post #1
30 August 2005, 05:48 UTC#1
This took place in Downtown LA last week, just a couple blocks away from where I'm moving to next month. In short, two teenagers beat to homeless people with baseball bats. After being caught they told police they were inspired by Bumfights.
Its pretty crazy cause I just found this while randomly search info for Downtown LA.
Its pretty crazy cause I just found this while randomly search info for Downtown LA.
QUOTE
Attacks on Homeless Prompts Show of Support
Thursday, August 18, 2005 By Amanda Covarrubias Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES -- Ernest Adams, one of two men who were beaten this week with aluminum baseball bats while they slept, was homeless and lived on a downtown street. But he was not anonymous.
He sat in his chair near the 3rd Street Tunnel, greeting passersby. People knew him as a friendly, optimistic man.
``He hangs out right under the tunnel, on the edge of the sidewalk,'' said Leo Tolano, an outreach worker with the Downtown Center Business Improvement District. ``That's where he kick backs all the time. He's a cool guy. Every day, he's there.''
Associate Justice Robert Mallano, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeal, first encountered Adams on his morning walk to work about five years ago and has seen him regularly on the corner ever since.
``I never saw him ask for money,'' Mallano said Wednesday. ``He would talk to people and smile. He was always polite and smiling. I never saw him in a black mood or anything. He was always groomed. He had dignity.''
Adams remained in critical condition Wednesday at County USC Medical Center. The two 19-year-old suspects said they were inspired by ``Bumfights,'' a video showing homeless people fighting each other, according to police. The teenagers remained in custody Wednesday, a day after their arrest on suspicion of attempted murder.
Adams had feared leaving his perch for 90-day transitional housing Tolano had arranged in a complex downtown.
``He wouldn't go there,'' Tolano said. ``He said people were after him. He thought he'd get jumped or they'd go after him and murder him. I asked him why they would murder him, and he said, `In my younger days, I used to hang out with bad people.' ''
Instead, he kept within a self-imposed safety zone roughly bordered by First Street to Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa to Los Angeles streets. The transitional housing was out of bounds.
``Maybe in the past he had a bad drug relation with somebody,'' Tolano said. ``Maybe he owed them money. Maybe that's why he was afraid.''
Brady Westwater, president of the downtown Neighborhood Council, said he came across Adams six months ago and encouraged him to move to the housing that had been found for him. The homeless man, who slept, ate and read the newspaper in his chair at the entrance to the 3rd Street Tunnel, would always decline.
``He was a sweet, wonderful, old man,'' Westwater said. `He would kiss his fingers and touch my shoes as a way of greeting me. I would tell him to get into housing, but he said he couldn't go to that part of town.``
Westwater said Adams told him he had lost his room at a residential hotel because he went to jail, but he offered no details and Westwater didn't press him.
But Adams had completed a 30-day stay at the Union Rescue Mission on July 29, the only record the homeless shelter has of him staying there, said President Andy Bales.
''It breaks my heart,`` Bales said Wednesday. ''Everyone here is talking about it and they're concerned. They're all prone to attacks from people because they're out there sleeping unprotected.``
The other homeless man injured in the attacks, Gerald McHenry, had stayed at the Rescue Mission three times in the last year. His most recent three-day stay ended Aug. 11. McHenry was hit on the arm while sleeping, but his injuries didn't require hospitalization.
Bales said he believed McHenry eats meals at the mission regularly, but he wasn't there on Wednesday.
If any good comes of the attacks that police Chief William J. Bratton called ''vicious,`` it would be getting more homeless people to seek shelter, Bales said.
''We're utilizing it to encourage folks that they don't need to stay outside,`` Bales said. ''We're saying, `Please come in our mission, please come in our program and please stay off the streets.' ``
Frank Tamborello, an organizer with the L.A. Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, which held a protest last year against distribution of the ''Bumfights`` video, said the attacks reflect an attitude toward homeless people that says, ''Their lives are worthless, their lives are meaningless.``
In the video, which sold on the Internet for $20, two self-described alcoholics punch each other and ram their heads into walls. They later said they agreed to be in the video in exchange for liquor.
