SarasotaRepub
10-02-2010, 09:40 AM
:eek: My God, the homeless threads, they just keep on coming!!! (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9238311) And this time by our Bug-Boy Buddy, the friend to the US Military, mike_c!
mike_c (1000+ posts) Fri Oct-01-10 06:51 PM
Original message my partner witnessed something terrible yesterday...
Edited on Fri Oct-01-10 07:12 PM by mike_c
...and I can't get it out of my head.
There is a homeless encampment in a shallow ravine across the street from her office, with maybe six to ten shelters most of the time. It's on municipal land, and I gather that homeless people often don't feel safe from police harassment there during the day, and indeed, I've witnessed police shaking people down on the street near the encampment. The camp is not very visible from the street and many folks probably pass by without even knowing it's there, or without realizing how many people shelter there each night, especially during the dry season.
So yesterday afternoon, right after school ended for the day, my partner was taking a break on a balcony behind her office-- it's actually the back porch of the converted house her employer uses for office space-- when she saw a group of five young boys arrive at the encampment on bicycles. From that vantage you can see the encampment quite well. At first she thought the boys might be living at the encampment. All five boys were clean cut, riding nice bikes, carrying school books in backpacks. They were about 12 or 13 years old-- not older teens, but not really young children, either. That in-between age.
When they determined that no one was there, the boys proceeded to quickly and methodically destroy everything they could find. My partner says they started by smashing everything made of glass. They destroyed the shelters, sleeping bags, and all personal belongings they found, slitting cloth items and trampling them into the dirt. They threw away or destroyed food. She saw one boy smashing a laptop computer by swinging it against a tree. When he was done, he left it lying on the ground for its owner to find. They left everything. They destroyed as much as they could, then left it for the owners to find.
My GF alerted her office mates and one came out with her to witness the rest of the destruction. They didn't call the police because the police apparently don't respond to reports of crimes against the homeless camp-- although as I said, they certainly do hassle the residents themselves.
The boys saw my GF and her colleague watching from across the street and they got back on their bikes and left, but turned around and rode back up the street, passing directly past my partner and her friend. The women confronted the boys-- remember, they weren't obvious gang members or street toughs or anything like that-- they were just suburban kids in a working class neighborhood, school kids carrying their books on their backs, like ten or twelve years old. "That was all those people had," she said. "Why did you break their last possessions like that? How would you feel if someone tore up your things that way?"
The boys replied derisively, as boys that age sometimes will if they think they can get away with it. "They're just a bunch of homos! Fucking homeless! They're winos! Fuck them!" And they rode off, hooting and calling to one another. "Fuck YEAH!"
I keep coming back to the description of the boy who smashed the laptop computer. He didn't steal it. I could understand that, if he had-- not condone it, of course, but we can all relate to wanting things that others have on some level. What I cannot understand is why a twelve year old boy would deliberately destroy something like a computer and leave it lying on the ground for its owner to find, why a boy that age would give greater priority to causing someone else the pain of loss than he gave to his own sense of possession.
My partner was dumbfounded. She realized later they should have photographed the boys, or obtained some way to identify them. At the time, she and her colleague were so shocked that neither of them thought of it until later. Neither of them think they could positively identify the boys.
I just can't get the cruelty and malice of it all out of my head. What the fuck is wrong with people?
Old Mikey is pretty active in this one, I'm guessing old bobbolink was too busy with other threads last night and asked him to sub for her. :D
mike_c (1000+ posts) Fri Oct-01-10 06:51 PM
Original message my partner witnessed something terrible yesterday...
Edited on Fri Oct-01-10 07:12 PM by mike_c
...and I can't get it out of my head.
There is a homeless encampment in a shallow ravine across the street from her office, with maybe six to ten shelters most of the time. It's on municipal land, and I gather that homeless people often don't feel safe from police harassment there during the day, and indeed, I've witnessed police shaking people down on the street near the encampment. The camp is not very visible from the street and many folks probably pass by without even knowing it's there, or without realizing how many people shelter there each night, especially during the dry season.
So yesterday afternoon, right after school ended for the day, my partner was taking a break on a balcony behind her office-- it's actually the back porch of the converted house her employer uses for office space-- when she saw a group of five young boys arrive at the encampment on bicycles. From that vantage you can see the encampment quite well. At first she thought the boys might be living at the encampment. All five boys were clean cut, riding nice bikes, carrying school books in backpacks. They were about 12 or 13 years old-- not older teens, but not really young children, either. That in-between age.
When they determined that no one was there, the boys proceeded to quickly and methodically destroy everything they could find. My partner says they started by smashing everything made of glass. They destroyed the shelters, sleeping bags, and all personal belongings they found, slitting cloth items and trampling them into the dirt. They threw away or destroyed food. She saw one boy smashing a laptop computer by swinging it against a tree. When he was done, he left it lying on the ground for its owner to find. They left everything. They destroyed as much as they could, then left it for the owners to find.
My GF alerted her office mates and one came out with her to witness the rest of the destruction. They didn't call the police because the police apparently don't respond to reports of crimes against the homeless camp-- although as I said, they certainly do hassle the residents themselves.
The boys saw my GF and her colleague watching from across the street and they got back on their bikes and left, but turned around and rode back up the street, passing directly past my partner and her friend. The women confronted the boys-- remember, they weren't obvious gang members or street toughs or anything like that-- they were just suburban kids in a working class neighborhood, school kids carrying their books on their backs, like ten or twelve years old. "That was all those people had," she said. "Why did you break their last possessions like that? How would you feel if someone tore up your things that way?"
The boys replied derisively, as boys that age sometimes will if they think they can get away with it. "They're just a bunch of homos! Fucking homeless! They're winos! Fuck them!" And they rode off, hooting and calling to one another. "Fuck YEAH!"
I keep coming back to the description of the boy who smashed the laptop computer. He didn't steal it. I could understand that, if he had-- not condone it, of course, but we can all relate to wanting things that others have on some level. What I cannot understand is why a twelve year old boy would deliberately destroy something like a computer and leave it lying on the ground for its owner to find, why a boy that age would give greater priority to causing someone else the pain of loss than he gave to his own sense of possession.
My partner was dumbfounded. She realized later they should have photographed the boys, or obtained some way to identify them. At the time, she and her colleague were so shocked that neither of them thought of it until later. Neither of them think they could positively identify the boys.
I just can't get the cruelty and malice of it all out of my head. What the fuck is wrong with people?
Old Mikey is pretty active in this one, I'm guessing old bobbolink was too busy with other threads last night and asked him to sub for her. :D