by J.S. Magruder, Unknown News whynotresist.blogsome.com
April 2, 2007
Two ten year old boys were charged recently with the brutal beating of a homeless man in Florida. As always happens when an event such as this takes place (it happens more frequently that you might suspect) there's a bit of hand wringing and carrying on about how "something like this" could happen."For a 10-year-old to pick up a cinder block and smash somebody's face with it, that defies logic," police Chief Michael Chitwood told The Daytona Beach News-Journal on Thursday. He said the court system needs to take a close look at the children's backgrounds and families."
Really, Chief? Because I know you want to blame the parents, or video games, or early weaning, or insufficient psychiatric medications, or whatever the popular culture is promoting through television talk shows as the "cause" of all society's ills at present.
Chief? You're not going to like hearing this, but I think perhaps all those laws about driving homeless persons out of public spaces,
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refusing to let people offer food and other assistance, destroying people's encampments, having people routinely harassed and arrested ... you know, all those things that municipalities do to dehumanize and set groups up as ideological Others -- I think that's the source of your violence against homeless persons problem.
It's the same problem you get when you tell soldiers that everyone is "the Enemy" and then act shocked when they take out entire villages filled with women, kids and old people. It's the same problem you get when you cease to use terminology that denotes human beings and instead label people "Illegals", "Faggots", and so on. When children grow up in a nation that tortures, that imprisons large numbers of minorities, that kills civilians repeatedly, war after war -- it seems rather absurd to claim that children assaulting a homeless person "defies logic." In fact, it makes perfect logical sense.
Children, like it or not, model their behavior on adult authority figures, and the authority figures haven't exactly been the picture of Christian kindness in respect to the Works of Mercy. Sure, it sounds good -- but then when people try to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty, visit the imprisoned, care for the sick and bury the dead -- when people try to do so, they are zoned out of the district, harassed, and threatened with arrest for doing what in other times would have been considered decent.
"Do as I say, not as I do" isn't good parenting, and it sure as hell isn't good public policy. I know the Chamber of Commerce is a powerful group, but until municipalities and law enforcement do their duty as human beings and members of a community and protect the vulnerable among us rather that target them for harassment and humiliation -- we're going to see more of this sort of violence.
© by the author.
Boys, 10, charged in beating of homeless man
Associated Press March 30, 2007
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A homeless day laborer was recovering in a hospital Friday after two 10-year-old boys and an older teen were charged with attacking him on a street and smashing a concrete block into his face.
The three boys, each charged by police with aggravated battery, face a hearing next week to determine if they should remain in juvenile detention. At their first court appearance, the two younger boys were escorted from jail in oversized white jumpsuits, their hands chained in front of them and their legs in shackles.
"They are dangerous," the 57-year-old victim, John D'Amico, told The Associated Press from his hospital bed. "The street doesn't need them. They need to be somewhere."
State prosecutors have made no decisions yet on what formal charges will be pursued or whether any of the boys will be charged as adults, said Linda Pruitt, a spokeswoman for State Attorney John Tanner.
"We will review the facts and the evidence in the case and determine what is the appropriate decision," Pruitt said.
D'Amico said he was walking with a friend through a Daytona Beach neighborhood just before 9 p.m. Tuesday when the trio on bicycles started throwing sand and small rocks at them.
Then they got off their bikes and started throwing larger rocks, he said.
D'Amico said he fell into a wall after the 17-year-old punched him in the face, breaking the brick wall. One of the 10-year-olds then slammed a piece of the broken wall onto his face, he said.
"They were big kids for their age," D'Amico told the AP. "The little kid was taunting me. The big kid came over and just slugged me. If they just would have let me walk on, I would have walked on."
D'Amico has had reconstructive surgery on his face since the attack. He said he didn't think he was targeted simply for being homeless.
"I don't look that homeless. I'm not really dirty, slobby homeless," he said. "I'm familiar in the neighborhood. I don't know these kids, never seen them before."
Police didn't return a phone message left Friday seeking comment, and no parents were in the courtroom during the boys' first appearance before a judge Wednesday.
A police report shows the parents were notified of the boys' arrests.
"For a 10-year-old to pick up a cinder block and smash somebody's face with it, that defies logic," police Chief Michael Chitwood told The Daytona Beach News-Journal on Thursday. He said the court system needs to take a close look at the children's backgrounds and families.
Private defense attorneys Tonya Cromartie and Jonathon Glugover, who represent the younger boys, had just been assigned to the case Friday, so they couldn't comment, assistants said.
Volusia County Public Defender Jim Purdy, who represents the older boy, said he won't know until next week if his client will be charged as an adult.
The case was the latest example of violence involving homeless people in Florida. Four teenagers got lengthy prison sentences for beating a homeless man to death in 2005 near Daytona Beach. Three other teenagers face possible life sentences if convicted of beating a homeless man to death with a baseball bat in Fort Lauderdale in a 2006 attack that was caught on surveillance video.
Archived from original publication
Police aim to keep criminals out of shelters
by Maria Cramer, The Boston Globe Dec. 26, 2006
Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said yesterday he is assigning a deputy superintendent to investigate the problem of criminals and ex-offenders who are blending in with the homeless population in shelters and then committing crimes on city streets.
"The shelters might need our help in dealing with people who are violent," Davis said in a telephone interview. "It's out of concern for people who work in the shelters and live in the shelters to make sure that those individuals who are committing violent acts are dealt with."
