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PATH PartnersThe recent Aurora, Colorado massacre, and the senseless deaths and mayhem it caused, has placed a sobering cloud over our country. In the wake of this devastating tragedy, many may have missed the news of another human calamity that occurred in the greater Los Angeles area. A man from Santa Barbara, California, hunted down people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, stabbed them with a hunting knife, and placed a typed death warrant on their bodies.
Fortunately, in this case, no one died.
Editor’s note: The following is a letter that Dr. Mary McLaughlin sent to Orange County, California District Attorney Tony Rackauckas regarding the recent arrest of Marine Corps Veteran Itzcoatl Ocampo, who is suspected in the murders of four homeless men.
District Attorney Rackauckas:
I am a rehabilitation psychologist. My areas of specialty are psychiatric disabilities and brain injuries. I interned on the Psychology Service at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Syracuse, New York and I work with chronically homeless people.
What is this country coming to when a guy in a car chases down a homeless man and pounds him with a tire iron, just because they exchanged angry words? Sounds like the old Wild West where guns were the primary mode of justice, or today’s drug cartels terrorizing its people just south of America.
You would think the guy in the car was some young, angry teenage male wanting to harm homeless Americans just for the thrill of it, a sad trend in this country.
Despite boasting temperate weather that many in the world envy, Southern California has been anything but temperate this summer. Two acts of violence in a span of a month have raised a national uproar, with one tragic incident perpetrated against a police officer, and another sickening act incited by a group of police officers.
Just this month, Jeremy Henwood, a San Diego police officer who spent several heroic tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, sat in his patrol car when a disturbed 23 year-old pulled up next to him. In just mere moments the 23 year-old pulled out a shotgun and ended Jeremy’s life.
A couple of years ago I was slated to speak at a conference on homelessness in Las Vegas. After I flew into the airport I caught a taxi, where I sat in the backseat. The driver made the usual conversation, “Where are you from, what brings you to Vegas?” When I explained my journey’s purpose, [...]
