Three homeless Madison men caused a few scenes around downtown over the weekend.

Marvin A. Pierce, 53, was arrested just after 5 p.m. for pulling a knife outside of Wando’s bar and making jabbing motions toward two employees on the other side of the closed front door once they had escorted him out.

Jim MacKenzie, general manager at Wando’s who was on duty Friday night, said the employees had asked the man to leave multiple times.

“Once we got him out of the bar, he pulled the knife out of his pocket,” MacKenzie said, adding some employees closed the door and locked it while he called 911.

MacKenzie said he was concerned because there were plenty of people walking around at that time but praised police for their quick response.

In another incident similar to Wando’s later Friday night, Joseph Larue, 42, was arrested on Capitol Square after pulling a pocketknife on an employee who had kicked him out of the Paradise Lounge on Main Street.

The police report said the man was “soliciting and harassing customers for drinks” and shouted derogatory terms for homosexuals, threatening to “get his boys from the shelter” to help him deal with the employees.

Julius Wilson, 55, was arrested for battery of a police officer after he responded to complaints that Wilson was lunging at people violently.

Wilson, who reportedly was intoxicated, was taken to detox and later to the Dane County Jail.

“You’ve got to be pretty bad if you’re too violent for detox,” said Madison Police Department Lt. Joe Balles.

Madison police and University of Wisconsin law students conducted a study on the transient population downtown over the last year, Balles said.

“We took a picture of the downtown area in June and wrote a query of who were some of the most problematic individuals downtown,” Balles said, adding they narrowed in on about 24 individuals who have had contact with the MPD more than 10 times so far this year.

“We’re identifying and taking zero tolerance toward specific individuals,” Balles said.

According to Balles, all the arrested men are included in those 24 individuals.

Currently, police are collaborating with organizations such as Porchlight and the United Way to find a solution to the problem that will help these individuals have a quality of life “better than what they have today.”

“We’re trying to create a model … that would really help get these guys off the street and would really start to intervene with their core problems, be it mental health or alcohol,” Balles said.

In the meantime, Balles said, students should not give money to any of the panhandlers downtown because it contributes to their “daily vices,” including drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

MacKenzie said the situation is sometimes difficult to deal with as a business manager.

“There’s a real fine line; you want to be accommodating to all people, but you also have to draw the line somewhere,” MacKenzie said. “You never really know how they’re going to react. I’m just glad nobody got hurt.”