Police make example of ‘homeless’ man begging with $800 in his pocket

The police department in Slidell, Louisiana tackled
the issue of homelessness on their Facebook page
last week in a very unapologetic way, highlighting
a specific incident that happened this week. Below
is what the wrote;
"Transients, also known as beggars or
homeless, are often a hot topic of debate
for Slidell residents. There are people who
feel these individuals all need to be
arrested. Some feel they should offer
help. Literally, every day, someone either
calls Slidell Police or sends us a message on
Facebook asking us to do something about
this problem.”
The post describes a man, 59-year-old Franklin
Jones, who reportedly begs at the intersection of
Gause and Interstate 10, according to WGNO.
Police can’t arrest Jones because begging isn’t a
crime. But on May 21, Jones was spotted stumbling
into the road, urinating on the side of the road
and he allegedly stole a shopping cart, police said.
Upon his arrest, police found over $800 in his
pockets.
Here’s an excerpt from the post:
We continue to offer help, but when you
can make $800 in less than a week by
“begging”, some people say, “Why get a
real job?” We’ve found jobs for people.
We’ve offered assistance by bringing some
of these individuals to rehab facilities.
Bottom line is, it’s up to the individual
person if they want help or not. All we can
do is guide them in the right direction. We
can’t force people to do things…
Slidell Police does their best to address
these issues by following the letter of the
law and ensuring that no one’s rights are
violated. There is no easy solution to this
problem, and quite frankly, it is a much
bigger and deeper issue than a strictly a
police matter. We hope this sheds some
light for our Slidell residents and hopefully
answered any questions or concerns about
this issue.
Some responded in support of the post, while
others blasted police for publicly shaming the man.