A squeegee man or squeegee woman, squeegee kid (Canada), squeegee boy (Baltimore), squeegee punk (Montreal), squeegee merchant (London), squeegee guy or squeegee bandit [1] is a person who, using a washcloth and squeegee, wipes windshields of cars stopped in traffic in exchange for money.
In Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Winnipeg, they are known as squeegee kids and they are mostly tolerated, since they are considered to be working for money, rather than begging. In Montreal, they are often called squeegee punks, [2] in reference to their appearance, or simply squeegees. [3] In 1999, the Ontario government passed the Safe Streets Act, outlawing squeegee kids and aggressive public begging. The Government of British Columbia has adopted a word for word version of the Ontario Safe Street Act. Squeegee kids have become scarce in Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, BC, as police frequently stop them and check their identities for outstanding arrest warrants.
In 2011, then Deputy Mayor of Toronto Doug Holyday told the Toronto Sun that there was the will in council to step up action against panhandlers, including squeegee kids; [4] the proposition was mocked by some media, given the previous efforts, and the suggestion that the homeless would have to pay fines. [5]
In New Zealand, window washing mostly occurs in Auckland, particularly Manukau. [6] Window washers are considered "dangerous" and "frustrating" by drivers and Manukau Police. [7] In 2017, the activity was outlawed by the Land Transport Amendment Act. [8] The law's effectiveness has been questioned, as five years after it was enacted, the 2157 people that had been caught window washing were generally not deterred, and only six had paid fines. [9] [10]
Londoners, and perhaps others, extend the appellation to include those who roam in the midst of stopped traffic to not only wash windscreens, but also hawk items such as roses and newspapers. For this reason, they are sometimes called squeegee merchants.[ citation needed ]
In New York City in the 1980s, the usual procedure would involve groups of squeegee men surrounding cars stopped in traffic. Although some merely provided a service, in other cases the windshield-washing would be carried out without asking, often perfunctorily, and with subsequent demands for money, sometimes with added threats of smashing the car's windshield. Upon his election, mayor Rudy Giuliani famously sought to remove squeegee men from the streets [11] as part of his quality-of-life campaign, claiming that their near-ubiquitous presence created an environment of disorder that encouraged more serious crime to flourish. Squeegee men disappeared from city streets during Giuliani's mayoralty and did not reappear in significant numbers.
Squeegee men were among the first targeted by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Commissioner William Bratton. In his book Leadership , Giuliani explained that his method of removing the squeegee men from the street involved arresting them. Patrolmen who first made the arrests saw that the squeegee men were released immediately, because according to the New York penal code at the time, cleaning someone's windshield was not illegal. Giuliani told the officers that if they saw any more squeegee men they should simply arrest them for jaywalking. [12]
Squeegee men (or "squeegee boys" for younger examples) remain prevalent in Baltimore, Maryland. [13]
A windscreen wiper or windshield wiper is a device used to remove rain, snow, ice, washer fluid, water, or other debris from a vehicle's front window. Almost all motor vehicles, including cars, trucks, buses, train locomotives, and watercraft with a cabin—and some aircraft—are equipped with one or more such wipers, which are usually a legal requirement.
A blind spot in a vehicle or vehicle blind spot is an area around the vehicle that cannot be directly seen by the driver while at the controls, under existing circumstances. In transport, driver visibility is the maximum distance at which the driver of a vehicle can see and identify prominent objects around the vehicle. Visibility is primarily determined by weather conditions and by a vehicle's design. The parts of a vehicle that influence visibility include the windshield, the dashboard and the pillars. Good driver visibility is essential to safe road traffic.
A squeegee or squilgee is a tool with a flat, smooth rubber blade, used to remove or control the flow of liquid on a flat surface. It is used for cleaning and in printing.
Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the court ruled that it is constitutional for American police to "stop and frisk" a person they reasonably suspect to be armed and involved in a crime. Specifically, the decision held that a police officer does not violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures when questioning someone even though the officer lacks probable cause to arrest the person, so long as the police officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. The court also ruled that the police officer may perform a quick surface search of the person's outer clothing for weapons if they have reasonable suspicion that the person stopped is "armed and presently dangerous." This reasonable suspicion must be based on "specific and articulable facts," and not merely upon an officer's hunch.
A wheel clamp, also known as wheel boot, parking boot, or Denver boot, is a device that is designed to prevent motor vehicles from being moved. In its most common form, it consists of a clamp that surrounds a vehicle wheel, designed to prevent removal of both itself and the wheel.
