January, 22, 2006
YOUTH VIOLENCE
Attacks on homeless: baffling
While violent crime by young people nationally was down significantly, attacks on homeless people were up, and most were perpetrated by youths.
BY FRED TASKER, ftasker@MiamiHerald.com
Senseless. The word keeps coming up in the grappling with why teenagers would beat homeless men with baseball bats, as happened 10 days ago in Fort Lauderdale.
It doesn't add up: Overall, violent crime by U.S. young people is down -- dramatically.
But violent attacks on the homeless are up, across the country, in 39 states.
And 75 percent of those arrested in such attacks are youths.
''There's an alarming increase nationwide in homeless beatings,'' says Michael Stoops, acting director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington.
``They're the one remaining group that people can target.''
The search for cause brings up all the usual theories: Nature versus nurture. Low IQ. Low self-esteem. Alcohol. Drugs. Violence in media. Uninvolved parents. The Internet.
But hardest to understand is the randomness, the lack of even irrational motive. In cases across the country it's usually not robbery, hardly ever revenge, seldom even anger, experts say. Even when youths try to explain why they did it, the best they can come up with is it was for kicks, because they were bored.
Even in the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Colorado that killed 15, the youths involved had a motive -- revenge against bullying, experts say. There isn't even that in the homeless beatings.
In the Fort Lauderdale case, it's baffling to see a teenager on a security video beating a homeless man with a baseball bat, then a few days later, see apparently the same youth sobbing in confusion and fright when he appears before a judge.
''We can't connect those dots because he probably can't,'' says Dr. Steven Schlozman, a child psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, making it clear he was speaking generally, not about the Fort Lauderdale case. ``It's possible the youth is baffled by it, too.''
CONSEQUENCES
''People don't always take into account the consequences of their own actions,'' says Stoops. ``What they thought was fun, what they got away with in the past, has now landed them in jail. Their lives are ruined. I'd cry, too.''
Three teenage boys -- one from Fort Lauderdale, two from Plantation -- have been charged with the murder of Norris Gaynor and with aggravated battery. The attacks left two other homeless men hospitalized with deep bruises and broken bones.
Milton Hirsch, a veteran Miami defense lawyer who has represented young men in such situations, recalls spending many hours with a kid in his early 20s accused of murder in Miami Beach.
``I was able to learn almost nothing about him from him. He seemed incapable of engaging in a useful cause-and-effect discussion.''
In Key West in March 2004, two teens were arrested after police saw them punching a homeless man who had been sleeping on Duval Street, causing deep cuts to his face.
'[The officer] saw the two teens stand up, laugh and high-five each other,'' The Key West Citizen reported.
''It appeared to be random,'' said Key West Police Chief Bill Mauldin. ``A whimsical, sick manifestation of some thinking I don't understand.''
In Holly Hill, near Daytona Beach, three teens beat a homeless man to death with fists, sticks and a big log last June -- then brought their friends into the woods to see him, police say. They said it was just for fun.
''It was completely random and unplanned,'' says Deborah Day, a forensic psychologist in nearby Winter Park. ``They just happened on a homeless guy in the woods. In part it was adolescent group mentality. If they had been alone, they probably wouldn't have done it.''
''In the past year in my area alone there have been seven incidents of [homeless] being beaten or burned or knocked off their bikes,'' says Louise Hubbard, Vero Beach-based president of the Florida Coalition for the Homeless. ``It just doesn't compute in my brain.''
NO EPIDEMIC
Still, one thing is clear: There is no overall epidemic of youth violence.
''The juvenile violent crime arrest rate in 2003 was lower than in any year since 1980,'' says a 2005 report by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Yet there have been 386 attacks on the homeless since 1999, up from 60 that first year to 105 in 2004, according to Stoops. Many other attacks go unreported, he says, because homeless distrust police.
''The major perpetrators are young white male suburban kids,'' he says. ``They're looking for excitement. Poor kids don't do this; they already have enough trouble.''
One of the kids charged in the Fort Lauderdale attack -- Brian Hooks -- liked to get together with friends to see who could take the strongest punch from each other in a playful way, said a classmate at South Plantation High.
''They had their own jokes and stuff,'' said the classmate, who did not want to be identified.
Some experts blame families: ''What kind of family allows adolescent boys to be wandering in the woods in the middle of the night?'' Day asks.
PREJUDICE
Stoops puts some blame on national anti-homeless prejudice: ``Would this happen with any other group? Gays or African Americans? There would be a national outcry.''
But he won't blame everyone: ``I don't think Americans in general hate homeless people. They volunteer and help in soup kitchens and other things.''
Stoops also blames a series of videos called Bumfights sold in shops and online in which the homeless are paid minor sums or given beer to fight each other. In Los Angeles last year, two 19-year-olds who saw such videos were charged with beating homeless men with baseball bats. They told police they wanted to do some ''bum bashing'' of their own.
