ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how the police often came under public pressure to act to control public manifestations of poverty. It describes the Vagrant Act under which men could be charged with gathering Alms and explained to them that it would the duty of the police to arrest and charge them if they persisted in begging. The chapter presents a letter from the Beckenham Charitable Society to the Commissioner (Charles Warren) complains that the processions of the unemployed which have been parading the streets and collecting money are ‘particularly objectionable’ in a neighbourhood primarily populated by ‘gentlemen, engaged in business’. The police handling of several other similar parades is then detailed in further memoranda. Essentially, the police tended to adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach, only acting where they felt the law was being flagrantly flouted or the peace disturbed.
