Today, as I think about the letter V and homelessness I thought about the word Vagrant, defined as a person without a settled home or regular work, who wanders from place to place and lives by begging. I was going to explore that further, when the word VIOLENCE, came to mind, and thus I found the above pictures and story.
Two brothers in the thirties, Scott and Steve Leader beat a homeless man that was sleeping near the JFK/UMass subway station. The beat him with a metal pipe and urinated on him because they thought he was an illegal-immigrant. They were heard saying, "Donald Trump" is right while beating him. He suffered bruised ribs and a broken noise among other injuries. The 58 year old homeless man was NOT an illegal immigrant and the brothers are serving short prison sentences of 2.5 years and 3 years (not sure why each brother got a different sentence), and community service during the probation that is to follow the incarceration period. They were charged with 2 counts each of assault and battery and assault and battery with a weapon.
How sad is it that a person living in the elements, asleep is beaten, endures violence just because they're homeless.............even if they had been an immigrant.
While we here on Bridge and Beyond can't put an end to the violence many homeless men, women, and children suffer.............we can do our best to let them know people care. We can continue to show we care about them as people by supplying them with warm knitted or crocheted items to make their days a bit more comfortable, and perhaps give them hope.
Please do what you can, when you can and know that it matters.
(**picture is link to the full story by Chris Boyette, CNN from May of 2016)
**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.
