Los Angeles Union Station, like all big stations in America, has a permanent if invisible police presence, mainly because of the Muslim terrorist risk, but it means that it's a place where people should behave themselves in other respects. Recently two of us were sitting in the waiting hall when a black man came along saying he was hungry and could we spare some nickles and dimes so he could buy a Subway sandwich. Anyone who walks through a big American city will be used to this, and invariably what they want is money for booze and drugs. We put this to the test by offering what food we had in our bags - crackers, cheese, nuts - but as we expected no he wasn't interested and moved on.
Within a minute along came two uniformed police officers asking us what the guy wanted, perhaps they wanted to know if he was a dealer. We simply said he was asking for food which they seemed to accept.
Still, you see homeless people around, the shopping cart people who spend the nights in parks (something not necessarily unpleasant in southern California). There are groups who want to help the genuine ones who deserve help rather than the ones who will simply spend their takings at the liquor store. One of these is Volunteers of America. Removing vagrants from the streets is surely in everyone's interest.
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