 8:30am
which would then be considered vandalism, an actually arrest-able crime.
Canning!
By anon
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 10:10am
I also don't like kids "canning" for sports teams or bands. It's nothing more than begging. Often the money is being used for trips. Have them hold a car wash or sell candy or something instead of teaching them it's OK to beg.
"Canning" for a real charity I am OK with, though.
bile of human kindness
By John-W
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 10:54am
I don't like to be hassled for money by panhandlers, cheerleader squads, the league of professional clipboard wielding guilt-trippers or panhandlers offering dubious car detailing services on the go. But really this thread sounds like a bunch of people really in need of a prostate massage. It's a city. There will be people you don't take to. Provided they're not assaulting you or running you over in their car/bike, get used to it or move somewhere where there are no other people. I go through the intersection at MassAve and Melnea Cass daily and a simple head shake has always sufficed for me. (Maybe driving a shitbox helps too.)
Kudos to the commenter who struck up a conversation with the squeegee guy at the bus stop. I would imagine that the vast majority of people would never even consider doing that. I know I would definitely choose carefully who you want to engage in conversation when dealing with street folks. You can get some weird ones but the chance for a normal conversation is pretty good too.
I agree
By Dan Farnkoff
Fri, 09/16/2011 - 4:05pm
If an unpleasant moment with the squeegee guy is the worst thing that happens to you in a day, I count it as a pretty good day.