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.

But, for a couple of weeks, the streets and shelters of Southern California were filled with fear. It was like a horror movie, with an unseen murderer lurking in the alleys of a fearful city, ready to pounce on his prey.

The typed “death warrants” paint a picture of a deranged vigilante who thinks a person experiencing homelessness is more criminal than victim. Sadly, that belief is not necessarily the exception. Society’s perspective on homelessness today often leans the same way.

Just try to build a shelter for people who are homeless. Suddenly those compassionate neighbors, who thought a man stabbing people experiencing homelessness was wrong, will speak into a City Council microphone and describe homeless individuals as sexual predators, violent criminals, and destroyers of the community.

If we honestly thought people struggling with homelessness were victims, wouldn’t we be desperate to house them at any cost?

For those of us who have been on the front lines of ending homelessness for the last couple of decades, criminal acts against people who are homeless are, sadly, not a shock.

I am reminded of John McGraham, a man who was homeless on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. He was murdered in 2008 by another “vigilante” using gasoline and a match.

In 1999, two Los Angeles Police officers shot a middle-aged homeless woman who was pushing her shopping cart along a street very close to where McGraham was murdered. If there had been a death warrant for her, the alleged crimes would have been homelessness, mental instability, and wielding a screw driver.

More recently, an illegal death warrant was placed on Kelly Thomas, a man who was homeless and struggling with mental illness. Two Fullerton, California, police officers beat him to death.

And let’s not forget the ex-marine who became a serial killer, murdering people experiencing homelessness on the streets of Orange County. He, too, wielded a knife as his weapon of choice. Until he was caught, Southern California’s homeless community lived in fear.

These crimes of hate are not just a sick fad in California. They are occurring throughout the country. Homeless beatings are becoming the norm.

In most cases, the perpetrators of these crimes are prosecuted. But in many states, like California, there are no laws that raise the penalty for such hate crimes. In other words, the laws addressing crimes against people who are homeless are reactive. There are no increased penalties to actually prevent and discourage such crimes.

Until our society acknowledges that being homeless in America is unsafe, and responds by housing those living on our streets, we will not be able to end homelessness in this country.

Photo by hugovk.

Editor’s note:

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.

Ocampo’s arrest highlights two serious societal issues: 1) Many returning combat veterans suffer from mental health disorders. The Veterans Administration is in the best position to – and should – provide treatment. 2) Victim John Berry, reported to be a Viet Nam veteran, should have been able to benefit from the same medical and psychological treatment and he should also have been provided with safe housing by the Veterans Administration.

It has been reported that Ocampo was hearing voices; if so, this is a symptom of a major psychiatric disorder and I expect that your office will seriously consider his mental state as you prosecute him for these heinous killings.

Ocampo’s highly vulnerable homeless targets highlight pervasive homelessness issues that are present all across our country, particularly among our nation’s military veterans. I urge you to support as many homeless initiatives in Orange County as you are able.

Respectfully yours,

Mary M. McLaughlin, PhD

Photo credit: Dave Conner

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.

But, no.

Six months ago, the man in the Range Rover who used a tire iron as a violent weapon was the co-founder of Pinkberry yogurt company. A few enraged words at a Los Angeles freeway off-ramp, and the Pinkberry founder imparted his own savage injustice with an iron rod.

This furious act of wrath doesn’t make sense. Could you imagine the CEO of Starbucks, or Nike, jumping out of their Range Rovers to brutally beat a homeless person?

How could the founder of Pinkberry leap to such rage? Did he down a cup of frozen yogurt, and plan to plead guilty by reason of “brain freeze”? Or perhaps he will use the “Twinkie Defense” because excessive sugar made him violent?

In a society that promotes sick entertainment like “Bum Fights”, that pits homeless persons against other homeless persons, no wonder violence against the homeless is tolerated.

The 2006 grainy video images of young men swinging baseball bats against homeless men sprawled on the ground still haunt this country’s sense of compassion. Five years later, hurting people on our streets still endure violence, to the point of death. Stabbings in Orange County, and a tire iron beating in Los Angeles.

The Pinkberry beating is such a stark contrast with the product they market. That soft and sweet frozen concoction makes you feel good inside, especially during those warm days. The pink and green, almost retro-looking interiors of their stores transport you to a time when hanging out with the family on a weekend summer evening to share a cup of ice cream was the norm.

I wish the founder of Pinkberry embraced the same soft and sweet feeling in his own life, especially in his perspective on homelessness. Instead, a few angry words turned into a soured, hardened act of vigilante violence.

The only commonality between Pinkberry’s product and its founder is that they are both cold. One is a delightfully frozen dessert, and the other contains a cold heart.

The founder of one of America’s favorite summer-time desserts may be a creatively successful businessman, but to me he is just a punk, like the other sick men wielding baseball bats against hurting homeless Americans.

