Monday's Inner City Blues, Volume 2...
Good Monday Tazer Faithful...
We're not quite sure what to make of this one, so we'll just let it fly:
Beating baffles neighbors of homeless victim
By Sara Steffens and Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Neighbors knew the small homeless woman by the long red coat she always wore and for her habit of sitting on the same bus bench for hours, wrapped in blankets.
"She was just quiet," said neighbor Sheila Thomas, who once gave the woman a blanket. "She never bothered nobody."
"It was just devastating to me to hear what happened to her."
The woman known only as Ruth remained in critical condition at a hospital Friday, four days after a neighbor found her beaten, bloody and unconscious in the alcove of the Richmond storefront church where she sometimes slept.
Police don't know who did it or why. Even in the tough Pullman neighborhood, near the crossing of Carlson and Cutting boulevards, such tremendous violence against someone so harmless still stunned residents days later.
Her case underscores the danger inherent to living on the streets.
"It's very easy to attack, beat up and kill people who are living outside, and many of the cases go unreported and nobody ever gets caught," said Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
A large number of the nation's homeless don't sleep under anyone's roof: 44 percent, according to a report released last month by the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
"That's probably the main reason this is happening," said Stoops.
A spate of attacks against the homeless by thrill-seeking teenagers have made national headlines in recent years, but people who sleep outdoors also are vulnerable to simple crimes of opportunity, especially robberies and rapes.
"It happens all the time," said a homeless Richmond resident who asked to be identified only as "Laura." "People don't want to say anything, but a lot of them get hurt out there."
While newly homeless at age 18, Laura fell victim to three men who attacked her as she slept in her car. They raped her, beat her up and broke her nose.
"I was afraid for a long time," she said. "It happened a long time ago; I don't like to think about it."
Women are especially vulnerable on the streets, Stoops said.
"Even some elderly women that society labels 'the bag lady,' they get attacked and sexually assaulted," he said. "All women are potential victims."
To protect themselves, some women purposely act crazy or tell people they have AIDS, Stoop said.
Muggings also are a common problem for the homeless, said Kevin Sullivan, who camped outdoors in Richmond until moving into a motel a few weeks ago.
"It is really dangerous out there, because there's so many people willing to take anything you have," said Sullivan, 40. "And if you look like you have something, they'll do anything to take it."
Sometimes, the perpetrators are other homeless people after a recently cashed assistance check or a warm jacket, Sullivan said. Other times, they're strangers -- teenagers and young men aiming to steal a backpack of meager belongings, or just to bait someone into a fight.
"That seems to be happening more and more frequently out here," Sullivan said. "They see you homeless on the streets and they think 'automatic target.' People consider you to be a homeless bum and not worth anything."
To stay safe, Sullivan said, many homeless people try to group together in secluded encampments.
But Ruth, who didn't seem to have any friends among Richmond's homeless community, slept in plain view, in doorways, alleys or on benches.
"We've talked to just about everyone in that neighborhood, and nobody knows her name or where she came from," Detective Sgt. Mitch Peixoto said. "Some people on South 29th Street said they would give her food, and a lot of people said they saw her around, but she was always by herself."
She popped up about three months ago and quickly became a neighborhood fixture.
Soo Yang, who works at the coin laundry on Cutting Boulevard, wondered if Ruth had been discharged from the hospital, because she carried a Kaiser Permanente bag filled with her belongings.
"I thought she was just a crazy homeless lady, and I felt sorry for her," Yang said. "Normally I don't allow noncustomers to use our restroom, but I thought she would be OK."
Ruth would stop by the laundry several times a day to help herself to a cup of coffee, possibly one of her only sources of nourishment.
Some days she would greet Yang happily, others she would talk and laugh to herself, holding conversations with someone Yang couldn't see.
Locals called Ruth quiet and nonthreatening.
"She just walked up and down the street, drinking coffee and asking people for cigarettes," said Wesley Few, a longtime neighborhood resident. "We knew her, but didn't know her name."
Investigators hope to use fingerprints to identify Ruth, who talked to police briefly this week but would not reveal her last name.
