unimaginative2
Senior Member
...and here's Rosie DiManno's take. She does have one point, though. Why no politicians visiting the victim's family?
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Panhandlers' rights trump victim's
Aug 15, 2007 04:30 AM
Rosie DiManno
A headline you'll never see in this or any other newspaper: "Wife-killer harmless guy, had a few drinks."
There is an odious pecking order to victims of violence and thus poor Ross Hammond has received abysmally short shrift as a crime statistic.
The 32-year-old wasn't even on the autopsy table yet – three to five stab wounds to the chest and abdomen, coroner can't tell for certain because of all the surgical incisions made as doctors tried to save Hammond's life – before homeless advocates were pre-emptively rehabilitating the four young adults charged with aggravated assault, shortly to be elevated, likely to second-degree murder. By the by, the quartet – two male, two female – had been drinking, according to a friend.
Compassion, it would appear, should accrue to the accused instead because, like, they were clearly indigent and, okay, at least one knife was drawn and plunged into flesh, but let's not lose sight of the bigger issue, ergo, homelessness and destitution and, if only Hammond hadn't reacted so provocatively when accosted for money none of this would have happened. Blaming the victim has not fallen entirely out of practice.
As one sociologist noted afterwards, remove the aggressive panhandling element and this was all just another one-on-one assault, ho-hum, happens all the time.
It wasn't one on one. It was, as homicide detective Gary Giroux told the Star yesterday, "four on one, not exactly a fair fight.''
And menacing begging – not passive, not even common, though an escalating societal malaise in Toronto – was a central factor in the tragedy. Presumably, to save our skins, we should all just shuffle along, suck up the hounding.
Notice no politician has swung by the victim's home to offer condolences to a grieving family, as has become all but optically essential in death by the gun. Gangland violence: Bad. Panhandler violence: Not so much.
Hammond, Toronto's 51st homicide this year, was strolling along Queen St. W. just after midnight last Thursday when approached by a cadger hitting him up for money. Police say a dispute erupted and very quickly turned lethal, Hammond assaulted by the party of four.
"I'm not saying (Hammond) was squeaky clean. No doubt he did say something to them, probably in colourful language," says Giroux. "But those (panhandlers) were very aggressive in their language and posture. Voices were raised, punches were thrown, and within seconds this got very serious."
Hammond's slaying comes one month after a 79-year-old man was mugged outside a Vancouver church by a panhandler apparently dissatisfied with the $5 he'd received. Last month, a 28-year-old man was charged in Toronto for allegedly beating up a man who refused to give him spare change.
Panhandling violence may not be a huge trend, but menacing by mendicants is, as anyone who lives or works in downtown Toronto knows. It's a distressing development municipal politicians would rather not address, as they put the emphasis on the homeless part of the equation rather than the unpleasantness and sense of siege experienced by the greater population. Indeed, Hammond's death won't even fall under the purview of a city-launched summer probe of aggressive panhandling because – naturally – the objective is better understanding the needs of the beggars rather than quantifying the threat to public safety and simple enjoyment of one's city.
Panhandling doesn't automatically equal homelessness and neither state of being should excuse intimidation.
The police blotter had this much right: All four accused, in their early 20s, are of no fixed address. Three are Americans. In court today, they will be clamped on "immigration holds."
American panhandlers: Now there's something you can righteously condemn.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On the other hand...
Panhandlers the ones in peril, activist says
Aug 15, 2007 04:30 AM
Laurie Monsebraaten
staff reporter
The rush to outlaw panhandling in the wake of recent acts of violence in Toronto and Vancouver is a knee-jerk reaction that unfairly targets the destitute as dangerous, says a homeless advocate.
Most injurious attacks "happen in houses among people who know each other, not on the streets," said outreach worker Beric German of Street Health, an agency that helps poor and homeless people.
If a doctor is accused of murder, the entire medical profession isn't maligned, he said.
And yet, that's just what callers to radio shows and some local politicians are doing when they say Toronto needs a bylaw to prohibit the poor from asking for spare change from passersby, he said.
Aggressive panhandling is already illegal under Ontario's Safe Streets Act, passed in 1999.
