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Neighborhood 'sheriff' who tried to screen homeless campers stabbed to death by camper (katu.com)
submitted 3 months ago by jordanlund@lemmy.world to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17700329

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[-] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 119 points 3 months ago

Wow... Both other people who commented here are fucking heartless.

The man was just trying to help the homeless people and keep his neighborhood safe

The relative said Housman was trying to settle an argument between two homeless campers on Clinton when one of the campers stabbed him in the throat.

While many residents were nervous and wary of the homeless campers, Housman had a different approach: to make the neighborhood safer, he appointed himself "sheriff" and began to screen homeless campers and then provide them with support once they gained his approval.

During our interview, another neighbor pulled up, claiming that Housman provided electricity to the homeless campers.

Ya'll are dicks. Read the article. He was a good dude and epitomized the exact shit you espouse. You don't want cops involved... you want the community to police itself and do good. This guy was doing just that. Doing way more to help these people than you do.

[-] rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com 93 points 3 months ago

once they gained his approval

Yeah... no. People who have no other choice but to camp shouldn't be "screened" by random people. Sucks he died, but he was playing a pretty stupid game with people just trying to survive. Reading his quotes from this article, you can definitely see he was the type of person to refuse to help people he doesn't like, and that's not at all how you're supposed to deal with people in vulnerable situations.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 months ago

Should he be expected to provide electricity to a meth lab?

[-] vxx@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

How many homeless people do have math labs in your area?

[-] Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 months ago

Someone's got to crunch those numbers.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

Well if it's just a few, I suppose I can provide them with electricity, no questions asked.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 54 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Interesting way of saying "Self appointed sheriff on a power trip with no actual authority who tried to tell other people what they were allowed to do fucked around and found out."

Was he better than his neighbors? Sounds like it. He was trying to help in his own way... By keeping anyone that looked too poor out.

[-] Twentytwodividedby7@lemmy.world 33 points 3 months ago

Clearly you've never worked with the homeless...it's not the "look of poverty" as you alluded, it's really more about active drug use or untreated mental health disorders.

Some people certainly fall on hard times, but many have serious mental health disorders that for a variety of reasons they are not managing. We often require an address and lots of paperwork to provide government benefits in the US, so it isn't hard for people to fall out of the system.

Once that happens, it's really hard to find your way back. There are certainly not enough programs to help people reintegrate with society. At the same time, a homeless encampment in a neighborhood is not a reasonable solution either.

I volunteered nearly every week feeding the food and housing insecure in Philly for nearly 3 years pre-covid (I moved shortly before Covid). It was a great experience and I got to know many people that I might have otherwise walked past, and it really underscored the value of social services and lack of help available.

It also taught me that people need to be in a place to accept help. The ones that were not in that place are the ones you worry about - they have nothing to lose. Most that came to the church to be served lunch (usually 100-200) were to an extent willing to receive help. Some had bad days or would relapse into drug use, but they were generally trying to do better.

But there were other, much darker, places in the city that people unwilling or unable to accept help went. Places like Kensington in North Philly. That was a huge problem for years...it was a huge open air drug market that basically occupied that area. Finally, I think just this year, police cleared the encampments there.

It's not a great solution, but it also wasn't tenable. My point is that you should understand that not all housing insecure populations are just good people that bad things happened to. Those not in a place to get help or actively using drugs can be dangerous. I certainly would not let my son near that group, nor would I gleefully accept an encampment near my house

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 30 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

He should have opened a soup kitchen if he wanted to help. He can't appoint himself sheriff (and it's a bad idea anyway considering how police were basically created to keep the poors in their place, which would make homeless people naturally distrustful of them), and more importantly the idea that they have to "gain approval" to be worth helping is a red flag. I'm not saying it's okay that he died. But he put himself in harms way and I cannot say I'm surprised.

[-] Wirlocke 38 points 3 months ago

And his name was, Housman?

You can't convince me the universe doesn't have a morbid sense of humor.

[-] lemming741@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago
[-] CommunityLinkFixer@lemmings.world 7 points 3 months ago

Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !nominativedeterminism@feddit.uk

[-] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 33 points 3 months ago

for anyone who comes and does not click on the article note that sheriff is in quotes. He actually is not as bad as it may sound from the titel. Basically he was fine with and understood the homelessness and even helped but only if they were basically respectful and not otherwise breaking the law. I sorta undersand where he was coming from but not necessarily the smartest thing to do. Its somewhat akin to confronting gangmembers. Gonna paste a quote here:

"They just see a motorhome. They think, oh no, homeless, crime, drugs, etc. They don't see Tim, who I think works, I'm not sure, but he won't steal from them or anything else. They don't see, I don't know Jim very well; old man Steve, living on Social Security, needs a place to stay,”

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago

Locals reacted to the original story of "Imma screen these people and keep the bad ones out" with "That doesn't seem wise... good luck with that!"

[-] noxy@yiffit.net 19 points 3 months ago

i don't pray, so....

thoughts

[-] Tronn4@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Neither do Republicans! Welcome aboard! /s

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Republicans are the opposite, they pray and don't think! :)

this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
180 points (100.0% liked)

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