Go figure.....

"He says he´s grateful for the gift, but he wants "a piece of the pie" because the photo was posted online "without permission.""

How long will it be before he has a lawyer representing him?

The photo was snapped in public, where there is no expectation of privacy. Therefore, he does not have rights to the photo. If we´re going to be clinical about it.

Boots hidden? How about sold for alcohol or drugs? More likely.

barry to the rescue,after all he is king of the give away.

I don´t think he has the law on his side regarding rights to the pic - the event was conducted in public.

This calls to mind my early newspaper days in San Francisco, when I told my editor we ought to run photos of the drunken bums of 16th Street. He said we couldn´t do it quite that way. "If there was one thing that´s worse than a drunk it´s a drunk´s lawyer," he said.

Didn´t see that one coming...
/s

The tender-hearted cop just learned a lesson about the homeless that I bet he doesn´t forget. I´m sure the boots were sold for the bums drug of choice.

Anyone remember Billie Boggs.

If he is homeless how the heck does he know the video went viral? Likely has a giveaway IPhone with free minutes. Even our homeless are well connected. No good deed goes unpunished. The Pollyanna in me hopes that some day there will be just ONE heartwarming story that doesn´t go south and leave me depressed at the reality that apparently everyone is looking for an angle.

The cop gave this man an opportunity to take care of himself. He´s probably had these opportunities many times courtesy of many people, including his family. He chose to throw them away to feed his addictions.

This doesn´t minimize what the officer did for him at all. Neither does it mean the other people in his life are suckers for helping him.

Hey man how can I get sympathy and a full cup´O´cash every day if I look like I´ve got lots´O´cash?

After work I gets into my Cadillac and drives home to the burbs.

Thanks for the boots officer but you´re ruining my gig!

I have to agree with #10. There is no clause in the bible that says "help the poor but only if they deserve and appreciate it." The act speaks for itself. So do the bum´s actions.

This is what happens when you treat the symptom and not the "disease"...All for a moment to feel good about maybe making a difference.

Up until the 1970s, people who were unable to take care of themselves were institutionalized. Then along came the courts, Nelson Rockefeller, and Geraldo Rivera, and our society decided that it was unfair, and expensive, to institutionalize those people.
So in a it of liberalism, society allowed those kinds of people to live and die in the streets.

Most homeless are schizophrenic, it´s why they are on the street in the first place. They typically refuse assistance from family and friends who offer to take them in. They also tend to shun shelters as well, and all for the same reason. Their mental disorder makes them fiercely independent and they fear being trapped or controlled by those who offer them food and a safe clean place to sleep. They cannot be helped because they don´t want it. They should either be institutionalized or ignored.


Girl´s Hubby

If you give a man a fish, he´ll eat for a day.

If you give a bum your shoes, he´ll trade them for MadDog 20/20.

Or something like that. I forget how it goes, exactly...

Just when I think that I have become much too cynical something like this happens. Disappointing.

That´s the whole story in a nutcase.

Reading an article about this he said he´s hiding the boots. He knows he could get killed by someone who knows the value of them. He may be homeless but he knows the environment where he lives.

Fits the profile of an Obama socialist voter perfectly.

Give me something I did not earn. I will squander it immediately, then demand another slice of the pie.

Sad. What a waste of $100.

I´m proud to be posting this morning, as always, barefoot...from the local library, sipping my MD-20/20 from a paper cup, feeling the rush of the Thorazine as it kicks in.

You call it what you like.

I call it liberty.

I´m catchin´ the bus to the Keys tomorrow.

They have a much better attitude toward barefootedness down there.

(OK....just kidding)

How about making a bigger pie? A fact lost on libs.....

That cop learned a lesson and lost $100

Look on the bright side. He´s keeping the boots all nice and spiffy, so he can be presentable when he attends Zero´s inauguration.

This is why the poor will always be with us. It isn´t just about feeding and clothing...it´s a spiritual condition, too. God bless them both and assist them in the ways that will do the most good.

Gloria Alred cannot be far behind.

Another Obama voter heard from! Why doesn´t Homeless Man Hillman just shack up with "Julia" -- she can show him how to live well off the dole.

A good lesson - Don´t squander what is given to you. And be careful giving things to others who will only squander it.

This is so sad. I can´t believe the way some of you react to this unfortunate soul. The poor man is obviously not capable of caring for himself yet some of you judge him by standards you use to judge yourselves. That is not right and is anything but Christian.

In the more enlightened era of time gone by, we had both Federal and State Institutions to care for people like this. What happened is another example of liberal good intentions gone wrong. In 1963, at JFK´s urging and as part of his New Frontier, the Community Mental Health Act was passed by Congress and it closed down all Federal and State asylums. They were supposed to be replaced by local "community" centers to care for those unable to care for themselves.

JFK was killed and it never happened and multitudes were left to die on the streets and for 50 years that has happened. I´m ashamed of myself and my fellow citizens for letting it happen.

In my area, there is a homeless man who you see on the street frequently. He is often carrying a large number of personal items that gets to be larger and larger as time goes by and then one day you see him with nothing but a small suitcase again.

He comes from a well to do family who wants to get him treated, but they cannot force him into medical care...and so he continues the way he has for many many years.

I am a true believer in the preservation of liberty, however, this man is not using his liberty to his benefit and his family should be allowed to handle his affairs.

If you examine the statements the homeless man made, you get a strong clue as to why he is homeless and living on the street. He clearly doesn´t realize what it takes to earn his "share of the pie".

Sorry #30, but I reserve my sympathy for people that cannot help themselves, and this guy was given something to help his situation and he CHOSE to pawn it or trade it for (most likely) drugs or alcohol. I will never give to homeless beggars.

Yes, $100 pair of boots is ideal for a homeless guy. Nice, but impractical officer and I see why the guy got rid of them.

The boots may even be in a safe place, he just "likes" to be barefoot. Doesn´t want to get the boots dirty.

Cop could have saved $90 by getting boots at Goodwill, might not have been quite as nice. Excuse my cynicism, but I kept waiting to find out the whole thing was a setup of some kind.

Thank you, #35, I doubt anyone would get killed for a $5 pair of boots from Goodwill...

2 examples of why I don´t think twice about passing by these people -- in Denver a few years ago, a local story about a woman who had a ´daycare´ in her home and was caught, by one of the parents, on a street corner, with their child, and a ´I´m homeless´ sign.
A couple years ago, here in northern Washington, I saw a 2 guys I recognized from their familiar street corner, in the laundromat, they were discussing what corner to move to that afternoon, when one pulls out a cell phone and says ´let me call home and see if the wife´s back yet´. Then I watched them leave in a decent late model truck. Yeah, right, homeless...

Mr. HIllman is mentally ill and should not be on the streets. Leaving him there is not "compassion".

Just try and put someone in a mental institution when they do not want to go and the ACLU will be on your backside faster than an Obama voter with a welfare check.

I bet he was bussed in to vote for obama.

As the nun once told my wife in school, "don´t give them money. Give them a ham sandwich." The police officer knew the risks here and in my mind that probably makes him even more praiseworthy, even if the risks probably came to pass and the guy no longer has the boots because he traded them for something worth $15 at most.

But it is sad that the guy did what I suspected he would do.