Begging becomes a bloody business

On February 11 at about 2:45 p.m., a car hit a panhandler at the Jackson Avenue and Fletcher Parkway intersection in La Mesa. The La Mesa Police Department responded with three motorcycle cops, a police van, and a Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol car.

A man or woman holding a begging sign usually occupies this intersection (as they do at almost every major intersection in La Mesa). According to police, the male beggar wandered off the median and was struck by a woman driver.

Police stayed at the scene, talked to witnesses, and examined the car involved for about two hours. There was a straw hat and some clothes left in the middle of the intersection on the west side of the median. A woman was crying and another woman said we should pray for the man who was hit. The ambulance immediately took him away.

A local businessman at the scene said he wished that it would be illegal to stand in the middle of the street. According to La Mesa police, it is not illegal as long as the person stands on the median — but begging on the street is illegal.

By 5 p.m., a young man of about 20 years of age was occupying the corner.