But the battering this month of a retired surgeon, 79, in a church vestibule in Vancouver and the fatal knifing of an out-of-towner in a melee near Trinity Bellwoods Park in west-end Toronto – both allegedly at the hands of panhandlers – has renewed calls to ban the practice entirely.
Earlier this year, Toronto Councillor Case Ootes (Ward 29, Toronto Danforth) called for a bylaw to prohibit panhandling in tourist areas.
As a result, the city ordered a pilot project this summer to assess the needs of panhandlers working downtown to better understand who they are and why they do it, as well as consulting merchants on the impact on their businesses.
The report is expected next spring.
But German said this initiative is just an attempt to gather ammunition to sweep homeless people off the streets so they will be "out of sight and out of mind."
Street Health has just completed a year-long survey of Toronto homeless that will update its groundbreaking report released 15 years ago, German said.
One finding is that contrary to recent fears that street people threaten public safety, the homeless are much more likely to suffer violence than those asked to spare some change, he said.
Of almost 400 homeless interviewed, 35 per cent said they were assaulted last year. Among that group, 68 per cent said they were assaulted an average of six times. Less than 1 per cent of the general population reported assaults to police in 2005, the survey notes.
Average monthly income of those interviewed was about $300. About one in 10 listed panhandling as a source of income, the report found.
Many formerly homeless people find that landing permanent shelter doesn't mean they can give up a street life, German said.
"Welfare doesn't pay enough to cover both rent and food, so they are forced to panhandle to eat."
Banning panhandling would rob many of their ability to survive, German said.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Panhandling code of don'ts
Under Ontario's Safe Streets Act, it is illegal for a panhandler to:
Obstruct the path of pedestrians while asking for money.
Use abusive language.
Proceed behind, alongside or ahead of pedestrians.
Solicit while intoxicated.
Solicit near a bank machine, pay phone, public washroom, taxi stand or transit stop.
Approach people for money in a transit vehicle, at a parking lot or on a roadway when a person is sitting in a stopped or parked vehicle.
The act calls for fines of up to $500 for first-time offenders, and up to $1,000 and/or six months in jail for subsequent convictions.One in 3 street people report they were assaulted last year, usually more than once, survey finds
_________________________________________________________________
Panhandlers' rights trump victim's
Aug 15, 2007 04:30 AM
Rosie DiManno
A headline you'll never see in this or any other newspaper: "Wife-killer harmless guy, had a few drinks."
There is an odious pecking order to victims of violence and thus poor Ross Hammond has received abysmally short shrift as a crime statistic.
The 32-year-old wasn't even on the autopsy table yet – three to five stab wounds to the chest and abdomen, coroner can't tell for certain because of all the surgical incisions made as doctors tried to save Hammond's life – before homeless advocates were pre-emptively rehabilitating the four young adults charged with aggravated assault, shortly to be elevated, likely to second-degree murder. By the by, the quartet – two male, two female – had been drinking, according to a friend.
Compassion, it would appear, should accrue to the accused instead because, like, they were clearly indigent and, okay, at least one knife was drawn and plunged into flesh, but let's not lose sight of the bigger issue, ergo, homelessness and destitution and, if only Hammond hadn't reacted so provocatively when accosted for money none of this would have happened. Blaming the victim has not fallen entirely out of practice.
As one sociologist noted afterwards, remove the aggressive panhandling element and this was all just another one-on-one assault, ho-hum, happens all the time.
It wasn't one on one. It was, as homicide detective Gary Giroux told the Star yesterday, "four on one, not exactly a fair fight.''
And menacing begging – not passive, not even common, though an escalating societal malaise in Toronto – was a central factor in the tragedy. Presumably, to save our skins, we should all just shuffle along, suck up the hounding.
Notice no politician has swung by the victim's home to offer condolences to a grieving family, as has become all but optically essential in death by the gun. Gangland violence: Bad. Panhandler violence: Not so much.
Hammond, Toronto's 51st homicide this year, was strolling along Queen St. W. just after midnight last Thursday when approached by a cadger hitting him up for money. Police say a dispute erupted and very quickly turned lethal, Hammond assaulted by the party of four.
