While we're at it, violence against homeless people seems to be on the rise and under-reported, in
America and
the UK.
In its most recent study, "Hate, Violence, and Death on Main Street USA," the coalition documented attacks against the destitute in 62 communities last year alone, in 26 states. Since 1999, such violence has occurred in 44 states and Puerto Rico, and in 200 communities nationwide.
An overwhelming majority of the attackers — 88% — were 25 or younger; 95% were male. No less than 68% of those accused and convicted in attacks were between the ages of 13 and 19.
This pattern of violence, in Stoops' view, hasn't gotten the attention it deserves from the public or law enforcement.
"Homeless people are the newest minority group in America that is 'OK' to hate and hurt," he said. "It's as though, somehow, they're viewed as less deserving, less human than the rest of us."
Americans did pay attention to the story of 58-year-old Jacques Pierre, a homeless man who'd been sleeping on a bench on a college campus when three teenagers woke him up, taunted him, then nearly killed him with baseball bats.
Why?
That Jan. 12, 2006, ambush in Fort Lauderdale was filmed by a surveillance camera, and broadcast worldwide.
"For once," says Sean Cononie, who operates a homeless shelter in that seaside city, "Americans saw with their own eyes how kids hunt down and kill homeless people as though it were a sport."
