ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, I saw a homeless man brutally attacked by
a half-dozen young men. Thomas Lundahl was thrown against the entrance
to the Portland Outdoor Store and punched several times before the men
ran off.
Several people, myself included, placed 911 calls during the
incident, and within minutes three squad cars were on scene at SW 3rd
and Oak. I listened as Lundahl, the victim of the attack, told officers
that he was on the corner distributing free postcards with drawings
he’d done. He spent most nights under a bridge, he said. When asked how
the attack started, Lundahl said he tried to intervene when the group
of men attempted to steal a woman’s iPod.
When the officer asked Lundahl if he wanted to press charges, he
declined, even when told that another officer had stopped a group of
men that may have been involved in the attack.
When I described what I saw to Mary Wheat, public information
officer for the Portland Police Bureau, she told me it’s standard to
ask victims if they wish to prosecute in cases like this.
“The victim has to want to press charges,” Wheat says of this case.
Without a victim, “the district attorney can’t take the case because
there’s no one to represent.”
There are exceptions to that rule. Domestic violence cases are
pursued regardless if the victim goes along with it or not. Same with
cases in which a child is the victim. But despite their level of
vulnerability, Wheat says the homeless don’t fall under the same
umbrella.
“We have to be very careful about the manpower that goes into a case
when someone doesn’t even want to prosecute,” Wheat says.
The homeless are particularly vulnerable to assaults like the one I
witnessed. More than 40 percent of Portland’s homeless have sustained
concussions from being attacked while sleeping. Nationally, there were
106 violent acts perpetrated against the homeless in 2008, according to
the National Coalition for the Homeless. Twenty-seven attacks were
fatal. In the Portland area, there were five recorded attacks against
the homeless last year.
Tracking the attacks is made difficult by the fact that many
homeless people don’t have a phones or addresses. That not only
inhibits initially reporting attacks, but also makes it difficult for
officers to follow up on investigations, says Israel Bayer, director of
Street Roots.
“We have heard that there are increasing attacks on homeless
people,” said Sally Erickson, homelessness project coordinator with the
City of Portland. “The best thing we can hope for is for everyone to
have a safe place to sleep at night.”
Bayer says because of the difficulties in prosecuting crimes against
the homeless, the police and those on the streets have developed a
sense of apathy. The homeless may feel like it’s useless to report
violence, and police don’t want to get into cases based entirely on
hearsay.
But that’s a mindset Wheat doesn’t agree with.
“We deal with vulnerable people every day,” Wheat says. “We can’t
force them to sign a complaint. We can’t force them to come to
trial.”
When asked if the homeless should be a protected class like children
or domestic violence victims, Wheat said that’s not up to the
police.
“That’s a question for lawmakers,” she says.
The homeless man may have had a resentment toward police from past treatment, fear of retaliation or past legal troubles he didn’t want a defense attorney bringing up in court. It might have been something as simple as being embarrassed he was beat up.
It was his choice not to press charges. To bad his fears stopped him from holding the perpetrators accountable, but it was good of him to stop the punks from stealing the iPod.
Still Portland has the lowest per capita violent crime rate of any metropolitan area in this country.
Dan,
great response to a really nicely done article (great job Sean). The only thing I would add is that although Portland’s overall violent crimes rate is low, our violent crimes rate against people who are homeless is high… really high… that five violent acts listed in the article puts us behind one city, New York City. and ahead of pretty much everyone else in the nation.
there are ways to fix this though, one that comes immediately to mind is to pass a law for the city, making violent crimes against a person based on their housing status a “hate crime”. many cities, including both Seattle and New York have done this already.
thanks
Patrick
(Hate Crimes PDF) http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publicatio…
(laws passed) http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publicatio…
my mistake, that should read “Seattle and Los Angeles”. my apologies.
Yea, because somebody who is too lazy, drunk or high to keep a job should be listed as a protected class.
“But Police Don’t Pursue the Perpetrators,” What a bunch of shit. You said right in your article that the Police actually caught the suspects. I know, I am shocked too, that they weren’t too busy sitting at Starbucks and actually caught the bad guys. I love bashing on the cops too, but let’s place the blame on where it should be- Lundahl for not pressing charges.
“Matt D.”
first, let me say that “Yea, because somebody who is too lazy, drunk or high to keep a job should be listed as a protected class.” does not really solve anything, or even contribute anything to the conversation. 20 years ago that hogwash might have flown. 20 years ago when there _may_ have been a case for the average homeless person being there because of bad choices on his own part. more and more, we can look at bad choices on our government’s part and greed as the reasons for homelessness in America. According to our government, the fastest growing segment of the homeless population is families with children, not people who should be “sleeping it off in the drunk tank”… you should check out http://www.wraphome.org/ for their free downloadable book, “Without Housing” about the cuts to our affordable housing budget so people who own a house can get a mortgage on a second…
as for your using the name “Matt D.” on a paper with an editor named Matt Davis. I will assume you are using it as some sort of attack or way to be cute… to paraphrase Lloyd Bentson. I know Matt Davis, I am friends with Matt Davis, and “Matt D.” you are no Matt Davis. (of course if your name is Matt Donaldson, I am going to look like a jerk… well, a bit at least)
thanks
Patrick
[COMMENT DELETED: UNNECESSARILY AGGRESSIVE LANGUAGE.]
I have to agree with Sean that “…police don’t pursue perpetrators.” is crap, and close to an outright lie. The cops did their job, and Thomas didn’t want to take it any further. Without his cooperation, there’s no chance of getting a conviction. They were ready to make arrests, so it looks like in this case, it was far from useless to report violence. Thomas put himself into the situation, he wasn’t randomly attacked. If you want to write a story about how homeless people are vulnerable to attack, that’s one thing, but to gratuitously bash cops who did their job is a cheap shot. Got an agenda much?
According to one source*, Oregon’s homeless are the country’s sixth most numerous, per-capita. Violence against homeless is inexcusable — but it is clear that incidents of violence against homeless will be more frequent in areas where more of the population are themselves homeless.
* http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeye…
Again, it’s the police’s fault for creating the law? Perhaps they should change the law or take it into their own hands. Damned if they do and Damned if they don’t. Hey people why don’t YOU do something about it.