NYC Homeless Man Shoeless Again Despite Boots

Originally posted by lee anoma
[I believe the lesson here is: "Kindness is its own reward."

Don't commit any act of kindness with the expectation of some sort of 'return'.

- Lee

I agree wholeheartedly. Thank you so much for understanding what I was trying to get at and putting into a shorter, more to the point, version of my long winded response.

Two years ago this Christmas coming there was an ad on our local "for sale wanted" board that caught our attention.

It was a women claiming to be a single mother and wanting any used board games and toys for her three children which she listed the ages of.

She was very specific as in I will use anything I receive for free to give to my children, this hit us hard in the gut just reading it.

So we emailed her and arranged to get a gift to her of $400.00 cash and also arranged for transportation for her to go shopping.

Keep in mind this was about 3 days till Christmas.

After the holidays she walked over 3 miles to our home just to thank us in person, it was a very dusty room that day for myself and the wife and the recipient of our donation.


Never have I felt so good in all my life and that goes for the wife too over a simple act of kindness/mercy whatever you want to call it.

I am sure that Police officer felt the same way regardless of what happened to the boots and socks.

My two cents here.

Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by DocHolidaze
reply to post by FlyersFan

 

the cop giving a homeless man boots was a farce. with law enforcement being portrayed in the media as they are(and as they deserve to be) someone set this photo opportunity up to make police look good, and whomever took the picture to get paid. the whole thing was bullshnipe to begin with

When I first saw this story I thought the same thing. This was a PR stunt.

Originally posted by proob4

Originally posted by DocHolidaze
reply to post by FlyersFan

 

the cop giving a homeless man boots was a farce. with law enforcement being portrayed in the media as they are(and as they deserve to be) someone set this photo opportunity up to make police look good, and whomever took the picture to get paid. the whole thing was bullshnipe to begin with

When I first saw this story I thought the same thing. This was a PR stunt.

I have to agree with the aspect that the Police are not portrayed very nicely thanks to everyone haveing a cell phone with a camera.

I for one have had some terrible experiences with the "Cops" and yet again I have had some really good experiences with the "Cops".


However this should not deter us from being compassionate to our fellow humans.

Public relation stunt or not please keep the less fortunate in mind regardless of what you see on U-Tube or in the papers.

Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by MyMindIsMyOwn
Did you bother to read further than your Yahoo sourced article? No?

Yes I read it .. and others. Did YOU? The family has asked him to come live with them. The homeless man says NO. The brother did indeed know he was homeless .. he was just surprised to see him in the paper. The homeless man is homeless by choice at this point. He more than likely sold the boots and bought booze or drugs with the money. That's just how the statistics add up. Deal with the truth of it.


Side note ... in our town we have a homeless woman .. 'Clare' .. who is rather famous. Everyone 'knows' her .. even the grade school kids will say 'I saw clare today' etc She walks up and down the main road. She always wears the same gray sweatsuit and 'shoes' made of duct tape. She has her set schedule of where she is walking to and from .. and she's rather devout going to Catholic Mass every morning. People .. US INCLUDED .. have tried to buy her shoes and socks and new cloths .. and she always refuses. One day she was hit by a car and spent time in the hospital. I found out that her family took her home and nursed her .. giving her new cloths and new shoes ..but Clare left as soon as she was able to walk and she put on her old sweat suit and duct tape shoes even though she had been bought new stuff. She wanted no part of living with anyone .. no part of new cloths .. she wanted to be homeless and she wanted duct tape on her feet instead of new sneakers.

That's just the way it is with some folks.

reply to post by ilikestarz

I think you make some good points about just not giving and frankly, because of this, I don't. I can recall the people I've given money to in the last few years and by two hands would have fingers left in terms of strangers. The last one was a Vet who just got back from Iraq (that dates it a bit). He was a good sport and instantly appreciated why I was asking about gate procedures and physical layout of things. I happened to have a relative who also served outside Fallujah during the battle and support afterward. He happened to name that...so what could have been bad for him to choose...turned out to be the truth and I made his day with interest.

So..when I know someone isn't lying to me or trying to take the money I need, to get themselves stoned or drunk? I'm a generous guy. He asked for $5 to help get home and by the end of our short chat as I fueled my truck, he got himself $40 with a sincere mention of wishing I'd had a bit more to help with.

It's the people who run their own cardboard sign franchise and make more than I did trucking that drive me crazy......or the ones who are so obviously lost to addiction, even they can't realize how far gone they are, then try and tell me it's all for some good purpose or a new start. You know, I actually DID give $20 to someone who outright told be it as for cheap wine a few years back. The honesty was so shocking, I couldn't help admire it enough to let him get baked for the night on whatever my donation to his lack of a cause paid for.