Begging is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars may operate in public places such as transport routes, urban parks, and markets. Besides money, they may also ask for food, drink, cigarettes or other small items.
"Driving while black" (DWB) is a sardonic description of racial profiling of African-American motor vehicle drivers. It implies that a motorist may be stopped by a police officer largely because of racial bias rather than any apparent violation of traffic law. It is a word play of driving while intoxicated.
A window film, sometimes called tint, is a thin laminate film that can be installed on the interior or exterior of glass surfaces in automobiles and boats, and as well as on the interior or exterior of glass in homes and buildings. It is usually made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family, due to its clarity, tensile strength, dimensional stability, and ability to accept a variety of surface-applied or embedded treatments.
A hoon is an Australian and New Zealand term describing a person who deliberately drives a vehicle in a reckless or dangerous manner, generally in order to provoke a reaction from onlookers.
Atwater v. Lago Vista, 532 U.S. 318 (2001), was a United States Supreme Court decision which held that a person's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the subject is arrested for driving without a seatbelt. The court ruled that such an arrest for a misdemeanor that is punishable only by a fine does not constitute an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment.
Mary Elizabeth Anderson was an American real estate developer, rancher, viticulturist, and most notably the inventor of what became known as the windshield wiper. On November 10, 1903 Anderson was granted her first patent for an automatic car window cleaning device controlled from inside the car, called the windshield wiper. Her patent didn't get far as she got no manufacturing firms to agree to make her invention.
Windshield washer fluid is a fluid for motor vehicles that is used in cleaning the windshield with the windshield wiper while the vehicle is being driven.
The Safe Streets Act, 1999 (SSA) is a statute in the province of Ontario, Canada. The act prohibits aggressive solicitation of persons in certain public places. It also prohibits the disposal of "certain dangerous things" such as used condoms, hypodermic needles and broken glass in outdoor public places. It also amends the Highway Traffic Act to regulate certain activities on roadways. The act was enacted by the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris and received royal assent on December 14, 1999.
General Rudie was a third wave ska band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In their nine-year career, the band released two full-length albums on Stomp Records and toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States.
Eric Denis better known as Eric "Roach" Denis is a Canadian documentary film maker and activist whose films deal with social justice, and particularly homelessness.
Aggressive panhandling is a legal term for unlawful forms of public begging. Proponents of such legislation advocate placing limits on these activities. Some opponents believe statutes prohibiting aggressive panhandling are part of the "criminalization of homelessness" and argue that such laws are discriminatory or unevenly enforced.
Canada inherited its criminal laws from England. The first recorded laws dealing with prostitution were in Nova Scotia in 1759, although as early as August 19, 1675 the Sovereign Council of New France convicted Catherine Guichelin, one of the King's Daughters, with leading a "life scandalous and dishonest to the public", declared her a prostitute and banished her from the walls of Quebec City under threat of the whip. Following Canadian Confederation, the laws were consolidated in the Criminal Code. These dealt principally with pimping, procuring, operating brothels and soliciting. Most amendments to date have dealt with the latter, originally classified as a vagrancy offence, this was amended to soliciting in 1972, and communicating in 1985. Since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms became law, the constitutionality of Canada's prostitution laws have been challenged on a number of occasions.
The 1993 New York City mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 2. Incumbent Mayor David Dinkins ran for re-election to a second term, but lost in a rematch with Republican Rudy Giuliani.
Christopher Wayne Currie was a 20-year-old apprentice in the building trades who was killed by a stone deliberately thrown at his car as he drove along a motorway near Auckland, New Zealand. His girlfriend and her two cousins who were in the car with him at the time of his death were injured but survived the assault.
Homelessness in the United States has differing rates of prevalence by state. The total number of homeless people in the United States fluctuates and constantly changes, hence a comprehensive figure encompassing the entire nation is not issued, since counts from independent shelter providers and statistics managed by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development vary greatly. Federal HUD counts hover annually at around 500,000 people. Point-in-time counts are also vague measures of homeless populations and are not a precise and definitive indicator for the total number of cases, which may differ in both directions up or down. The most recent figure for 2019, was 567,715 individuals nationally that experienced homelessness at a point in time during this period.
squeegee bandit[:] a person who approaches vehicles when they are stopped in traffic and cleans their windscreens, usu.