Re: “for not giving them a dollar”
“GIVING” them a dollar.
Now this makes sense.
Legally brilliant - they “asked” him for money, so, it was not an attempted robbery, it was not coercive, which most likely would have meant mandatory prison sentences, or even trial as adults.
I will speculate they learned this clever little artifice on the street when they were still in elementary school.
“Asking for a dollar” is a standard opening gambit in the streets of Baltimore — indeed may US cities. The idea is to freeze your target, surround him, and locate the wallet or concealed weapon. Many a mugging has begun in this way.