The word from the street
TONY
“Were you here for all the excitement the other day?”
PHILIP
“No, what was it all about?”
TONY
“Well, one minute the street is quite, no problem. The next time you look, there’s three cop cruisers and they’ve cornered this pick-up truck and the next thing you know they’ve got the guy arrested for hauling around a 300-pound bale of weed in the back. Then, quick as before, everyone’s just gone and the street’s quiet like nothing ever happened. It was weird, that’s all.”
TONY
“Did I tell you about this morning when this guy sat down on the other side of the tree from me? Next thing you know, three cherry tops show up and the cops pop out and I say to myself: ‘What did I do this time?’ Turns out they’re looking for the other guy. Well, I’m glad I got out of that one.”
TONY
“You hear about the old guy who got jumped down Ronces earlier?”
PHILIP
“What happened?”
TONY
“I don’t know but next thing you know, there’s six cop cars right there. You can say what you want about our cops but they sure can do their job when they need to.”
TONY
“You see all those signs over there? Well this guy comes driving down Ronces and — right in front of a policeman standing right there he drives right round those signs there so the cop knocks on his windows and asks him how big those signs have to be so the guy could read them. And you know, I think the old guy couldn’t even read, if you ask me.”
TONY
You know, there’s this guy down the street, sometimes he hangs around a bar down there that’s been spooking some girls on the street, I mean some 13-years-olds even. I think he’s even been getting on the bus and following them for a bit. Anyway, I think I know who it is that doing it. I’ll tell you, the next time I get to talk to the cops, I’ve got something to tell ’em.”
TONY
“I got myself another ticket last night. I was in the park over at Sorauren and since I hadn’t slept in two nights I fell asleep and the next thing I know someone’s shaking my shoulder and it’s a cop. He even knows my name and he tells me the woman in one of the apartments was complaining about the noise which I guess she meant that I must have been snoring or something. The junior guy tells me she’s a real complainer but they had to give me a ticket anyway. I made sure they understood that they were just doing their jobs as far as I was concerned. I made sure the sergeant heard it too.”
PHILIP
“You’re amazing.”
TONY
“Well now I owe the government $150.”
PHILIP
“OK, I’ll take the bait. What happened?”
TONY
“I got three tickets from the cops yesterday.”
PHILIP
“How come?”
TONY
“Get this; I got one for asking someone if I could hit them up for a buck and then I got one for panhandling near a vehicle and then I got this other one. But you gotta know the best thing … you know the one for panhandling near a vehicle … you know what the vehicle was? I’ll tell you. It was the cop car that the cop who gave me the ticket was riding in. Top that, if you know what I mean.
PHILIP
“Who are you waving to?”
TONY
“That the Police Supervisor’s car. I know all the older guys. Problem is, sometimes the rookies are pretty suspicious of me.”
TONY
“A cop gave me a ticket yesterday.”
PHILIP
“For what? For being homeless?”
TONY
“Almost. I was standing at the top of the street and this cruiser stopped and the cop gave me a ticket. She said I was panhandling near a bank machine which was an offence. So I asked if I could at least get a warning first, since I didn’t know about the law but he officer didn’t budge at all.
“So today a friend tells me that CFRB radio said that a lot of street people had been ticketed recently for all sorts of things. The guy on the radio said that it costs way more to lock folks up than the city will ever collect in fines. No kidding! I mean, where am I going to find the ninety-six bucks anyway?”
Homeless Man Speaks 