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April 14, 2010 – While statistics suggest that the Near North neighborhoods are relatively safe from violent crime, aggressive panhandling is a recurring issue. It was at the top of the list when 18th District Police Commander Kenneth Angarone brought neighbors up to speed on concerns at a meeting in January of the River North Residents Association. And it is the first thing patrolman Ed Maras will talk about when asked what problems he sees on his beat.
Maras is the second of two officers assigned to a police beat that includes Marina City. The beat covers the area from the Chicago River north to Grand Avenue, and Wabash Avenue west to Orleans Street. Maras takes over in the early afternoon from Karen Wojcikowski.
Walking through River North every day for two and half years has not made Maras sympathetic toward panhandlers. “They’re not homeless,” he says. “I’ve very rarely ever seen – maybe once or twice – an actual homeless person begging for money.”
Most of them, he believes, are just “old criminals.”
“When they were younger, they were robbing, raping, burglarizing, bank robbing. Now they’re senior citizen criminals and they realize they can supply their drug habit by just mooching money off people who think they’re helping.”
Far from helping, River North residents, he says, are actually enabling a drug or alcohol problem by giving money to panhandlers.
Some people feel obligated to buy panhandlers food and that is not much better. “They come out and hand them a sandwich and as soon as they go around the corner, [the panhandler is] in that Subway shop, demanding their money back for the sandwich – because they’re not really hungry. They’re there for the drugs and/or alcohol money.”
Current focus stems from 2002 litigation
The City of Chicago used to have an aggressive law against panhandling but it was repealed in 2002 after a constitutional challenge ended up costing the city $375,000 in lawyers’ fees and related costs. Today, police focus on controlling “aggressive panhandling,” which includes getting too close, or being too loud, or soliciting near ATMs or inside restaurants.
“There’s a million charities out there that they could help,“ says Maras. By giving money to panhandlers, “all they’re doing is enabling these people to continue on with their drug and/or alcohol addictions.”
And there is only so much the police can do. While Maras, who has been on the police force for 24 years, believes the problem can be controlled, at least during his hours of operation, the Chicago Police Department cannot make the problem go away.
“A lot of people go, ‘Officer, can you get rid of these guys? Can you get them off the bridge?’ And I can’t do that. They’re a pest [but] I can’t eliminate the problem. As long as someone is willing to give them money, they’re not going to go away.”
But, he notes, “When these guys see me, they go somewhere else.”
Experience as a South Side bartender comes in handy
Originally from an area of southeast Chicago near Calumet Park, Maras tended bar at Loncar’s Tavern on East 92nd Street, an experience that helps in the tavern-rich River North.
“There’s a lot of liquor-related problems I have sometimes on a weekend,” he says. “So I’m able to calm down drunken people and stop common bar fights. I usually leave around ten o’clock, and most of the bar problems are later at night, but if somebody got a little too intoxicated at Happy Hour, I’m there to help.”
His best advice for River North residents is to be alert. “Obviously, lock your doors. Watch who you buzz in. There are burglaries in our area. Don’t let people piggy-back into the door of [your] condo building.”
Still, the issues of River North are not big problems. “I was in the ghetto for 22 years so this stuff is minor to me.”
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