"If these brutal attacks were committed against any other religious or minority group...

[Sapphire Blue]

... to the same degree, there would be a national outcry and call for governmental action," - Michael Stoops, acting executive director of NCH.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Violent Crimes Against Homeless People on the Rise
Advocates fault lack of affordable housing, public attitudes
May 02, 2008

Washington, DC, April 29, 2008 - Today the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) released the 2007 numbers on the epidemic of hate crimes and violent attacks against homeless Americans. The numbers are part of a new report entitled Hate, Violence, And Death on Main Street USA, 2007.

Click here to download a copy of the report: http://www.nlchp.org/view_report.cfm?id=242.

Key findings include:

The total number of attacks rose by 13% from 2006 to 2007 - from 142 to 160 attacks.
The number of fatal attacks rose by 40% from 2006 to 2007 - from 20 to 28 deaths.
64% of the attacks were committed by youths aged 13-19; two attackers were just 10 years old.


"Those experiencing homelessness are often ignored or misunderstood by society. If these brutal attacks were committed against any other religious or minority group to the same degree, there would be a national outcry and call for governmental action," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of NCH. "We must respond to this dehumanization and protect homeless persons against hate crimes."

The 44% of homeless people who are unsheltered are the most vulnerable to these attacks. Because crimes committed against homeless persons often go unreported, the actual numbers of non-lethal attacks may be much higher. While the motive for an attack is often unclear, some of the attackers said they committed the crime out of "boredom," or for a "thrill" or "fun."

"Young men see the way we treat homeless people - criminalizing them, shoving them out of sight - and they get a message: these people are less than human, and it is OK to attack them," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of NLCHP. "If we want to stop these attacks, we need to send a clear message that homeless people have the same human rights as everyone else."

The report also details ways cities, states, and the federal government can act to solve the crisis of anti-homeless violence. "The bottom line is, people need to be housed," said David Pirtle, a formerly homeless victim of violence and NCH Board member. "If the federal government adequately funds permanent affordable housing, fewer people will be on the street, and fewer men and women will be attacked."

There also needs to be action at the local level. "Cities often focus on cracking down on panhandling or sleeping outside as a way to push homeless people out of sight," said NLCHP Civil Rights Program Director Tulin Ozdeger. "These numbers show the need for a different response - training police to help protect homeless people and deliver needed services, not to lock them up in jail."

Click here to download a copy of the report: http://www.nlchp.org/view_report.cfm?id=242.

For more information on the report contact NLCHP executive director Maria Foscarinis ([e-mail], 202/638-2535) or NCH acting executive director Michael Stoops ([e-mail], 202/462-4822).



The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty's mission is to prevent and end homelessness by serving as the legal arm of the nationwide movement to end homelessness. To achieve its mission, NLCHP pursues three main strategies: impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education.

The National Coalition for the Homeless' mission is to end homelessness and poverty. NCH seeks to accomplish our mission through policy advocacy, public education, research, community organizing, and empowering the homeless population.

http://www.nlchp.org/news.cfm?id=45

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Why is this going on amid silence?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Perils of Indifference
Elie Wiesel

(excerpt)

In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.

Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.

Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.

In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders. During the darkest of times, inside the ghettoes and death camps -- and I'm glad that Mrs. Clinton mentioned that we are now commemorating that event, that period, that we are now in the Days of Remembrance -- but then, we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did.

And our only miserable consolation was that we believed that Auschwitz and Treblinka were closely guarded secrets; that the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on behind those black gates and barbed wire; that they had no knowledge of the war against the Jews that Hitler's armies and their accomplices waged as part of the war against the Allies.

If they knew, we thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction. They would have bombed the railways leading to Birkenau, just the railways, just once.

The full speech (text & audio) is available @ http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue's daughter)

[ismnotwasm]

1. At a certain conference

I attended a couple of years ago, some of the most horribly sad pictures were of the homeless. One had been deliberately set on fire after being beaten.

Nothing left to identify really. And something like that crime happens every day to homeless people

K&R

[alstephenson]

2. WTF is wrong with people?

Preying on the helpless. How does a 10-year old get an idea to do something like this? We are a broken society.

[Sapphire Blue]

3. "society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders."

- Elie Wiesel

It still is. That's what's wrong with people.

Act.

Now.

[bobbolink]

8. "That's what's wrong with people. Act. Now." Bless you, Indigo Blue!!!

You have me in tears.

I feel so alone. So isolated.

