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I was driving to work today, and as I got off the freeway, I noticed two Santa Monica police officers giving a homeless man a ticket. Now, this homeless guy had always been sitting with his handmade sign on that particular offramp every single morning I drove to work. Assuming that he was authentic, what good is giving him a ticket going to do? What are you going to strip from him, his possessions? He probably doesn't have any. Humiliate him? He probably doesn't have pride left. His freedom? That'd probably be an improvement, because at least they feed you and clothe you and shelter you (from the weather, anyway) in jail. The only thing left is his life, but a lot of humanitarian groups would scream bloody murder (literally) at the prospect.
I like to comment from time to time in a colbert-esque style that there are as many homeless people as there are freeway offramps. From a purely mathematical standpoint, if there were more, then there would be multiple homeless guys on a single offramp. Unfortunately, a friend of mine with a sociological bent has mentioned that the homeless are very territorial, and the only reason you see one and only one, is that the first one there will chase off any others who come.
I think the next bit of footage for my video blog will be to get a cardboard sign and videotape myself trying to share an offramp with an authentic homeless guy.