Hurting the Homeless : What Would You Do In This Situation If You Were There...

Originally posted by adifferentbreed
Quick question. I know what I would have done, and would expect to go to jail for it. However, eventually, one of these shows is going to go to far. Who's gonna be responsible when this happens? what if one of those women would have had a ccww and felt threatened enough to shoot them? What if one of the men would have gotten out of the car with a tire iron? Irresponsible journlism. While they do raise some interesting points, they are also risking those actors lives, I wonder how much consideration is really given to this?

Great point, this is absolutely irresponsible, sensationalistic journalism...
and what's the point? Answer = ratings.

Another poster, Stirling, stated he was aged and his confrontation
method would have been the the point of a gun...a perfectly reasonable,
honorable response. But in that situation, with the adrenaline rush, and
people suddenly jumping out the bushes to intervene, things could have
gone horribly wrong.

For me, like I stated---and at 50 yrs old, I've been in situations like this
before---surprise and subterfuge would have been my weapons.

I'm terrible at verbal, stand-up-and-look-em-in-the-eye, confrontation.
I would have been very sneaky and VERY effective. There would have
been NO TIME for someone jump out of the bushes. By the time they
would have gotten there Humpty Dumpty would have already been
in pieces...and I would have been in BIG trouble, possibly tazed, and
probably headed to jail...and for what??

As another poster stated, this was biased as well. This wasn't a NY
slum area. Just trash journalism, provocative only because arm-chair
warriors can mouth off about how tough they are, and the rest can mouth
off about how society is deteriorating.

bleh.....

reply to post by rival


Exactly this..

If I approached this situation, and was ignored. I would of started pushing these kids down.

Not just stumble push.. No these kids would likely hit the ground.

I wouldn't throw punchs over some kids swinging trash bags, but I would likely get caught in the moment.

Well first off I want to tell the OP that I am sorry that he is living out of your car, I was in the same boat as you and I am sure so was everyone else at one point in there life, mine was perticularly hard as we were kids and just wanted to have a stable house hold and a stable set of freinds, it wasn't like that, we lost our mobile home and had to live in a motel for three months, we couldn't pay the rent so the little bit of freinds we made were gone again, my whole family was living out of a station wagon, two months later we went back to living in the wigwam motel in california (look it up and you'll see how embarrased we were to tell our freinds we lived in a tee pee) Now we have came a long way and have a nice house with a swimming pool, we are stugglinging to hold onto it due to the government, my mom and dad have been through so much and I am glad they are still together, I love them both no matter what happend in my past.


Back to the main topic, I view the homeless as rats, beggers and weak faliures for the main reason that they like living that way, if you tell them to get a job let alone help them they will not comply, they are lazy and that's why they are homeless.
I am not talking about our disabled veterans that are homeless, they are all heros and why the government isn't sheltering them is beyond me, its a dispicable act of disrespect that the government can't lend a helping hand to our countries heroes.
Not all homeless are weak begging faliures, more than likley they are like the OP, just down on their luck, those are the ones that usually get back on their feet and start moving up again.

To me their are three types of homeless people.

1. Are the weakest people in society and can't live without begging, these people are rats and are at the low end of society, the ones you see laughing with other homeless people at the corner or under a bridge, they can care less if they get a job or not, they are the ones that get sent to jain on purpose for free food and warmth during the winter.

2. The American hero forgotten by his or her government, these are the ones that could not function after the war they endured, they never received the sycological help they should have gotten, they helped protect our freedom only to be forgotten and left in the cold.

3. Like the OP, this one is just like you and me but is just feeling the effects of the governments poor choices and downfalls, they will usually get back to were they were within a matter of months, you can't keep a good man down and this type of homeless person is a good man.

If I saw someone beating someone with an iron bar for fun - I would kill them quickly - some part of me would want to torture them to death, but I probably wouldn't.

I'll tell you what I'd do to someone hurting a homeless person. I'd beat this # out of them. I'm navy-trained, and strong enough to fight most people (I won't go on an ego trip and claim to dominate everyone, that is most definitely not the case). Violence isn't always the answer. But using violence to solve violence... I don't believe asking someone who is beating a homeless person to sit down and talk it out will work very well.

Also, got me thinking... if theres someone beating a homeless person, which one of them is truly mentally ill?

