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Homeless Beatings Surge, Videos Online Hits

by Annina Bergman | August 31, 2009 at 01:09 pm

1065 views | 42 Recommendations | 6 comments

Over the past decade, at least 880 homeless people have been attacked, and at least 244 killed in unprovoked attacks by nonhomeless, reports the National Coalition for the Homeless. In October, Maryland will become the first U.S. state to expand its hate-crime law to include attacks on the homeless.

The number of attacks have increased over the last couple of years, spawning a disturbing new trend - "bum fight" videos, in which generally young, white men, randomly attack a homeless person, or pay them to fight each other. There are reportedly close to 90,000 videos of homeless people involved in fights on Youtube.

The number of attacks on homeless people might in fact be much higher than statistics show, as many of the victims are afraid of going to the police. The National Coalition of the Homeless' report states that rates of assault, rape and other forms of violence is much higher against homeless people then almost any other group.

"They have become a new minority group that is okay to hate. If this would have happened to any other minority group, there would be some boycotts or protests," said National Coalition for the Homeless director Michael Stoops.

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a211423

at 14:12 on August 31st, 2009

Homeless people have been targets for the last 30 or more years, but reports of it are scarce because people are afraid to report it for a few reasons. Homeless people could be prosecuted for being vagrants in some areas, they might be runaways who don't want to be found for fear of repurcussions from authorities or relatives, they might be incapable of reporting due to mental illness, or fear of their perpetrators wrath if they say anything. Homeless prostitution violence has existed for many years, but the male and female prostitutes who are mostly young people live in fear from their pimps if they report. And they will lose "protection," if you want to call it that, as well as way of making a living. There are more reasons in their minds not to report, than to report. The dilemma for them appears to be insurmountable.

If governments make it a hate-crime, which it should be in every state, then they need to build into the law protections of anonymity for those who report and dispensation from prosecution for any crimes or wrong doing.

Sputnic

at 15:43 on August 31st, 2009

Sick stuff like this happens in UK too, a man I met while briefly homeless had his shoes set on fire while asleep in a nearby park. They are cowards

a211423

at 15:54 on August 31st, 2009

They are sociopaths who have no compuction for what they do. In a sense, they are to be pittied as well because their acts of aggression are a form of illness.

lounsbury

at 07:21 on September 1st, 2009

You wrote: "generally young, white men"

Is that profiling?

We have laws on the books for murder, I vote for applying them with vigor regardless of the financial status of the victim. In other words the doctor for Michael Jackson should get the same punishment as these barbarians. Murder is murder. Right?

Annina Bergman

at 07:41 on September 1st, 2009

It is profiling, as profiling is the forensic science of constructing an outline of a person's individual characteristics, and these crimes are proven to mostly be committed by young, white men. Nothing wrong with that.

Grace H

at 14:37 on September 1st, 2009

Regretably ironic that people get up in arms over issues such as abortion, but when these definite monstricities happen there is no one who will say "this is wrong." Attacking defenseless people is cowardly and absolutely unnaccepetable. Only when societies as a whole view every member as a person sans qualifiers will these sickening actions fade.