Photo credit: Robyn Lee

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.

The irony of a heroic veteran risking his life in war-torn countries oceans away only to lose his life on the streets of America did not go unnoticed. A governor, mayor, police chief, attorney general, district attorney, and city council members joined thousands of others to mourn the tragic and unnecessary loss of life.

Clearly, patrolling the streets of America is no easy profession. When an officer pulls over a car or responds to a domestic violence call, she or he never knows what might happen. The fear of death is constant.

But a vocation of law enforcement, under constant threat of violence, does not warrant the right to beat, tase, and kill a mentally disturbed homeless man.

Senseless Beating

Last month, six police officers in Fullerton, a bedroom community near the border of Orange and Los Angeles Counties, were caught beating Kelly Thomas to death.

For years, Thomas struggled with schizophrenia and was known by many in Fullerton as clearly mentally disturbed homeless man. When officers were called to investigate car burglaries they encountered Thomas.

No one knows why the officers feared Thomas to the point of beating him down, but the cell phone video cameras from people in the vicinity caught the act on tape. After a few weeks of local news, the story went national encouraging hundreds to protest the city’s law enforcement.

The police officers involved are receiving death threats and some had to move out of their homes for fear of retribution.

These law enforcement incidents in San Diego and Fullerton are such a contrast between what is right about fighting crime and what is wrong. Both teeter on the fact that fear paves our streets.

We just need to realize that not all police officers are angry killers ready to beat down a mentally disturbed homeless man. Most are community heroes.

And not all people struggling with poverty or homelessness are cop killers, most are hurting people in need of help.

To patrol the streets of America means overcoming fear, at the expense of risking death. And sadly, to live on the streets of America also means overcoming fear, at the expense of risking death.

Photo credit: kosheahan

When I explained my journey’s purpose, the driver responded, “The solution to homelessness is to just shoot all homeless people.” His tone of voice was as calm as if he was explaining how to win a game of craps.

I wonder if this driver’s hostile attitude toward homeless persons is not more common than we think.

Last week violence dominated the news. Not because of the death of Osama Bin Laden, or the war in Afghanistan, but because of an extraordinary number of violent incidents surrounding homeless Americans.

In one week alone, the brutal reality of homelessness on America’s streets was glaring.

Week of Violence

On May 4^th, a 20 year old man was arrested in Indianapolis for being a part of a gang of young thugs who viciously killed Stephen McGuire. Stephen McGuire’s only “crime”, the 61 year old homeless man who struggled for years with bipolar disorder, was sleeping in an alley.

On that same Wednesday in Oakland, California, a couple of 25 year old gang members were standing trial for the 2007 execution-style murder of Odell Roberson, a homeless man caught up in a complicated gang and love triangle on the streets.

Two days earlier, on May 2^nd, a homeless man was stabbed nine times outside of a Greenville, New Jersey liquor store. The video cameras recorded this man’s brutal killing.

On Friday of last week, May 5^th, three people were charged with violently beating up an elderly homeless man thirty miles outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. A trooper told the media he thought they wanted to bash him “for the fun of it.”

And finally, on May 4^th, a circuit judge in Florida was deliberating on whether homeless men’s civil rights were at risk because a website was promoting the bashing of homeless men by women in bikinis.

It is clear that hostility toward homeless Americans sometimes results in death.

In the past few weeks, I sat through numerous local neighborhood meetings in Los Angeles listening to good-hearted Americans complain about homeless people. They said: “I am afraid for my children when they walk to school.” “Those homeless are just drug dealers.” “They are lowering the value of my home.” “They intimidate the neighborhood.”

These are complaints from compassionate, caring neighbors, who work hard to sustain their family’s livelihood, worship with a local faith group, and donate to charity. Some of their neighborhood concerns are valid.

Who really wants a person sleeping and eating outside of their home or business?

But when do complaints toward homeless persons turn into acts of violence? When do rational, heart-felt concerns for the quality of life of your neighborhood turn to the use of guns, pipes, knives, or fists against homeless persons?

I do have respect for homeowners who want their neighborhood to be safe and clean. I firmly stand on their side of law and order.

But not at the expense of de-humanizing homeless Americans who are struggling on the streets because of debilitating health issues, unemployment, or chronic disease. As soon as we see homeless Americans as an environmental nuisance, and not as a human tragedy, respectful concerns about homelessness can turn into hostile acts of violence.

The acts of aggression against homeless persons revealed in last week’s media was an indication that there are too many Americans who have the same hostile attitude toward homelessness as that Vegas taxi driver.

The first step in ending homelessness in this country is to see the issue as a sad human tragedy filled with heart-breaking personal stories. Because then we will see the urgency of housing these hurting Americans.