Police initially suspected that Ruth's attackers had sexually assaulted her, but she was able to tell a detective this week that she had not been raped, Peixoto said.
Still, one or more people did savagely beat Ruth, breaking bones in her face and abdomen and causing serious internal injuries. Doctors removed her spleen.
Police do not know when or where the attack happened, though the blood in her sleeping area was dry when officers began their investigation.
Few said he saw Ruth on the sidewalk Monday morning, beaten and disrobed, an image that still bothers him.
"It's bad enough the world is like it is, but then they have people doing stuff like that. It's really sad."
"What did she have, besides dignity?"
Reach Sara Steffens at 925-943-8048 or ssteffens@cctimes.com. Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@cctimes.com.
Other attacks
The south Richmond beating last week was the latest attack against a homeless person investigated by Bay Area police in recent years.
• In November, two young men were sentenced to 15 years to life for beating 49-year-old Maria King to death in Berkeley. King, who was homeless, was killed in February 2005.
• In October, San Pablo police investigated a rash of bloody attacks and fights staged by teenagers who recorded them on cell-phone cameras. An electronic file on one of the phones showed teens beating a homeless man, police said. Three juvenile suspects were charged with assault in connection with a different attack recorded on the phone.
• Last February, muggers clubbed a homeless man into a coma near a busy intersection in San Pablo. The victim survived, but his attackers were not found.
• A 15-year-old and two 16-year-olds were charged with the murder of 52-year-old Dalrus Joseph "DJ" Brown, who died in July 2004 after being beaten in West Oakland. The teens reportedly told investigators they attacked the homeless man because they were "bored."
How to help
Neighbors describe Ruth as a short, skinny black woman who always wore a full-length red coat and black beanie cap. Descriptions of her age range from 40s to 60s. Police ask anyone who knows her, or knows about what happened to her, to call Richmond Detective Sgt. Mitch Peixoto at 510-620-6647.
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We welcome your comments and ideas for solutions Tazer faithful. We'd also like to get your feedback on the progress of the new elected/and or re-elected city officials as we approach the first full month of terms. How do you think they are doing?
We're not quite sure what to make of this one, so we'll just let it fly:
Beating baffles neighbors of homeless victim
By Sara Steffens and Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Neighbors knew the small homeless woman by the long red coat she always wore and for her habit of sitting on the same bus bench for hours, wrapped in blankets.
"She was just quiet," said neighbor Sheila Thomas, who once gave the woman a blanket. "She never bothered nobody."
"It was just devastating to me to hear what happened to her."
The woman known only as Ruth remained in critical condition at a hospital Friday, four days after a neighbor found her beaten, bloody and unconscious in the alcove of the Richmond storefront church where she sometimes slept.
Police don't know who did it or why. Even in the tough Pullman neighborhood, near the crossing of Carlson and Cutting boulevards, such tremendous violence against someone so harmless still stunned residents days later.
Her case underscores the danger inherent to living on the streets.
"It's very easy to attack, beat up and kill people who are living outside, and many of the cases go unreported and nobody ever gets caught," said Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
A large number of the nation's homeless don't sleep under anyone's roof: 44 percent, according to a report released last month by the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
"That's probably the main reason this is happening," said Stoops.
A spate of attacks against the homeless by thrill-seeking teenagers have made national headlines in recent years, but people who sleep outdoors also are vulnerable to simple crimes of opportunity, especially robberies and rapes.
"It happens all the time," said a homeless Richmond resident who asked to be identified only as "Laura." "People don't want to say anything, but a lot of them get hurt out there."
While newly homeless at age 18, Laura fell victim to three men who attacked her as she slept in her car. They raped her, beat her up and broke her nose.
"I was afraid for a long time," she said. "It happened a long time ago; I don't like to think about it."
Women are especially vulnerable on the streets, Stoops said.
"Even some elderly women that society labels 'the bag lady,' they get attacked and sexually assaulted," he said. "All women are potential victims."
To protect themselves, some women purposely act crazy or tell people they have AIDS, Stoop said.
Muggings also are a common problem for the homeless, said Kevin Sullivan, who camped outdoors in Richmond until moving into a motel a few weeks ago.
