TexasCHLforum.com

gwtrikenut wrote:Want a sure fire way to stop them in their tracks? When they approach and ask for a hand out, ask them if they have change for a twenty. Almost everytime they will say yes. Then just tell them since they do, they don't need your money. It really upsets them, but they always leave. Once in a while you will get a dirty look or a look of you got me this time.

That's genius.

yerasimos wrote:If you can spot them from far away and use a canned throwaway line, outward-facing palm, etc, to discourage them before they get close---great!

However, I do not believe it is realistic to expect one can always spot them from afar, keep them outside of a predetermined zone, or the throwaway verbiage to succeed. In such cases, a different, calculated, escalated response is warranted for those who truly surprise us or get uncomfortably close.

The Friday evening (MUC) segment of the Bastrop ShivWorks class, listed in this forum's Advanced Training section, covers how to handle close-range unknown contacts, including aggressive panhandlers. Highly recommended. And as I remember, Bastrop is just a short drive from Austin.

Thanks for the tip! Although I'm a little weary of the required equipment listing. Getting punched in the mouth or kicked in the groin is sort of the situation I'm hoping to avoid and a hard sale to willingly pay for. I suppose it's just there for liability though eh?

It would appear that our political heroes in the City Council have drafted up some sort of anti-panhandling ordinance over the last couple of days. I haven't read the statute but I don't have a great deal of faith in them. From what I understand the ordinance is only going to affect a small area of the Downtown district.

Although our facilities for the homeless (Red Cross and ARCH) are located conveniently next to the largest concentration of liquor licenses in the state, I've never really had many problems in that area.

I live in North East Austin just south of 290 and it's really in this area that I've been in the toughest spots. I would just like to point out that I'm trying to deal with Panhandlers not bums, homeless, or transient. I'm referring specifically to individuals that continue to approach after ignoring my "no thanks", shaking my head no, etc. I don't have the links, but as of late Austin has had a fairly dramatic increase in assaults by panhandlers to include a fatal one in the last couple of moths where I guy was hit over the head with a master lock in a bandanna (apparently a prevalent prison tactic). I suppose I'm asking for more general self-defense advice, I just see a criminal acting/behaving like a panhandler to approach me as the largest threat to my person.

Last night I ate at cover3 off of Anderson Lane for the first time as I had heard they had amazing hamburgers. (Which they do). After finishing up and paying the tab, myself and my friend walked outside and both started our after-diner smoke. As we were doing so a couple of homeless looking types appeared to our right and you could tell they were surveying the place. I figured they would just ignore us as we were woefully under-dressed for what we didn't know was more of a cocktail lounge than a sports bar. Sure enough though one of the vagrants split off from his accomplice and started heading in our direction, when he got about 20 feet away he started telling his "Story". Looking back in retrospect I should have simply put out the smoke, went back inside, and informed the manager of the problem but I wasn't thinking too quickly after the 1/2 lb burger and a beer. We committed our next mistake by letting the guy tell his whole story uninterrupted. He claimed that he just wanted to eat and obliged us to walk across the street to Whataburger with him and buy him dinner. We both declined and he became very agitated but he started retreating (in the direction of our car unfortunately). Ironically, he started criticising and judging us; to which we couldn't help but audibly laugh on the weak side of histaricly. All in all it was a fairly average encounter, but neither one of us were carrying because we had just gotten off of work (where there is a no weapons policy - yay for Kalifornian management).

I've lived in Austin for over 5 years and am definitely no stranger to aggressive panhandlers. It's one of the primary reasons why I obtained a CHL. I'm never taken by surprise when one of these guys approaches me, but I never can get out of the situation in a satisfactory manner. I refuse to give up anything or debate why I won't, this make the "professionals" pretty upset. What I want to know, is how to keep a probable criminal away from my person and minimizing the risk for any escalations.

Should I be more aggressive and vocalize my desire for them not to approach? I don't want these "transients" getting within 25 feet of me and they generally try to bottleneck (read ambush) you somewhere. I've gotten pretty good at spotting these guys and I know their tactics; I just haven't figured out the best way to let them know I will be dictating the encounter without tipping my hat and opening the situation up for rapid escalation.