So it's not even a die hard point of what they spend it for as much as whether you are helping someone helping themselves to LIVE.....or simply dropping a few coins in the guys loser meter to help support life one more day in a bottomless pit. The street sure has plenty of both kinds in my experience.

The cop can still feel good that he helped a person out in the cold. If the guy sold the shoes...so what? Ever hear of freedom? From the way I heard the story, I don't think the guy asked the cop to buy him the shoes. It was an act of generosity...enjoy it for what it was.

I have little problem thinking he hid the shoes. In the streets, people have been killed for less than a nice warm pair of shoes.

It's a shame that this is the state of our world, it's sad that some people choose this life....but it is there choice and it is their life. I do not have to understand it...I do not have to support it...but I can allow another human being....mentally stable or not...to live "their" life as best they can.

Help and charity and generosity should not have strings attached to it. Either you want to help or you don't. If he is mentally ill but not a threat to anyone...leave the man alone...maybe...just maybe...this is the life he willfully chooses...maybe this life is what brings him joy...I have no idea and I don't care. He is a sentient life form. It is not my place...or anyone else's place...to tell him how to live or what to do with what someone gives him.

I'm reading this from my office/studio, furnished in high dollar glass and chrome and soon It will be 5 pm and I will walk to the lot where my nice car is parked and I will encounter quite a few homeless, bums, drunks, junkies, crazies and I still respect them as human beings with human frailties and problems that I can't even imagine. Either we're all children of GOD, or none of us are....

"There but for the GRACE of GOD go I"

I prefer to give freely of my monetary blessings no questions asked and try and keep a connection with my brothers and sisters and my GOD as I understand him.

Spiritual sickness takes many forms and I prefer to not to go there again. I was there once.

GOD grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; The Courage to change the things I can and the
WISDOM to know the Difference............ Without bitterness, envy and a meanspirited heart.

Merry Christmas...... GOD bless us everyone. Even my cherished adversaries.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by FlyersFan

 

What a disgusting toad of a man. He should be ashamed of himself. Deeply. I mean my first thought was 'Thats what the cop gets for being decent for a change!'....then my second thought was how horrible that first one really is to think. I mean, whats become of us that a gesture of kindness from THAT direction of all unexpected places for a homeless guy, would be repaid with the item not being USED as that was the sole reason to buy them for him.......but then he has the nerve to whine that he didn't receive fair credit and *MONEY* of course, for being the guy someone happened to snatch a pic of while the Cop was being a good human being.

I'll bet that cop never lives down the 'I told ya so's' and 'That'll teach ya' from his fellow cops.

People wonder why so many cross the street or walk OVER the homeless? Well they aren't all gutter slime like his character, but enough seem to be for the public to see and hear about so sympathy is a sign of weakness not virtue.

What a sad sad statement for someone who got such a gift absolutely out of the blue. Merry Christmas.

edit on 3-12-2012 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)

1. You don't know why these boots are missing, as if it even matters. Things in this mans world are not the same as in your world or that officers world. - First thing I thought, (along with what a remarkable act of kindness) is damn, someone is going to kill him for his boots now.

2. Clearly the man is suffering with a sociopathic illness, a mental disability of some sort or he would not be sitting in the street, homeless starving and barefoot. You are calling this man a toad? There but for the grace of God...

3. The homeless man owes nothing to the Police Officer. He did not ask for the boots. You call this case of the missing boots a sad statement? I think you imagining a pair of boots were going to make this man's life all better a very sad statement of the level of disconnect and misunderstanding we have going on here in America.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
NYC Homeless Man Shoeless Again Despite Boots

Remember that heart warming picture of the NYC Police Man buying a pair of $100 all weather boots, with ultra warm socks, for a homeless man on the street? The police man paid for it himself out of his own money. Well .. the homeless fella is once again without shoes and is going barefoot. He claims that he 'hid the boots' because they were worth a lot of money and would get stolen. (I'm not buying that ... the city is crawling with 9 million people .. there is no place for him to 'hide them').

Then the homeless guy (who is homeless by choice, because his brother said he could come live with him anytime he wanted) said this ....

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

Sooo. The NY Times found him wandering aimless in Manhattan Sunday night.
I rather doubt that. Which reporter tracked him down? How?
I challenge anybody to take this photo and locate this guy wandering aimlessly around Manhattan.

The photo is not real. It is a photoshop.
The story was a PR stunt taken by a LE communication's officer just wandering around Manhattan herself with her also NYPD boyfriend.

She supposedly never met the guy, but somehow she managed to tell Hannity his name was "dePrimo".
I don't think there is an officer dePrimo, unless it IS her bf.
How did Hannity track her down?

