In Cleveland, Public Square is the symbolic heart of the city. It is neither east nor west in a city where everyone is identified by whether they live on the east side or the west side. It is the place where the Cleveland Orchestra holds its annual free Independence Day concert. It is the place where, until economic hard times hit a few years ago, there was an ice skating rink set up amid the Christmas decorations. It is the place where monuments honor veterans and where the key Cleveland financial and corporate entities are located. It is also the place where homeless persons were attacked with stun guns while sleeping last month.
Not too long after that attack I received an e-mail and an essay written by a seminary student in St. Louis on the growing number of attacks on the homeless across the nation and I began to look around me. According to the National Coalition Against the Homeless, last year there were 123 homeless persons murdered by non-homeless persons and another 89 violent attacks which did not result in death. These murders and attacks against the homeless by those who were not are not just violent crimes, they are hate crimes. They include horrible beatings with baseball bats, beheadings and setting homeless persons on fire. They are directed against homeless persons because they are homeless and vulnerable, mentally disabled or addicted and vulnerable, alone and vulnerable.
Some of the attackers are white supremacy group members, such as those in the Pacific Northwest, who have attacked white homeless men, telling them they need "more white pride." Some attackers are individual citizens who harbor hatred against the homeless or see themselves on a mission to cleanse the world. Some attackers are thrill-seeking teenagers in some horrible "Lord of the Flies" moment. Indeed, most of the attackers of homeless persons were teenagers and young adults.
The attackers assault the homeless because they feel they can get away with it. Crimes against the homeless, except the most egregious, receive little media attention. Some of the attacks on the homeless are never reported to the police, especially in cities where police target the homeless for arrest for vagrancy and so-called "quality of life" violations. And even though many of these crimes are directed at a class of persons, the homeless are not a part of current hate crimes protected classes.
Moreover, as our society has de-humanized homeless persons over the past decades and rendered them invisible, attackers feel little remorse about attacking homeless persons. When talk show host Michael Savage said last year society should take "bums" and beat them up, throw them in a van and take them to a work camp, he in effect gave public permission to attackers.
Yet we know from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and from governmental and human service agencies across the nation that homelessness is rising. One of the most frightening aspects of this increase is the number of working families with children now homeless. There is no reason to believe they will be immune from this violence against homeless persons.
As a society we will be judged not by our strength, but by how we treat the
most vulnerable. As communities, we can insist that we stop both criminalizing
and ignoring the homeless and find creative ways to provide housing and human
services for homeless persons, even in difficult financial times. As parents,
we can monitor the activities of our teenagers and talk to them about the value
of all of God's children. As individuals, we can write our Congresspersons and
urge them to include the homeless in hate crimes legislation and insist that
our nation invest in affordable housing for all Americans.