Ending Violence by Putting a Face on Homelessness

The National Coalition for the Homeless recently launched a project in Florida with the goal of establishing Speakers Bureaus across the state. NCH has collaborated with the AmeriCorps*VISTA program, bringing 10 AmeriCorps*VISTAs to the state with 5 more joining in December. The Speakers Bureaus are to be modeled after the successful “Faces of Homelessness” Speakers Bureau, managed by NCH. They are comprised of homeless and formerly homeless speakers who communicate with audiences of youth, churches and civic groups. The ultimate goal of the project is to reduce the violent attacks committed against our homeless neighbors in Florida, which leads the nation for the third year in a row with nearly one-fifth of the country’s attacks. These attacks are overwhelmingly committed by youth. In 2007, 64% of the attackers were between the ages of 13-19, with 86% 25 and under.

The necessity for the Speakers Bureau project is made all the more apparent when one considers the trial of William Ammons, 20, Thomas Daugherty, 19, and Brian Hooks, 20. On January 12, 2006, Norris Gaynor, whose father expressed, “We always said he wasn’t homeless. He was just away from home,” was killed by the three aforementioned young men. In addition, the group severely beat two other homeless individuals, Jacques Pierre and Raymond Perez, in the course of their violent spree. Pierre’s beating was caught by surveillance cameras – it reveals smiling attackers pounding him with baseball bats. Ammons arranged a plea bargain that saved him from a possible life sentence in exchange for testifying against Daugherty and Hooks. Meanwhile, defense lawyers Michael Gottlieb and Jeremy Kroll worked to protect their clients from life sentences.

Gottlieb and Kroll built their clients’ defense by focusing on their intent that night, claiming that because the agreement among the young men was only to ''beat up some bums'' they should be spared and given lesser charges. This claim, quite simply, gives the green light to people who want to get intoxicated and attack homeless individuals. Shooting them in the head with paintball guns and beating them with baseball bats, golf clubs, or rakes follows, likewise, as perfectly permissible – as long as the intent, of course, is not to kill. The two were each found guilty of two counts of attempted second degree murder with a weapon and one count of second degree murder and are awaiting sentencing.

The defense’s logic and the lessened charges demonstrate the need to re-humanize our homeless neighbors. The statements of Kroll and Gottlieb would lead us to believe homeless individuals are less than human, a marginalized group against whom it is okay to discriminate, harass, and attack. Our homeless neighbors have been referred to as “vagrants”, “bums”, and “criminals” for far too long. It is just this sort of dehumanization that communicates to young people it is okay to harass and violently attack the homeless. Speakers Bureaus will help the public put a face on homelessness and remind youth that individuals without homes are human too.

It is not okay to attack or harass our homeless neighbors, whether or not the intent is to kill.