美国国家公共电台 NPR Annoyed Baltimore Drivers Want City To Crack Down On 'Squeegee Kids'

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

In Baltimore, the city is embroiled 1 in a debate over its squeegee kids - young people who jump into street intersections 3, squeegees in hand, to clean car windows for cash. Drivers have been complaining about their run-ins with them. And a video of Mayor Catherine Pugh scolding one squeegeer (ph) has made local headlines.

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CATHERINE PUGH: Why are you not in school?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I was going to go, but I'm...

PUGH: Get off the corner. Go to school.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: NPR's Rebecca Ellis reports.

REBECCA ELLIS, BYLINE 4: Tony Jackson and Jaylen Brown head to school each morning with a foot-long squeegee stuffed in their backpack. They always carry the Mallory. It's their favorite brand, featuring a sturdy handle and a thick, spongy top. It brings them big tips.

TONY JACKSON: We catch hundos (ph), twenties, fifties sometimes, fives and dollars.

ELLIS: The cousins pull the cash they make washing windshields with paychecks from McDonald's and Burger King. At 16 and 17 years old, they say they're saving up to move out of their parents' home downtown. Nine-year-old Tavon Parker has more modest goals. Over on Pratt and President, he's wrangling 5 up enough to...

TAVON PARKER: Buy clothes and get something to eat and buy toys.

ELLIS: His mom, Tracy Scott, usually sits on the curb 6 and watches over Tavon and his older brother. It's risky 7 work. A 10-year-old was hit by a car at the same intersection 2 this October. Still, Scott says, there are worse ways for her sons to spend their evenings.

TRACY SCOTT: It keeps them out of trouble. A lot. A lot of trouble.

ELLIS: Jaylen, Tavon, Tony - they're all lured 8 to squeegeeing by the same thing.

JACKSON: It's easy, quick, legal money.

ELLIS: The law says otherwise. But the city's statute 9 against aggressive panhandling has long been loosely enforced on the kids. The mayor's office estimates about 100 squeegeers work the city streets. This year, though, the kids say the cops are cracking down. Fifteen minutes after Tony and Jaylen arrive on President Street, Officer Brian Loiero pulls up.

BRIAN LOIERO: You guys got an ID or anything out here? All right. It's illegal to panhandle in the middle of the street.

ELLIS: This is familiar territory. The week before, Tony says, Loiero handed him a written warning.

JACKSON: Running from police. Running from police. Running from police. I'm tired of running from police.

ELLIS: Illegal or not, Tony says he needs the cash.

JACKSON: We even asked a couple officers, would y'all rather us sell drugs or squeegee? They don't never answer our question.

ELLIS: Officer Loiero says squeegeeing is dangerous, as it distracts drivers. Retired 10 attorney David Plymyer lives just outside the city. He encounters squeegeers each time he drives into downtown - an experience he classifies as mildly annoying.

DAVID PLYMYER: You're essentially 11 trapped inside that vehicle, you know, waiting for whatever is to occur next. This - it's really a sort of a low-intensity extortion operation.

ELLIS: Plymyer used to be a social worker in Baltimore. He knows most squeegeers live in poverty and said he could get behind the mayor's plan for a job training program to entice 12 kids off the corners. Yet he believes the city has been too lenient 13. He praised the decision by a local nonprofit to hire monitors to oversee 14 the kids downtown.

NICK MOSBY: It's disgustingly shortsighted.

ELLIS: State Delegate Nick Mosby is disturbed by the recent amp up in enforcement, which he sees stemming less from driver safety concerns than racial fears.

MOSBY: Just don't like the idea of strange, overwhelmingly predominately African-American young men coming up to their cars asking, can they provide a service at a red light?

ELLIS: He fears boys, like Tony and Jaylen, will be punished with a criminal record, while their white counterparts are spared.

MOSBY: Little Billy who opens up a lemonade stand doesn't necessarily get harassed 15 by the police in Baltimore County.

ELLIS: Back on President Street, Officer Loiero lets Tony and Jaylen go with a verbal warning. He cautions them again...

LOIERO: All right. I hope I don't see you guys out here.

ELLIS: He gets back in the car. Once he leaves, I ask if they're done for the day.

JAYLEN BROWN: For right now.

JACKSON: For right now.

ELLIS: They've got some homework to do. Then, they say, they'll be back. Rebecca Ellis, NPR News, Baltimore.