Shelter employees have said some homeless people, after cashing Social Security or unemployment checks, were robbed by others staying in the shelter, Davis said. Reported drug deals on Tremont and Stuart streets in the Back Bay and recent break-ins along Newbury Street, including at posh stores Valentino and Louis Boston, were connected to people who listed shelters as their main addresses, Davis said.
The deputy superintendent, who has not been assigned yet, is expected to communicate weekly with shelter directors and several community police officers who already work with the homeless. Davis said he hopes that by working more closely with advocates for the homeless, police will be able to drive down the crime rate in some neighborhoods, safeguard shelters, and distinguish between those people who may pose a threat and homeless people who are simply looking for a place to stay.
In 2005, about 930 people arrested told police that they lived in shelters, he said.
But Davis said he doubts many of them were actually homeless.
"That's not a solid number because a lot of people wouldn't want to list the addresses of where they really live," he said.
The police commissioner's statements come as the city is trying to address the rising number of homeless on city streets.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino today plans to announce an initiative to address public safety and health concerns related to the city's homeless population. "I asked our human service agencies along with our public safety officials to come up with a multi faceted approach to helping provide services to our homeless community while ensuring the safety of them and our neighborhoods from the small number of individuals that have been causing trouble," he said through a spokeswoman.
The annual homeless census has been completed and shows an increase from last year's count of 261, said Jim Greene , director of the city's Emergency Shelter Commission.
He declined to provide the number because it has not been released to the public yet.
Many of the homeless tend to congregate around Downtown Crossing, the Back Bay, and the South Station area, neighborhoods where they feel safer, he said. But some have serious alcohol and substance abuse problems, have mental health issues, or are elderly and have been living on the streets for several years, Greene said.
"The needs are very great and growing," he said. "We need to do all we can do to prevent this."
Davis said he did not know what was causing the problem of crime among the homeless, but said many of the perpetrators had just left the prison system.
Some shelters said they have seen an increase in the number of people leaving the prison system and heading straight to their facilities.
At St. Francis House , a shelter on Boylston Street, advocates have seen a spike in the number of prisoners applying for the shelter's 14-week substance abuse and reentry programs. In the last two years, the Pine Street Inn, another shelter, has seen a 25 percent increase in the number of homeless reporting a criminal background, said Lyndia Downie , shelter president.
"Because people are self-reporting, my guess is that's probably conservative," she said.
But advocates for the homeless said the ex-offenders who walk through their doors usually want to change their lives, not re-offend.
"Our experience is that people are very motivated not to return to prison," said Karen LaFrazia , executive director of St. Francis, who added she has not seen an increase in crime inside the shelter. "If people from the police department to the administration to the Legislature are invested in public safety, they need to understand that they need to invest in [housing and job] programs."
The city plans to seek more housing opportunities, particularly for elderly homeless people, expand treatment programs, and call for more state funding for reentry programs for offenders leaving the prison system, Greene said.
Davis said the police department plans to work with Greene's office and shelter directors to identify homeless people with substance abuse or mental health problems.
Greene said the department's plans are welcome.
"For the police to gather people . . . who may be looking to blend into a homeless population to perpetrate their crimes," he said, "I think most homeless people I know would support police efforts to weed out those elements."
Archived from original publication
Cities set limits on serving food to homeless people
by Emily Bazar, USA Today March 26, 2007
Cities are cracking down on charities that feed the homeless, adopting rules that restrict food giveaways to certain locations, require charities to get permits or limit the number of free meals they can provide.
Orlando, Dallas, Las Vegas and Wilmington, N.C., began enforcing such laws last year. Some are being challenged.
Last November, a federal judge blocked the Las Vegas law banning food giveaways to the poor in city parks. In Dallas, two ministries are suing, arguing that the law violates religious freedom.
"Going after the volunteers is new," says Michael Stoops of the National Coalition for the Homeless. "They think that by not feeding people, it will make the homeless people leave."
City officials say the rules were prompted by complaints about crime and food safety. Some say they want control over locations so homeless people can also get services such as addiction counseling and job training.
"The feedings were happening several times a week" in parking lots and sidewalks downtown, says Dewey Harris, director of Wilmington's Community Services Department. "A lot of the merchants said, 'We feel uncomfortable when you have all these homeless being fed downtown when we're trying to attract tourists.' "
Last March, the city restricted meals on public property to designated locations and required a permit. One spot has been approved: a city park parking lot.
Dallas also limits outdoor food giveaways to approved locations. Those distributing food must take a food-handling course and get a city permit, says Karen Rayzer, director of environmental and health services. A violator can be fined $2,000.
Orlando adopted an ordinance in July that requires a permit to serve more than 25 people in a park within 2 miles of City Hall, where most food giveaways were taking place. An applicant may serve twice a year in each park.
"This ordinance wasn't established to ban feeding," says city spokeswoman Heather Allebaugh. She acknowledges that some groups ignore the law.
City Commissioner Robert Stuart voted against it. He is executive director of the Christian Service Center for Central Florida, which feeds 325 homeless people a day but, as private property, is not affected.
"It's not fair to take a population without a home and make them criminals," he says. "And I don't think we ought to be limiting the opportunity to help others."
Archived from original publication
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When children grow up in a nation that tortures, that imprisons large numbers of minorities, that kills civilians repeatedly, war after war -- it seems rather absurd to claim that children assaulting a homeless person "defies logic."
In fact, it makes perfect logical sense.
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