Those of us suffering this just aren't "sexy" enough to matter.

:cry:

thank you for taking this up!

[bobbolink]

5. "WTF is wrong with people?" INDEED. WHAT *IS* wrong? Right here on DU,

after Sapphire Blue gave all her energy to trying to get DUers to pay attention to these issues, yesterday I posted a Request for ACTION on Medicaid, etc.

IT SANK WITHOUT ONE SINGLE REPLY.

So, you tell me, what is wrong right here at DU?

Could you please reply to this, because I'm hurting and very much want to know what is going on with people to IGNORE these issues!

Thank you.

[alstephenson]

9. Sadly, your post was probably lost among the multitudes of GD-P posts.

But I agree with what you are saying; there needs to be more awareness and activism surrounding the issue of affordable housing.

[bobbolink]

12. It wasn't "lost". As it says in the article. . IGNORED.

We need to stop excusing this.

There are so many useless threads that get LOTS of attention.

WE are the ones who decide what we look at; what we "kick". What we recommend.

When poverty threads consistently die, it's not "lost"... it's our values that we are SHOWING publicly.

Please, let's stop excusing it, and looking at it for what it is.... our priorities suck.

edited to say... Oh, and it wasn't in GD-P. Why would I post it there? Really, I may be homeless but I'm not stoooooooopid. It was right here in GD.

IGNORED.

Will you reply to this?

[alstephenson]

15. Geez, bobbolink, I'm not trying to EXCUSE anything....

Many of us read the Latest page - unless one specifically BLOCKS GD-P (like me), the GD-P posts show up on the Latest and the Greatest pages. When the volume of GD-P posts is high, it is easy to miss an important post on another subject, like affordable housing/homelessness. That's all I was trying to say - maybe I didn't say it well, but I certainly wasn't inferring that you are stupid.

I work for a non-profit organization involved in, among other things, addressing affordable housing and assisting the homeless. I'm not the fucking enemy, so lighten up.

[bobbolink]

18. Lighten up your own self. If you chose to take that as a personal affront, then so be it.

I'm sick to death of all the excuses for why POVERTY isn't important on DU. Or in the Dem party.

You can trash me all you want, but that doesn't change the reality.

Live in your car for a while, and take all the shit you get from people because you're homeless, THEN tell YOUR OWN SELF to "lighten up".

I'm going to edit this to say, that if you work for an organization trying to get housing for homeless people, and do volunteer work, etc., then you should be as angry as I am about the lack of concern about poverty on DU. It should BOTHER you that threads can sink without ONE REPLY.

[Sapphire Blue]

21. I see similarities between today’s societal attitudes and those of the ‘Good Germans’.

No, it isn’t (yet) as blatant as it was back then, people aren’t being hauled off to concentration camps, but we, as a society, have come to accept that ‘certain people’ are ‘undesirable’, to be neglected, forgotten, thrown away. How is that any different than the attitudes, the acceptance of the ‘Good Germans’?

If we don’t speak out, if we don’t do something, we are, each and every one of us, culpable.

“Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own” – Elie Wiesel


Choose one:

Killer?

Victim?

Bystander?

Activist?

[bobbolink]

23. I see the similarity, also, and have spoken about it. All people do is get defensive.

We are a society of people who don't like to look at how we hurt each other.

I hope you have much more luck in getting through to people than I've had.

:yourock:

[Sapphire Blue]

25. People sometimes get defensive when they feel that they aren't being listened to.

Self-defensive, you might say. It helps to listen to those that we are trying to reach, as well as speaking to them. Only then can the real conversation start. And it could be a conversation that will open minds, as well as hearts.

[bobbolink]

26. I've always believed that ,too, Indigo.

But what I see happening, in reality, is when people are heard, they just keep spouting the same stuff, the same excuses, and nothing changes.

Meanwhile, people are suffering and people are dying.

I'm very tired, and more than ready for others to take up the banner.

[NaturalHigh]

4. I am always sickened and baffled whenever I read of attacks on the homeless.

Have people never heard "there, but for the grace of God, go I"? It's not a crime to end up homeless, and it can happen to anybody.

[bobbolink]

6. Question for you.... because it isn't those other people who are causing this problem...

it's right here... it's US, because we don't get off our duffs and TAKE ACTION.

So, my question... the solution is given right in the article... LOW-INCOME HOUSING.

Are you willing to work for that?

Are you willing to make that an issue you will take action on?

