San Francisco artist promises cash giveaway, chickens out over mob

There appear to be a number of missed lessons here.

More than 500 people -- some who had arrived before noon -- showed up for the 4 p.m. giveaway but walked away empty-handed. Joe Canada, an artist from Novato, spoke to the crowd for about an hour but drove away before he or any of his 20 volunteers could hand out any bills. The size of the crowd might have intimidated him, police said.
"There were too many people," Sgt. Anthony Manfreda said. "He just got spooked."

When you promise to give out $10 bills, shouldn't you expect a few folks to show up?

The crowd began cursing and yelling at Canada and his volunteers.

"This was just a great big joke on us," Steve Hunt said. "He better not show his face here again."

This represents the good nature of the SF Homeless crowd. These guys probably have a union by now.

Jones said Canada, who himself was once homeless, wants to give people on the streets a sense of hope.

Giving people something doesn't give them hope. Remember the whole, "Teach a man to fish..." thing?


Here is the complete SF Gate story.