There are enough holes in this story to drive a truck through.
But, instead people are having their opinion shaped this way and that by a fake story.
First how humanitarian the NYPD are, and then how evil and selfish the homeless are.

You need to use critical thinking and examine the photo. I used fotoforensics on the original posting of
this story. The shoe rack is ps into the scene, the officer is ps into the scene and the homeless guy
and the pair of boots are from yet another photo Those are NOT even NEW boots.
He would have given him a box or I suppose they forgot to shop in that detail. A real scene would have been
nice to give the guy a bootbox to put his stuff in.
But, oh well. The NYT and the USA TODAY are all lapdogs for whatever PR firm the PD has hired for their public relations department. Who would have even seen this obscure photo online somewhere without a whole
lot of publicity arranged to make sure it was.







Dollars to donuts .. he sold the boots on the street for a bottle of booze.

Flame away.


ETA - YAHOO COMMENTS Looks like I"m not the only one who thinks this guy sold 'em for booze money ..

edit on 12/3/2012 by FlyersFan because: (no reason given)

So.The NY Times found him wandering aimless in Manhattan Sunday night.
I rather doubt that. Which reporter tracked him down? How?
I challenge anybody to take this photo and locate this guy wandering aimlessly around Manhattan.

The photo is not real. It is a photoshop.
The story was a PR stunt taken by a LE communication's officer just wandering around Manhattan herself with her also NYPD boyfriend.

She supposedly never met the guy, but somehow she managed to tell Hannity his name was "dePrimo".
I don't think there is an officer dePrimo, unless it IS her bf.
How did Hannity track her down?

There are enough holes in this story to drive a truck through.
But, instead people are having their opinion shaped this way and that by a fake story.
First how humanitarian the NYPD are, and then how evil and selfish the homeless are.

You need to use critical thinking and examine the photo. I used fotoforensics on the original posting of
this story. The shoe rack is ps into the scene, the officer is ps into the scene and the homeless guy
and the pair of boots are from yet another photo Those are NOT even NEW boots.
He would have given him a box or I suppose they forgot to shop in that detail. A real scene would have been
nice to give the guy a bootbox to put his stuff in.
But, oh well. The NYT and the USA TODAY are all lapdogs for whatever PR firm the PD has hired for their public relations department. Who would have even seen this obscure photo online somewhere without a whole
lot of publicity arranged to make sure it went "viral".

reply to post by FlyersFan


Yes. It's called mental illness.

Do you know why so many mentally ill people live on the streets?

We through them out of the sanitariums in the 1980's. (they had their own set of problems, no doubt).

I'll never forget "Xray" from north Hollywood in the early 1990's. He was a vet. His dad would come and visit and bring him food, money, clothes, but Ray would hide from him until he left. Ray was severely mentally ill and highly OCD. He used to bag and bury his own feces. He kept a useless collection of junk in a suitcase and "lost" his collection on several occasions. This made him extremely distraught and agitated. He had a home to go to as well, but he couldn't -- for whatever reason. God knows what compulsion kept him on the streets, but it wasn't for want of family.

Explanation: Hmmmm?

So this thread has really nothing to do with charity, cops, the homeless or even the boots ... its purely the OP'ers RANT against anybody having any booze or drugs! [aka 'fixes']



Personal Disclosure: I don't care what the OP'er uses to segway into their RANT as their RANT and what that is about is obvious. :shk:

I hope the OP'er never has any of their OWN 'fixes' fullfilled regardless of what form they take!

Whats good for this homeless bloke is sure good for the OP'er IMO!

reply to post by FlyersFan


that's the problem with homeless shelters, they have so many conditions that it's practically a prison.

charity and compassion come without conditions.

thats the only way to get them out.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Yes I read it .. and others. Did YOU?

Well of course I did, silly goose, since I was able to accurately provide you with quotes from them. Perhaps you missed this one:

The family of Jeffrey Hillman, the shoeless man helped out by a police officer in Times Square, had no clue their relative was living on the streets.

Daily Mail Source

And in case you failed to see it in the referenced article, the title of the article states it as well:

Family of man who was pictured being given boots by NYPD cop say they didn’t know he was homeless

(Source the same as above article)

He more than likely sold the boots and bought booze or drugs with the money. That's just how the statistics add up. Deal with the truth of it.

The "truth", as you put it, that I will deal with is that you've based your knowledge of the "fact" that 75% of all homeless men in NYC are drunks and addicts, on an article written in 1989 with the number of 75% based on only those men surveyed entering into one particular shelter, not showing as you would have us believe, that this is a study showing ALL or most of the homeless in NYC using current/relavent statistical data. (Your post showing your "proof" of 75% alcohol/drug usage among NYC homeless I'm sure you are aware that the demographics of homlessness in the US, including to NYC, have changed dramatically in the last 23 years since the article you presented as proof was written.