Whether this applies in the Fort Lauderdale case is moot. There's no indication the three youths ever saw such videos.
Video games take blame from Ron Luce, who runs a Christian-oriented movement called Teen Mania, based in Garden Valley, Texas. He plans to rally youth in Miami against such media on March 17-18.
''Video games teach kids how to beat people. It doesn't matter what kind of home they're from. These things bypass the parents,'' he says.
Schlozman, the Massachusetts General child psychiatrist, agrees such games are repugnant, but he says they shouldn't take all the blame.
``Tons of kids play first-person shooter [video] games, and hardly any turn to violent behavior. In study after study, the best predictor of kids doing these awful things is not the media they watch, but difficulties in school, parenting, tensions in the home, underlying psychological problems.''
When teenagers copy the acts of peers on the other side of the country, it doesn't mean they've seen them in Bumfights videos, or even in traditional media, Day says.
'It's amazing how much information is transmitted among adolescents. Think of it as music. Kids know what's in, what's part of the culture. They spend a lot of time online. They have instant-messaging. Somebody says, `Man, this is so cool,' and the next thing you know it's happening someplace else.''
Schlozman says it's futile to blame such behavior solely on either genes or upbringing. ``There may be some external factor that brings it out, but there has to be an underlying predisposition. You need a kind of perfect storm of factors for such a horrific act to happen.''
CAUGHT ON TAPE
Stoops is glad, at least, the Fort Lauderdale attacks were caught by a security camera and transmitted nationwide. As a result, he says he was interviewed last week by Geraldo Rivera, and contacted by America's Most Wanted for an upcoming segment.
``We've been a lonely voice for many years. Videotape for the first time is putting a face on this issue.''
Miami Herald staff writer Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.
January 2005
, Violence and death on Main Street USAJanuary 8: Four teenagers beat and stabbed an unidentified homeless man, leaving him in critical condition at Queen’s Medical Center. Lynn Mauneaka, director of The Institute for Human Services, an emergency shelter in Oahu, described the attack as “extreme” and “ugly.” A witness reported one of the attackers saying, “I got the guy good by knifing him.” Savannah Balai, 19, Percy Elevenia, 18, and an unnamed 15-year-old were charged with second-degree assault.
Sources: Honolulu
Advertiser, “4 arrested in attack on homeless man,” 1/10/04; Honolulu
Advertiser “3 charged in beating of homeless man” 1/13/04
January 8: Shirin Galinkin, 27, and David Pulcino, 45, were arrested and charged with second-degree murder on October 25 for the death of 57-year old Jeffery Thompson.
Galinkin and Pulcino admitted to severely beating Thompson during an argument after the three had been drinking together. The couple then left Thompson to die under an old railroad trestle, where a passerby found his body.
Thompson, a Vietnam veteran, was well known in the small town of Maple Valley, where he had lived in his entire life. He performed odd jobs for neighbors, told stories, and lent out books from his large collection.
Following Thompson’s death, the town held a memorial service, and a local 16-year old helped raise a $200 reward for anyone who could help catch Thompson’s killers.
“People responded on a very deep level to his soul,” noted Maple Valley resident Stanette Marie Rose.
New York City, New York
Two MTA Police Charged With Assaulting Homeless Man
January 18: Sergeant Joseph Camean and Officer Michael Koenig, both police officers with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, were indicted in the beating of a homeless man after ejecting him from Penn Station. Koenig and two fellow officers escorted Maurice Cherry out of Penn Station. According to the assistant district attorney, an argument then ensued in which Koenig began to beat Cherry over the head with a metal baton, causing him to curl into the fetal position.
Two witnesses reported the assault, which was also captured by a surveillance camera.
Sergeant Camean, 32, was later informed of the assault, but both he and Koenig failed to report the incident to authorities or record it in their memo books.
Officer Koenig, age 34, was charged with Assault in the Second Degree, Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, and Official Misconduct. Sergeant Camean was charged with Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree and Official Misconduct. Both officers initially pleaded not guilty and were suspended from the MTA without pay.
Koenig later changed his plea to guilty and was ordered to do 200 hours of community service; he eventually resigned from his position.
Sources: News Release, District Attorney of New York County, 10/12/04; Daily News, “Charge 2 MTA Cops Beat Homeless Man,” 10/13/04; New York Times, “Officer Charged in Beating of Homeless Man Outside Penn Station,” 10/13/04; Homeless Grapevine, “MTA Police Officer Beats Homeless Man,”#69-2005
January 26: An unidentified homeless man, believed to be in his 20’s, was found dead in the basement of an apartment building where he had been seeking refuge from the bitter cold. Jose Perez, 42, was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the fatal beating.
Source: New York Daily News, “Charge Tenant in Slaying at Brooklyn Building” 1/26/04