The recent little "parade" of supporters for our homeless friend turned very ugly last night, and I'm so sad to report that fighting broke out in full around 7:30 pm., after everyone had their dinner and took to the streets again. The supporters kept Mr. Homeless as safe as they could, but a few of the angry residents starting throwing rocks after they threw insults. This is now a very divided community. Aiming right at him, someone managed to hit his skull pretty hard, and according to this morning's news clips he went down. A few younger people jumped him and beat him badly. He didn't defend himself, it seems, and his supporters just kept fighting with the other side. So no one really noticed when the police pulled up and carted the homeless guy off to hospital, then to jail.
This morning's latest update says he was "stitched up" at the local hospital and immediately jailed for causing a riot. Disturbing the peace. In this particularly small and peaceful (HA!) community, it's a serious crime to "disturb the peace" of these people's little enclave, their isolated existence. He remains in jail, and legally can be held 72 hours, once again.
The residents didn't want to be interviewed or seen on camera but I saw a few staring at the news van. They look like ordinary, normal, hard-working people who want their town to remain small and secluded. They want to know who lives next door. They want to know their butcher by name. They want their kids to have the best education possible. Is there anything they want that most don't? So I'm once again torn. However, this beating makes it a bigger issue, one that I naturally don't approve of but understand. It took just this one dirty, smelly, hungry, babbling homeless man to bring out the vitriol in people who thought they knew their neighbors. Now they're divided, but not even thinking about what they did to one human being. I called the sheriff's office in this town, just to see if people can bring food or clothes or comfort to the guy, but was told "he's being taken care of." So there you are.
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9 comments:
Poor thing probably wasn't doing anything or harming anyone. So why wasn't the ones who started it jailed instead of that poor soul. I can imagine how he is being taken care of. Of course they may have taken him off for his safety. Who knows? Helen
that poor man was just minding his own business and it is not his fault. he is just trying to survive just like the rest of us. i wish him the best. at leasr while he is in jail he gets a bed to sleep in, food to eat and a shower.
my prayers are with him
noelle
People wonder why the individuals that threw the first punches were not jailed? The olice officials considered which would create the least blemish to their reputation and it doesn't cost much to throw a deviant into jail. Now throw some of those law-abiding (cough), tax paying individuals in jail -- and you think you saw a riot over the homeless man? I am not sure what the answer here is - I certainly understand the community's concerns with having someone that is not part of their family or community violating their space. It is called fear. They see a man that is dirty, soured by life for whatever his reasons are and they don't want to be near it or touch it. Because let's be honest, this man might cause harm to one of their own or their possessions. However, on the other hand, where is human compassion? I just wonder why HM has settled in this area? I wonder if he used to live in the neighborhood at one time. What has drawn him to it? From the brief descriptions he doesn't sound as if he has enough faculty to try and just be a nuisance in order to just be a nuisance. It goes deeper.
I believe each of us can talk a lot about the wrongs and rights of this situation. Bottom line is what are we doing about it to change it in our respective communities? But toss them out like the trash, is as futile as spraying one apartment in a larger complex for rodents or roaches. They'll just crawl in the next unit and eventually make their way back. In our area, we found a percentage of homess were put out of mental hospitals because of budget cuts. It is a scary thing. If things continue the path they are on, it will become something we can't ignore, or better yet...shouldn't.
What are you worried about? The caring, sharing sheriff has it in hand. Sounds like a nice man!
http://journals.aol.co.uk/acoward15/andy-the-bastard/
Cathy 2 Coward: O you silly.
Oh.... how sad... Easter week, too. Where is the compassion? The common sense even? How awful...
be well,
Dawn
http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/
How awful. How sad. He is in jail and injured. What did his "supporters" gain for him? You can't shove love, or compassion, or kindness down someone's throat. It must come from within. - Barbara
Can't you just show up at the jail with a care package? (No hacksaws in a cake tho). *smile*
We have a nephew who is just one step away from becoming homeless. He was a "huffer" and now an alcoholic. He has brain damage and can barely take care of himself. He's in his 40s and his dad (husband's brother) is in his mid 60s, an alcohic also. When the nephew's Dad dies, we don't know what will havppen to our nephew. We cannot have him in our home with little girls around...we don't know what he is capable of. He has a sister, but I doubt she will take care of him she is a bipolar schizophrenic. It's a sad situation. We've tried to talk to the Dad about what is going to happen to our nephew. His reply "I don't know." Sigh. This world. We live in this country who put men on the moon, but they won't take care of their poor, their hungry, their homeless.
Barb
I confess that I don't see what there is to be torn about. There is no legal or moral justification for the actions of the people in this community against this man. Being homeless, smelly, mentally ill, etc. are not criminal acts. There is no entitlement on the part of the people in this community to select whom they want to live in their town. I do agree that they are ordinary people. Any atrocity whether it is the WWII Holocaust or the current one in Darfur depends on ordinary people for its execution. They should be ashamed. There is no codicil that says that it is okay not to love one's neighbor if his appearance offends you. Ther is no exception to loving your neighbor if you think that having your neighbor around will decrease your property values. The people in this community are hiding behind age old excuses to justify bigotry and prejudice--we are concerned about our community, we are a small community where everyone knows everyone, we have a nice life here and want to maintain it. What a sad lesson they are teaching their young people. Of course, they are not unusual. Just this week, two teenagers were finally caught after a series of attacks on homeless men in which they brutally beat the homeless men. Some of the attacks were caught on hidden cameras that are now the norm in many cities and from the tapes, it is clear the attacks were unprovoked and exceptionally viscious. As for the supporters, they should be commended for trying to respect this man's right to exist.--Sheria
http://journals.aol.com/aimer/on-my-mind
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