The homeless are lost souls, they are human and no one should mistreat them. I would be so concerned if I saw this happening - I must admit I would not get physically involved because those abusing the homeless person would probably just as soon bring harm to me as well. I would yell at them to stop and call the police. It is sad to see a homeless person, a lot of them want to be on the street - they have mental issues - a lot of them had normal lives at one time and a lot of them were soldiers defending our country. Peace be with them!

reply to post by 2121311Star791


If you could please, I would like for you to just take a few moments and
go to any moment in your past when you were younger, or even now for that matter, and think about the times when you were alone thinking about what you were going to do with your life, what you wanted to be, what you enjoyed, where you saw yourself as you became an older person. Just think about that, think about your family thinking about that, your friends thinking about that, your mom and dad, your grandparents, anyone in your circle of life in this world, Thinking about where they were and where they wanted to go, who they wanted to be.
The happiness, and joy and the imagination that you had and have going on with your desires for your life.
Really try and wrap all of those people and possibilities and emotions into yourself.
Those homeless rats stood in your shoes once and still do, they lay their heads down each night just like we do,
Do you think they stopped having those thoughts like I asked you to think about?
Dont judge so quickly and with such ready venom.
The sidewalk is long in front of you, very very long.



[edit on 5-8-2010 by HappilyEverAfter]

I would absolutely intervene!

I have seen these things happen and have intervened before. When the parties wouldn't listen I went to my car and called the police. I recently saw a local homeless guy passed out on a bench not far from here. It was during that brutal heat wave and I called to him and he didn't answer. I kept walking because he can be nasty but called for an ambulance and by the time I was at the store they picked him up.

Sad thing is in this neighborhood they respond pretty fast to that. In other parts of town I have seen people call for an ambulance for the homeless and it took over an hour for a response.

Life in the USA!

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas

Glad you have some resources, a computer, a car. If you sleep near el tracks, you get vivid dreams, sometimes prophetic. Perhaps the current shields against em radiation.

I hope it isn't to the point wherein you enter a grocery with nothing in your pockets, and I hope your car gets decent mileage. I am sorry to hear of your plight. It is tough. If it goes on too long you can be hurt, mentally, even physically. Climate you're in is like??? I almost can't believe what I'm hearing. I want to say 'stay alone'...it sounds bad, but you have a car. People will take huge advantage of you if you let them.

If you can get your hands on a thermal imaging camera, you may be able to shake down the police with doper den tips, places where it's grown. I recall you thought going after drugs, illegal ones, by any means possible, was OK with you. Shouldn't be a moral conflict crisis there. They have so many 'means' that they have simply GOT to play with it. I just wish I could afford a good water filter, because I know what's in ours. Drugs. Legal ones. Chemicals.

One advantage to being mobile is that em tracking is more difficult. Maybe you don't believe in that religion~there sure isn't any mainstream science coming forward with facts and figures, proof of such a thing, just a lot of converts, not sure where they're going. Being in your car, you are 1 step from institutionalization. Talking about em radiation will get you there.

Thanks for taking the time to write. I hope you have family, it means a lot. I anxiously anticipate trying to respond meaningfully to this thread, and I hope someone takes you in.


[edit on 5-8-2010 by davidmann]

[edit on 5-8-2010 by davidmann]

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


I empathize. My dad tried to be helpful once and ended up robbed and beaten and left for dead. He had just come back from Viet Nam, too. It was a horrible time for us. He had just left the army and we had little money ourselves. I have faced down thugs abusing pit bull puppies. And I have chased off kids who were trying to hurt a squirrel for no reason. There is a fierce side to me that comes out when there is no other option. So I like to think if I had to come to the aid of a person getting abused I would again find my inner mama tiger. But being a petite lady in my middle years, honestly I avoid strangers and especially panhandlers. Some can be quite menacing. If I am to help the homeless, it is by donation to food bank and other charities. I wish I could emulate Protoplasmic Traveler's example. That is one heck of a great story. But I'm afraid if I were to try that i'd end up like my poor dad did or worse.

Star and flag.

It really is disgusting how the homeless are treated. You'd think we'd have moved on from the dark ages completely by now, but we haven't. It's the same story, different age. The poorer you are, the more you're treated like crap. Though the amount of crap poor people get is nowhere near appropriate for who they are, since everybody is an individual and personal characters should be judged thusly.

Here are a few great quotes on the homeless by author Daniel Quinn:

"Acceding to homelessness would look like helping the homeless succeed WHILE being homeless. What an idea! I can almost hear the howls of outrage from both liberals and conservatives that must greet such a concept. Help people succeed at being homeless? We want them to fail at being homeless!"
-Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization

"If we let the homeless find their own places of refuge and helped them habilitate those place (instead of rousting them wherever they settle), if we channeled to them the vast amounts of food that are discarded routinely every day (instead of forcing them to grovel for food at shelters), if we actively assisted them to support themselves on their own terms (instead of ours), just think--homelessness would largely cease to exist as "a problem.""
-Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization

"The homeless are "beyond civilization" because they're beyond the reach of civilization's hierarchy, which has been unable to develop a structural extension to enclose them. The most it can manage is to oppress, harry, and obstruct them. To accede to homelessness would be to "let them go," much as the biblical pharaoh let the Israelites go."
-Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization

[edit on 5-8-2010 by NoHierarchy]

If I saw this I would absolutely intervene. There is no way I would let someone do this to another person homeless or not. Homeless people are still people who happened on some rough times and that is it. I don't look down on homeless people in fact I have helped a few with food or money. I told them to do what they want with it but I hope they buy the right thing. I took one guy to Pop Eyes Chicken with me one afternoon. He always sat on that corner and i was going in for lunch so I said why not. He was a vet who sat on the corner and protested all the time in his wheel chair. I sat and talked to him that day and he was a really nice guy who had a rough life and people were always so mean to him. He was harmless, just protesting daily almost on war and the government. He always sat on the corner of International Speedway and US1. I don't see how anyone could do this to another person just because they are homeless. I never judge anothers situation because you could be in that situation one day, you never know what could happen.

To be honest about the video, too...

If I saw something like this happening, and I didn't feel like I was in a situation I couldn't handle or escape from, I'd probably run up full speed and start buckling knees and smashing faces in, lol. Either that or I'd start barking obscenities at them and THEN kick some ass.

Sorry if that sounds harsh... but anybody who beats the homeless with metal pipes deserves to get beaten up and taught a lesson. If words or reason phased bullies, then they wouldn't be doing something like that in the first place. In cases like this, I think a lack of maturity/compassion can be quickly made up for by the sobering experience of physical injury. Though, knowing people like this growing up, I know they're just thoughtless, impulsive, and prone to peer pressure/stunts for attention/laughs. They don't necessarily deserve anything too harsh, but scars/bruises can indeed cause regret, especially for those who are truly guilty of something heinous (unless they're pathological/sociopathic, in which case, screw em).

Ok, let's cut through the crap here. I live in Florida too, Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach to be exact. This is the reality: About 95% of the homeless here are there because they want to be there. They refuse to give up the alcohol or drugs and live like that because they CHOOSE to spend any money they get through unemployment, SSI, or by panhandling to buy their substance and not pay for a place to live. There are numerous rent-by-the-week places where the rent is only $160 a week with all utilities included. Most if not all have a felony on their record, again not society's fault, and most likely will not be hired in this county. They live on the beaches and beach cross-overs and even under the world renowned Cocoa Beach Pier which is a major tourist attraction. They contribute NOTHING to society, pay NO taxes, and get public assistance. All they do is drink, drug, fight, and steal which is reallly a selling point for tourism. (Sarcastic remark) Let me ask you a question ATS? If you spent your hard earned money on a vacation and brought your wife and children to a beach, would you want them to be around a bunch like that? If anyone is so concerned about the homeless here, then take them into your house, feed them, buy them drugs and alcohol and let them do their thing while you go out and work for a living. Oh and thanks to New York City and Daytona Beach for handing out free bus tickets to their homeless and shipping them here. Yeah thank alot Arseholes!

Originally posted by HappilyEverAfter
The question:
What would you do in this situation if you were there?

Arm/Evaluate/Engage.
Without question.

I thought this comment should be restated.

Never go into a situation without evaluation and ESPECIALLY not armed. You do not know what the freaks nowadays will do.

HEA, been awhile since I have heard those three words. BOO YAH!

I drive taxi and encounter the homeless in and out out of my cab. They are polite and respectful to me.

I think they are people too, and should be treated as people.

What did you do when your coworkers were mistreating a homeless person?

So if I saw that one was in trouble, I would get out and defend them. Calling 911 of course.

Most of the scammers make as much as I do and tip very well when I give them a ride home from the mall or off ramp.

So this was some sort of reality TV or an attempt to make a point or something?

I'm glad it spawned an (in my opinion) productive discussion and social commentary, and I'm glad to know no one was really hurt apparently, but I don't like being deceived... even with good intentions.

I have lived on the streets to. It is a fend for yourself world because nobody else will look out for you. There are some people that are mentaly chalenged and can't help what they have become, but for the most part people are there do to their own actions.

I was on drugs and put myself where I was. Fact is nobody did it to me, I did it to MYSELF. I eventually got out and now I am building a house and doing good. People can get it, I was able to. Of course, unless you want it and ask for it, it won't happen.

The purpose of the video is disturbing, yet, as it is. . .all of those people stepping in to help is actually reassuring to me.

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


Every now and again I like to think "we're good people doing bad things." Watching this video (www.youtube.com...) though shows evil is a real, tangible force in the world.

Even though I'm sure some liberal will say "pot meet kettle" I see no value in these sadistic low-life's who take pleasure attacking societies most vulnerable. They're predatory scum and they should be removed from the general population before their disease spreads to the rest of us.

Eugenics -- not always a bad idea.