Are you willing to put energy into learning the facts on low-income housing so you can talk with others, and get this as an issue that gains steam and produces results?

We can sit and point fingers all day long at the awful people who would attack a helpless person. That makes us feel good. It makes us feel morally superior.

BUT, we don't stop to think that we contribute to the problem by sitting and clucking about it, rather than figuring out what we, as a forum, can DO to get things moving in the right direction.

That's my question--are you willing?

[Sapphire Blue]

20. It's not a crime to end up homeless?

A Dream Denied:
The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities

A Report by
The National Coalition for the Homeless
and
The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty

January 2006


Executive Summary

The housing and homelessness crisis in the United States has worsened in 2005, with many cities reporting an increase in demands for emergency shelter. In 2005, 71 percent of the 24 cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors reported a 6 percent increase in requests for emergency shelter. Even while the requests for emergency shelter have increased, cities do not have adequate shelter space to meet the need. In the 24 cities surveyed in the U.S. Conference of Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Homelessness Survey for 2005, an average of 14 percent of overall
emergency shelter requests went unmet, with 32 percent of shelter requests by homeless families unmet. The lack of available shelter space – a situation made worse by the Gulf Coast hurricanes - leaves many homeless persons with no choice but to struggle to survive on the streets of our cities.

Over the course of the year, 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness. The number of people living on the streets threatens to grow as thousands of people are now homeless as a result of Hurricane Katrina. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as of late November, approximately 50,000 hurricane evacuees remained in hotels and motels awaiting alternative housing options.

An unfortunate trend in cities around the country over the past 25 years has been to turn to the criminal justice system to respond to people living in public spaces. This trend includes measures that target homeless persons by making it illegal to perform life-sustaining activities in public. These measures prohibit activities such as sleeping/camping, eating, sitting, and begging in public spaces, usually including criminal penalties for violation of these laws.

This report is the National Coalition for the Homeless’ (NCH) fourth report on the criminalization of homelessness and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty’s (NLCHP) eighth report on the topic. The report documents the top 20 worst offenders of 2005, as well as initiatives in some cities that are more constructive approaches to the issue of people living in public spaces. The report includes the results of a survey of laws and practices in 224 cities around the country, as well as a survey of lawsuits from various jurisdictions in which those measures have been challenged.

Please read the rest of the summary @ http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/crimreport/summary.html

And the entire report @ http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/crimreport/index.html

[bobbolink]

7. Thank you, Indigo Blue, for posting this.

This is a fear I live with, and I certainly get the "ignored or misunderstood" all the time. It's a form of violence, and I strongly believe it begets the physical violence.

I've also said repeatedly that poverty and homelessness are the Civil Rights issues of this era. For the same reasons as detailed in the article. YET, other than Edwards (who is now turning only to "the working poor, and the rest of us can eat cake), there isn't a leader who is taking this seriously, and the progressives and liberals don't see it as an issue.

So, all of this will continue.

[ismnotwasm]

10. The homeless are "the Other"

The one certain people can use to separate themselves to feel like their personal world is good. The concept of the other is one of the ugliest ones I know.

[bobbolink]

11. "Other", "Us and Them".... being one of the excluded, I know just evil firsthand.

Many years ago, the priest at a local Episcopal church said in his sermon that he was asked during the week what he thought of the issue of pornography.

His reply?

"My idea of pornography is the whole concept of Us and Them."

That has been a guiding principle of mine ever since then.

Too bad it hasn't caught on with "progressives".

Thank you for understanding.

It means a lot to me.

edited to add: The other "OTher" we need to get away from is blaming all this on the "Right Wing". WE are ignoring poverty. WE need to look at US. In fact, plenty of RWers vote FOR poverty programs, or there wouldn't BE any!!

WE are the ones we need to change, and stop blaming everything on the RW.

[tkmorris]

13. Kicking this one

I'll have to post a reply later, too busy presently.

Thanks for keeping this issue in the forefront Indigo Blue!

[Blue_Tires]

14. ttt

[G_j]

16. absolutely right, K&R

[Disturbed]

17. Sadly, Jail might be safer than the streets for the Homeless.

:grr:

[bobbolink]

19. That's not all. I know about a gay man with AIDS who bought a gun and no ammunition

so he could hold up a convenience store in order to get put in jail where he would have a cot, 3 meals, and MEDICAL CARE.

How sick have we become????

[Zhade]

22. kick

kick

[Evoman]

24. kick...this shit is sick. nt