"It is really dangerous out there, because there's so many people willing to take anything you have," said Sullivan, 40. "And if you look like you have something, they'll do anything to take it."
Sometimes, the perpetrators are other homeless people after a recently cashed assistance check or a warm jacket, Sullivan said. Other times, they're strangers -- teenagers and young men aiming to steal a backpack of meager belongings, or just to bait someone into a fight.
"That seems to be happening more and more frequently out here," Sullivan said. "They see you homeless on the streets and they think 'automatic target.' People consider you to be a homeless bum and not worth anything."
To stay safe, Sullivan said, many homeless people try to group together in secluded encampments.
But Ruth, who didn't seem to have any friends among Richmond's homeless community, slept in plain view, in doorways, alleys or on benches.
"We've talked to just about everyone in that neighborhood, and nobody knows her name or where she came from," Detective Sgt. Mitch Peixoto said. "Some people on South 29th Street said they would give her food, and a lot of people said they saw her around, but she was always by herself."
She popped up about three months ago and quickly became a neighborhood fixture.
Soo Yang, who works at the coin laundry on Cutting Boulevard, wondered if Ruth had been discharged from the hospital, because she carried a Kaiser Permanente bag filled with her belongings.
"I thought she was just a crazy homeless lady, and I felt sorry for her," Yang said. "Normally I don't allow noncustomers to use our restroom, but I thought she would be OK."
Ruth would stop by the laundry several times a day to help herself to a cup of coffee, possibly one of her only sources of nourishment.
Some days she would greet Yang happily, others she would talk and laugh to herself, holding conversations with someone Yang couldn't see.
Locals called Ruth quiet and nonthreatening.
"She just walked up and down the street, drinking coffee and asking people for cigarettes," said Wesley Few, a longtime neighborhood resident. "We knew her, but didn't know her name."
Investigators hope to use fingerprints to identify Ruth, who talked to police briefly this week but would not reveal her last name.
Police initially suspected that Ruth's attackers had sexually assaulted her, but she was able to tell a detective this week that she had not been raped, Peixoto said.
Still, one or more people did savagely beat Ruth, breaking bones in her face and abdomen and causing serious internal injuries. Doctors removed her spleen.
Police do not know when or where the attack happened, though the blood in her sleeping area was dry when officers began their investigation.
Few said he saw Ruth on the sidewalk Monday morning, beaten and disrobed, an image that still bothers him.
"It's bad enough the world is like it is, but then they have people doing stuff like that. It's really sad."
"What did she have, besides dignity?"
Reach Sara Steffens at 925-943-8048 or ssteffens@cctimes.com. Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@cctimes.com.
Other attacks
The south Richmond beating last week was the latest attack against a homeless person investigated by Bay Area police in recent years.
• In November, two young men were sentenced to 15 years to life for beating 49-year-old Maria King to death in Berkeley. King, who was homeless, was killed in February 2005.
• In October, San Pablo police investigated a rash of bloody attacks and fights staged by teenagers who recorded them on cell-phone cameras. An electronic file on one of the phones showed teens beating a homeless man, police said. Three juvenile suspects were charged with assault in connection with a different attack recorded on the phone.
• Last February, muggers clubbed a homeless man into a coma near a busy intersection in San Pablo. The victim survived, but his attackers were not found.
• A 15-year-old and two 16-year-olds were charged with the murder of 52-year-old Dalrus Joseph "DJ" Brown, who died in July 2004 after being beaten in West Oakland. The teens reportedly told investigators they attacked the homeless man because they were "bored."
How to help
Neighbors describe Ruth as a short, skinny black woman who always wore a full-length red coat and black beanie cap. Descriptions of her age range from 40s to 60s. Police ask anyone who knows her, or knows about what happened to her, to call Richmond Detective Sgt. Mitch Peixoto at 510-620-6647.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
We welcome your comments and ideas for solutions Tazer faithful. We'd also like to get your feedback on the progress of the new elected/and or re-elected city officials as we approach the first full month of terms. How do you think they are doing?
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