"I'm not saying (Hammond) was squeaky clean. No doubt he did say something to them, probably in colourful language," says Giroux. "But those (panhandlers) were very aggressive in their language and posture. Voices were raised, punches were thrown, and within seconds this got very serious."
Hammond's slaying comes one month after a 79-year-old man was mugged outside a Vancouver church by a panhandler apparently dissatisfied with the $5 he'd received. Last month, a 28-year-old man was charged in Toronto for allegedly beating up a man who refused to give him spare change.
Panhandling violence may not be a huge trend, but menacing by mendicants is, as anyone who lives or works in downtown Toronto knows. It's a distressing development municipal politicians would rather not address, as they put the emphasis on the homeless part of the equation rather than the unpleasantness and sense of siege experienced by the greater population. Indeed, Hammond's death won't even fall under the purview of a city-launched summer probe of aggressive panhandling because – naturally – the objective is better understanding the needs of the beggars rather than quantifying the threat to public safety and simple enjoyment of one's city.
Panhandling doesn't automatically equal homelessness and neither state of being should excuse intimidation.
The police blotter had this much right: All four accused, in their early 20s, are of no fixed address. Three are Americans. In court today, they will be clamped on "immigration holds."
American panhandlers: Now there's something you can righteously condemn.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On the other hand...
Panhandlers the ones in peril, activist says
Aug 15, 2007 04:30 AM
Laurie Monsebraaten
staff reporter
The rush to outlaw panhandling in the wake of recent acts of violence in Toronto and Vancouver is a knee-jerk reaction that unfairly targets the destitute as dangerous, says a homeless advocate.
Most injurious attacks "happen in houses among people who know each other, not on the streets," said outreach worker Beric German of Street Health, an agency that helps poor and homeless people.
If a doctor is accused of murder, the entire medical profession isn't maligned, he said.
And yet, that's just what callers to radio shows and some local politicians are doing when they say Toronto needs a bylaw to prohibit the poor from asking for spare change from passersby, he said.
Aggressive panhandling is already illegal under Ontario's Safe Streets Act, passed in 1999.
But the battering this month of a retired surgeon, 79, in a church vestibule in Vancouver and the fatal knifing of an out-of-towner in a melee near Trinity Bellwoods Park in west-end Toronto – both allegedly at the hands of panhandlers – has renewed calls to ban the practice entirely.
Earlier this year, Toronto Councillor Case Ootes (Ward 29, Toronto Danforth) called for a bylaw to prohibit panhandling in tourist areas.
As a result, the city ordered a pilot project this summer to assess the needs of panhandlers working downtown to better understand who they are and why they do it, as well as consulting merchants on the impact on their businesses.
The report is expected next spring.
But German said this initiative is just an attempt to gather ammunition to sweep homeless people off the streets so they will be "out of sight and out of mind."
Street Health has just completed a year-long survey of Toronto homeless that will update its groundbreaking report released 15 years ago, German said.
One finding is that contrary to recent fears that street people threaten public safety, the homeless are much more likely to suffer violence than those asked to spare some change, he said.
Of almost 400 homeless interviewed, 35 per cent said they were assaulted last year. Among that group, 68 per cent said they were assaulted an average of six times. Less than 1 per cent of the general population reported assaults to police in 2005, the survey notes.
Average monthly income of those interviewed was about $300. About one in 10 listed panhandling as a source of income, the report found.
Many formerly homeless people find that landing permanent shelter doesn't mean they can give up a street life, German said.
"Welfare doesn't pay enough to cover both rent and food, so they are forced to panhandle to eat."
Banning panhandling would rob many of their ability to survive, German said.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Panhandling code of don'ts
Under Ontario's Safe Streets Act, it is illegal for a panhandler to:
Obstruct the path of pedestrians while asking for money.
Use abusive language.
Proceed behind, alongside or ahead of pedestrians.
Solicit while intoxicated.
Solicit near a bank machine, pay phone, public washroom, taxi stand or transit stop.
Approach people for money in a transit vehicle, at a parking lot or on a roadway when a person is sitting in a stopped or parked vehicle.
The act calls for fines of up to $500 for first-time offenders, and up to $1,000 and/or six months in jail for subsequent convictions.One in 3 street people report they were assaulted last year, usually more than once, survey finds
