NYC Homeless Man Shoeless Again Despite Boots

Thats why I never give a penny to a beggar as at the end of the day they choose to live on the streets there is plenty of support and charities out there offering help. Most just want to be drunk or full of drugs 24/7 so they can do what they like but not on my hard earned money.

Originally posted by gnosticagnostic
That's just so sad... because there really are needy people who would appreciate the kindness and it's unfortunate that he sold the boots for whatever he purchased with the money.. He's obviously very sick.

What's sad about this?

I am sure he appreciated his kindness. What makes you think he didn't?

Whether that be from the pint he drank or whatever else he may have bought with the money from the shoes.

He may even still have them hidden and uses them when he isn't trying to get change.

Look...giving the guy a pair of shoes isn't going to solve the problems that have him there in the first place.

Depression, addictions, and mental illnesses can take a long time to sort out.

What did you guys think would happen?

That he would click his heels and wish for a new apartment, a decent job, and a sounder mental state once he put on these magic boots?



You guys are acting like he wasted the chance of a lifetime!

This was an act of kindness.
Simple as that.

Whatever came out of it really doesn't negate that fact.

- Lee

reply to post by FlyersFan


No surprise here. I once gave five bucks to a homeless guy at the mall during Christmas time. He yelled at me because I didn't give him more! Well, I yelled back and took my five bucks.

Originally posted by chiefsmom
He says he's grateful for the gift, but he wants "a piece of the pie" because the photo was posted online "without permission". I really don't care what he did with the boots, but the above statement is making me question what kind of man he really is.

THERE YA GO.

This guy isn't stupid. He is homeless by choice. He's running a money making scam on good hearted people that doesn't work when he's got a nice warm pair of boots on his feet. He said he 'wants a piece of the pie' from his picture being on the internet.

1 - No one got paid for his picture being on the internet so there is no 'pie' for anyone.
2 - Homeless people can be greedy too.

He's a veteran and he has family he can stay with. His family said they invite him often to come live with them and that they love him but the homeless man WANTS to be homeless. There are no rules on the streets .. but in a homeless shelter or with family you aren't allowed to booze it up or drug it up ... so many people choose to be homeless. At least, that's what the books in my psychology courses said.

A kick in the guts for the policeman. And why many are reluctant to give alms to those who are down and out

The sad truth is that the majority of homeless people are homeless due to mental illness or one addiction or another. Unfortunately they can not be forced into treatment against their will because in the old days that was abused for a myriad of reasons. Therefore you can not just commit someone no matter what the evidence is. If this man were given a million dollars he would be broke and homeless inside 6 months.

Originally posted by DocHolidaze
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

The cop gave the boots from his own $$$.
Neither the cop nor the homeless man knew the picture was taken.
It was taken by a women in NYC who was on vacation.

Homeless Man originally from South Plainfield New Jersey .. the picture taker is Jennifer Foster, a tourist from Arizona

Originally posted by 0zzymand0s
If our compassion begins and ends with a photograph of a pair of boots, we never had any in the first place.

I could not agree more.

This became a photo-op with a lot of obligations on the side of a homeless man with a ton of social problems and obvious bad judgement in his personal life.

I can't imagine how anyone would have expected this to be any different than how it ended up.

He sold them or he hid them.

The good deed isn't harmed by either action.

- Lee

By all means let's make assumptions about the homeless. "They are all drunks and junkies and prefer to live on the street and count on the kindness of strangers."

The reality is that many homeless have lost their homes and jobs, are mentally ill and dysfunctional, ptsd vets, etc.

I still consider it a blessing to help out my fellow man that is down on his luck. I guess I'm just a stupid liberal that does his best to live by Christ's teachings.

"Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly." Leviticus 19:15

"If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother." Deuteronomy 15:7

This reminds me of "the man with the golden voice". It will turn out badly just as it did for the other guy. I fully believe he could have hid the boots and no one would find them. I would venture to bet he has hidden most of stuff in a "spot". I do not think it is fair to assume he sold the boots for booze. Maybe he sold the boots for some food..Who really knows? It certainly does not sound like the guy has made a decision to get better.

reply to post by GArnold


Interesting you brought up "The Man with the golden voice" as i was thinking the same. However, last i heard he was charged for beating a ex-wife and was back on the sauce?

Some people get accustomed to a way of life eg. drinking on the street, and they will revert back to it.

See folks? Your charity is always wasted.
Don't give those in need anything.
Merry Christmas.

The famous picture was taken by a woman who just happens to work for Arizona law Enforcement.
Funny hey?
The poor guys boots are none of your or anyones elses business....
Sure you can use this to set your emotional tone, but you would be doing yourself and humanity a disservice.....
The reality is never as pretty as the photo, no matter the picture....get used to it

Originally posted by olaru12
By all means let's make assumptions about the homeless. "They are all drunks and junkies and prefer to live on the street and count on the kindness of strangers."

That's not an assumption ... with this fella it's reality. He has a family. His family says they love him. They have asked him to come live with them. Asked many times. He continues to say he'd rather be homeless. And yes, the TRUTH is that many of the NYC homeless ARE boozers and druggies. The probablility is that he sold the boots to get booze.

NYC Times - 75% of NYC Homeless Men Addicted to Drugs or Alcohol

So yesterday I'm waiting for the bus and a homeless lady asks me for a dollar. I literally didn't have one so I denied the request ( usually I give them a dollar).

I get on the bus and she is let on too. So far so good.

She then takes out of a plastic bag some nearly new tennis shoes that look to be her size. She then takes out a broken shaving razor and proceeds o use it like a box cutter and eviscerates the shoes. I look at the shoes she's currently wearing and they are wrecked.

I remember thinking to myself. Good thing I didn't give her a dollar. Sometimes it makes you wonder with some of them as to why even bother. I know some good homeless people who appreciate food and clothes when you give it to them. They even appreciate the job that the neighborhood mini mart owner gave them and hold it down too. But then there are the lost causes. Sadly like the lady on the bus this NY homeless man is a lost cause.

Originally posted by stirling
The poor guys boots are none of your or anyones elses business....

This is a discussion forum. We are going to discuss a lot of things.
Don't like it?? Go elsewhere.

reply to post by BASSPLYR


In Jacksonville Florida about 1988 there was a man who always stood by a busy intersection during rush hour with a sign that said "Will Work For Food". When cars stopped for a red light the drivers would give him money. At the time the City of Jacksonville started a program to help homeless people. They were setup with a place to stay, food, clothing, medical care and a job. Everything was covered for six months to give the person time to establish some savings and then they were on their own. One reporter thought it would be a good story to introduce this guy to this program and then follow through to see how it came out. When the reporter approached the man about the program, he was told that the man wasn't interested. Something didn't sound right to the reporter, so he watched the man one day. At the end of rush hour, the man walked across the street, reached behind a bush for a cap and jacket, put them on and walked across a parking lot to a fairly new Mercedes, got in and drove off. The reporter got the license number and found out that the man wasn't homeless. As it turned out the man was making upwards of $1500 a day panhandling for about 3 hours. To me the ironic part was that a Judge said that he couldn't be charged with a crime, because his sign said that he would work for food, but, nobody ever asked him to work. The story did put an end to his scheme, because, everybody knew who he was and wouldn't give him any money.

The program to help the homeless was dropped, after only having five people apply for it out of the estimated 4 to 8 thousand who would have been eligible for it.

I have to wonder if the woman on the bus was doing something like this, that's why she cut up the shoes.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
He's a veteran and he has family he can stay with. His family said they invite him often to come live with them and that they love him but the homeless man WANTS to be homeless.

Bull feathers. Did you bother to read further than your Yahoo sourced article? No? Well I did and in this one his brother states that until this happened they had no idea his brother was homeless:

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.

The man's brother, Kirk Hillman, was shocked when he recently saw his younger brother make headlines around the world after the selfless officer gave the homeless man a new pair of boots.

'The last time we heard from him was maybe a year ago on New Year’s Day,' said Tish Hillman, who lives with Kirk in Allentown, Pa. 'Once a year, he calls us to let us know he’s OK.'

Daily Mail Article Linked in your Yahoo Source

Or, because it fits your preconceived ideas of whats going on here, do you choose instead to accept this version of it from one of Jeffrey's neices?

'Jeffrey has his own life, and he has chosen that life, but he knows that our hearts and home are always open to him,' said Alegra Hall, Kirk Hillman’s daughter, told the newspaper.

'He knows that,' she said. 'He’s well aware of that.'

(Source being the same article linked above, found at the very end of the story)

My question is why does the brother, Kirk Hillman, first claim above he had no idea his brother was homeless,then go on to insinuate that his brother Jeffrey in the past has refused the offer of living with them? As evident in the second linked article in the Yahoo source from the OP The NY Daily News that states:

“We love our brother very much,” Hillman’s brother, Kirk, of Nazareth, Pa., told the Daily News Sunday, adding that he was surprised to see his brother in the newspaper. “Our door is always open to him, but this is a lifestyle he’s chosen.”

I have to wonder just why this bit of the OP's Yahoo sourced article was left out of the OP, as it clearly indicates to me a man, Jeffrey (lets give him some dignity and call him by his name and not 'that homeless man'), that is indeed grateful for the gift:

"I appreciate what the officer did, don't get me wrong," Hillman continued. "I wish there were more people like him in the world."

He added: "I want to thank everyone that got onto this thing. I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. It meant a lot to me. And to the officer, first and foremost."

Sometimes in our rush to assist... or in some cases judge..... we forget that life on the streets is vastly different than most of us can even imagine. Those shoes may very well be stashed somewhere because they are new, nice, now 'famous' and therefore coveted by others living on the streets and that could very well get Jeffrey killed. He may have sold them too, who knows...and we probably will never know unless there's another article that comes out later where Jeffrey took a reporter to the location of the stashed shoes. All I know, is that I choose to have some faith that Jeffrey's story is true until proven otherwise.

To automatically jump to a convenient harsh judgement of another human being simply because of his station in life at the moment seems crass, cold, haughty and greatly lacking in the compassion that we all seem to recognize is lacking in our world today and mourn the loss of but have a very hard time practicing.


ETA: In re-reading my original response I noticed that I was mistaken, The same brother, Kirk Hillman, in one article (Daily Mail) claims he had no idea his brother was homeless, then states in another article (NY Daily News) that Jeffrey has always known he was welcome in their home. I've corrected the mistake in my response.

reply to post by MyMindIsMyOwn


Good points.

Some people are saying that the lesson here is: "No good deed goes unpunished."

I disagree.

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

You see people getting pissed off about this kind of thing all the time. "I did a good deed and helped someone out and they took what i gave them and sold it for X". So? Let the homeless man have whatever it is that comforts him. If it's alcohol, who cares? People love you say, "I will help you, but it has to be my way". Why the control? What that officer did that night will never be changed by anything that happens past the the moment it occurred. He shouldn't care what how the man chose to act afterward, if his actions truly were selfless. Otherwise this would have been charity for selfish purposes. Don't give to make yourself feel good, don't give with an expectation, don't give out of guilt - give because someone needs it more than you. If they spend your $5 on crack, then smile and think, "That's what is what is most important in that person's life right now, and i was able to help them get it".