Even if your statistic was correct or even more current, why are you seemingly more willing to believe that Jeffrey would be part of the 75% and not the 25% given the lack of real evidence to support either side of that arguement?

Side note ... in our town we have a homeless woman .. 'Clare' .. who is rather famous. Everyone 'knows' her .. even the grade school kids will say 'I saw clare today' etc She walks up and down the main road. She always wears the same gray sweatsuit and 'shoes' made of duct tape. She has her set schedule of where she is walking to and from .. and she's rather devout going to Catholic Mass every morning. People .. US INCLUDED .. have tried to buy her shoes and socks and new cloths .. and she always refuses. One day she was hit by a car and spent time in the hospital. I found out that her family took her home and nursed her .. giving her new cloths and new shoes ..but Clare left as soon as she was able to walk and she put on her old sweat suit and duct tape shoes even though she had been bought new stuff. She wanted no part of living with anyone .. no part of new cloths .. she wanted to be homeless and she wanted duct tape on her feet instead of new sneakers.

Given the obvious lack of compassion for the subject of your OP I find it rather shocking that you took the time to offer any assistance to Clare in any way or follow up on how she was doing after her accident, aside from reading about it in the local paper, when you most likely would not even notice Jeffrey unless you tripped over him on the street.

This could be an assumption that is totally off the mark and if your story is true, kudos are due for the attempt. Your conclusion that Jeffrey more than likely sold his boots for booze/drugs without any real proof that he did makes me wonder why it is that you would not draw the same, or similar, conclusions about your own local homeless woman, Clare. Is it because she refused your help whereas Jeffrey accepted? Does this make her more moral somehow? Do you know if Clare would have sold her winter boots in the same situation? Do you know if she would stash them in a safer place as to not face the possibility of violence against her from other homeless folks or perhaps just some idiots out for some fun?

That's just the way it is with some folks.

Agreed. But I still find it passing strange that you would allow for such understanding in Clare's plight while out right condemning Jeffrey for the same decision and automatic assumption he's sold his new shoes instead of doing just what he said he's done with them which is to hide them. So I have to ask... whats the fundamental difference between Clare and Jeffrey? What makes Clare's chosen situation beyond your reproach while condemning Jeffrey for the exact same decision to live on the street?

Chop his feet off! Socks are cheaper!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Because you know anything about what it's like to be homeless? Read the post directly above the one I'm responding to. That should give you another view to consider instead of jumping to conclusions like a prejudiced jackrabbit.

reply to post by FlyersFan

You know I didn;t want to tell this story because I help homeless and less fortunate people and I volunteer when I can and I don't want it to turn into one of those "SEE!!!" things. But I remember opening a restaurant downtown in college. Everyday we left there were two guys that set outside and one woman particularly gave them two or three bucks every day for two weeks as we left training. She said after a week or so that she kept giving them money but there never seemed to be boozed up so she continued to give. The managers told her to quit because they were loitering. She didn't. Well when we opened they came in, asked for her, ordered one steak and ribs combo/ about 17-18 bucks. They then proceeded to spend the rest of their 55-60 bucks they got from her (about 35-40 more) on pitchers of beer they had a five dollar special on them. They left trashed and her nothing. Many servers laughed at her saying they knew that it was coming. I told her it would come back to her seven fold and they didn't know that. They said they were not going to tip her because why would they just give her money back to her for free and left. We never saw them again. One of life's true stories that is stranger than fiction.

That lady was from way out in the country. I told her she told me she always wanted to help people and I said to stop at where she did and let God handle the rest. Some people are just selfish. That is why they live on the street. Some are victims/ I had one homeless guy that use to visit the bar and never asked for a dime. He would come on a Sunday and ask to use my cell phone to call his Mom in Alabama. He knew Sundays were unlimited then. He did every Sunday. Once, I even offered him to a bus ticket home for Christmas one time and he said it was the worse time because ALL of his family would be there and it would embarrass his mom in front if everybody for how big if a failure he was and would rather go during the summer. i never saw him again.

Hmmm. I don't think his name is "Jeffrey".
I think his name is Karriem Hillman.

search.criminalcheck.com...,KARRIEM%3C/a%3 E%3C/td

The photo was probably taken in California which is why he is barefoot and wearing short pants.
Definitely not the freezing streets of NY or he'd would have frost bite by now and wouldn't be able
to wander aimlessly.

I found this by doing a check on Natisha and Kirk Hillman the people who somehow got contacted
for this story.

Kirk is a minister in Allentown, PA.

Same guy? You be the judge.

www.ussearch.com...

Leave it to one idiot, to screw it up for all the rest.

Thanks to this guy, I will no longer give money to the homeless.