The filmmakers were later fined $500 each by a judge after pleading guilty to conspiring to stage an illegal fight.
Thursday, August 18, 2005 By Amanda Covarrubias Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES -- Ernest Adams, one of two men who were beaten this week with aluminum baseball bats while they slept, was homeless and lived on a downtown street. But he was not anonymous.
He sat in his chair near the 3rd Street Tunnel, greeting passersby. People knew him as a friendly, optimistic man.
``He hangs out right under the tunnel, on the edge of the sidewalk,'' said Leo Tolano, an outreach worker with the Downtown Center Business Improvement District. ``That's where he kick backs all the time. He's a cool guy. Every day, he's there.''
Associate Justice Robert Mallano, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeal, first encountered Adams on his morning walk to work about five years ago and has seen him regularly on the corner ever since.
``I never saw him ask for money,'' Mallano said Wednesday. ``He would talk to people and smile. He was always polite and smiling. I never saw him in a black mood or anything. He was always groomed. He had dignity.''
Adams remained in critical condition Wednesday at County USC Medical Center. The two 19-year-old suspects said they were inspired by ``Bumfights,'' a video showing homeless people fighting each other, according to police. The teenagers remained in custody Wednesday, a day after their arrest on suspicion of attempted murder.
Adams had feared leaving his perch for 90-day transitional housing Tolano had arranged in a complex downtown.
``He wouldn't go there,'' Tolano said. ``He said people were after him. He thought he'd get jumped or they'd go after him and murder him. I asked him why they would murder him, and he said, `In my younger days, I used to hang out with bad people.' ''
Instead, he kept within a self-imposed safety zone roughly bordered by First Street to Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa to Los Angeles streets. The transitional housing was out of bounds.
``Maybe in the past he had a bad drug relation with somebody,'' Tolano said. ``Maybe he owed them money. Maybe that's why he was afraid.''
Brady Westwater, president of the downtown Neighborhood Council, said he came across Adams six months ago and encouraged him to move to the housing that had been found for him. The homeless man, who slept, ate and read the newspaper in his chair at the entrance to the 3rd Street Tunnel, would always decline.
``He was a sweet, wonderful, old man,'' Westwater said. `He would kiss his fingers and touch my shoes as a way of greeting me. I would tell him to get into housing, but he said he couldn't go to that part of town.``
Westwater said Adams told him he had lost his room at a residential hotel because he went to jail, but he offered no details and Westwater didn't press him.
But Adams had completed a 30-day stay at the Union Rescue Mission on July 29, the only record the homeless shelter has of him staying there, said President Andy Bales.
''It breaks my heart,`` Bales said Wednesday. ''Everyone here is talking about it and they're concerned. They're all prone to attacks from people because they're out there sleeping unprotected.``
The other homeless man injured in the attacks, Gerald McHenry, had stayed at the Rescue Mission three times in the last year. His most recent three-day stay ended Aug. 11. McHenry was hit on the arm while sleeping, but his injuries didn't require hospitalization.
Bales said he believed McHenry eats meals at the mission regularly, but he wasn't there on Wednesday.
If any good comes of the attacks that police Chief William J. Bratton called ''vicious,`` it would be getting more homeless people to seek shelter, Bales said.
''We're utilizing it to encourage folks that they don't need to stay outside,`` Bales said. ''We're saying, `Please come in our mission, please come in our program and please stay off the streets.' ``
Frank Tamborello, an organizer with the L.A. Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, which held a protest last year against distribution of the ''Bumfights`` video, said the attacks reflect an attitude toward homeless people that says, ''Their lives are worthless, their lives are meaningless.``
In the video, which sold on the Internet for $20, two self-described alcoholics punch each other and ram their heads into walls. They later said they agreed to be in the video in exchange for liquor.
The filmmakers were later fined $500 each by a judge after pleading guilty to conspiring to stage an illegal fight.