Last night while Yodi, Sadie, and myself were comfortably layed out on the couch watching 60 Minutes, along with the bob woodward report I was interested in viewing was a stark reminder of an event that occured in Florida in which young teenagers and men beat some homeless men in acts of randem violence. Today I decided to do some research on this matter. It appears the acts were copycat in a sense that a hideous film depicting this as sport has been marketed and watched by many of our nations youth. Does this surprise you?
With growing fervor... government officials, merchants and the media have broadcast a message of intolerance that labels homeless people as unwanted outcasts. When the pillars of society vilify homeless people as a subhuman minority synonymous with urban blight, and when city officials pass laws aimed at banishing people living on the street, an extremely dangerous message is sent out that this is one hated minority that it is safe to attack.
The close connection between a society that disparages homeless people as less than human, and acts of violence and hate crimes against street people, was displayed for all to see on the streets of downtown Los Angeles in mid-August.
On August 16, 2005, two young men who told police officers that they had just watched the "Bumfights" video, went on a rampage on the streets of Los Angeles and savagely beat two sleeping homeless people with baseball bats. Ernest Adams, an elderly homeless man who was well liked and widely respected even by business owners and a U.S. appellate court judge who knew him well, was hospitalized in critical condition with severe head wounds.
The Los Angeles Times reported that William Orantes and Justin Brumfield, who were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, told police they had watched the "Bumfights" DVD and were inspired to do some "bum bashing" of their own.
The National Coalition for the Homeless [NCH] has been campaigning against the "Bumfights" DVDs for more than three years, and has warned that retailers who sell the shocking video are inciting acts of violence against homeless people. Currently--- there are at least six different DVDs being sold which show homeless people being savagely assaulted, demeaned, and injured.
Los Angeles Police Chief Willam Bratton said, "This was a vicious, cowardly crime that even veteran officers such as myself find hard to believe."
The general public is largely unaware of the extent of this growing wave of brutal crimes and murders committed against homeless people across the country. The National Coalition for the Homeless has carefully documented 156 murders and 386 violent acts committed against homeless people in the period from 1999-2004.
One of the most disturbing aspects of these hate crimes is that none of them -- no matter how shocking or cruel -- have ever sparked the kind of high-level public awareness and outrage that hate crimes against other minorities have evoked. Homeless people are often attacked in dark alleys or desolate areas -- and this alarming rise in hate crimes remains hidden in that same darkness.
But, for homeless people, the reality of these savage assaults and murders is not hidden in darkness at all. It is a well-known danger of living on the streets. The Los Angeles Times reported that the mid-August beatings of Ernest Adams and Gerald Henry have spread fear and alarm in the homeless community there.
Our society has done something even worse than allow countless human beings to live in horrible conditions of neglect and poverty on city streets. It also has forced them to live a life of real and constant danger... exposed and vulnerable to the threat of deadly assaults and deliberate hate crimes, 24 hours a day.
The NCH has documented that these acts of violence have occurred in 140 U.S. cities in 39 states. News of these assaults may be little known by the general public; but nearly every person living on the streets, in every one of those 140 cities where homeless people have been attacked, knows full well that they, too, could be brutally assaulted as they sleep, alone and unprotected.
In an effort to explain why he was involved in this activity, one of the culprits who was caught after beating to death one unfortunate fella labeled the activity..."entertainment".
May "GOD" have mercy on his soul.
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