Videos of homeless people being beaten or forced into humiliating acts are increasingly popular online, leading some US lawmakers to seek harsher penalties for hate crimes against the poor.
“They have become a new minority group that is okay to hate. If this would have happened to any other minority group, there would be some boycotts or protests,” National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) director Michael Stoops said.
Twenty-seven homeless people were killed last year out of a total of 106 attacks, with the bulk committed by males who were 25 or younger, according to a report published earlier this month by the NCH.
The total number of attacks was less than the 160 recorded last year but still far higher than the 60 listed a decade ago. More incidents are thought to have occurred but gone unreported.
On the Internet, videos of “bum fights” are a growing trend, with their authors defending the practice just for the “fun” or the “thrill.”
Last month, nearly 86,000 degrading videos of homeless people were posted on YouTube — 15,000 more than a year earlier — an NCH count showed. No less than 5,700 of the posts — 1,400 more than in April last year — showed self-proclaimed “bum fights,” where the homeless were pushed to battle each order in return for a pack of beers or a few dollars, but also to the amusement of those shooting the videos or watching them.
“This is exploiting people when they are at their lowest point,” said Andrew Davis, who used to live on the streets in Washington.
“Right now, the homeless have no voice. We need to prevent these things and the community has to be vigilant,” the 44-year-old said as he stood by dozens of homeless receiving a free meal.
The trend began in 2001, with videos showing fights or urging homeless people to jump into a trash bin from up high. Some 6.8 million similar videos have been sold on DVD since then.
Some accept the humiliation because “they are alcoholic, they are mentally disabled, have no money,” Stoops said. “They are bribed: if you jump or let us push you in a shopping cart, we will give you five dollars or a pack of beer.”
Davis compared the practice to dog fights.
“It often happens with drug dealers,” he said. “They have money to throw away, they either pay the guy with crack, heroin, or weed or a drink, they pay to fight and bet on the fight,” he said.
Each night, 672,000 people sleep under a roof that is not their own in the US, the National Alliance to End Homelessness said. Between 2.5 and 3.5 million sleep on the streets or in a shelter at least once a year.
Out of the nearly 3,000 homeless living in Washington, official figures showed — though homeless advocates say the number is at least twice that — one-third say they have been victims of violence.
Close to the Watergate apartment complex, known for a political scandal that led to the resignation of former US president Richard Nixon, Yoshio Nakada, 61, was murdered on Christmas Eve last year after suffering what police believe were hatchet blows that split his skull.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia