Homeless Woman Stomped to Death in L.A.

[Judi Lynn]

Homeless Woman Stomped to Death in L.A.
By Associated Press
May 10, 2006, 2:46 AM EDT

LOS ANGELES -- A homeless woman was stomped to death as she slept on a sidewalk in downtown's Skid Row, police said Tuesday, and a parolee suspected in the attack was arrested.

Witnesses said they saw an attacker repeatedly kicking Kristi Morales for several minutes last Wednesday. A passer-by attempted to intervene, but the attacker knocked the person down at least two times before an officer arrested him, police said.

Morales, 49, died Monday from her injuries. She was the fourth person killed on Skid Row this year as police try to crack down on crime in the troubled area.

Her death "highlights the plight of the homeless, and the danger they face every day living, indeed sleeping, on the streets at night," Police Chief William Bratton said.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-stomping-death,0,2073563.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[expatriot]

1. "witnesses (plural) saw an attacker.... for several minutes...

A passer-by (singular) attempted to intervene..." Wonder what could have happened if passers-by (plural) would have "attempted to intervene." Maybe the intervention could have been more successful.

[Divernan]

4. I intervened in an attack once and no one else stepped in to help.

I knew at the time I was risking being attacked myself but I was so angry that this pimp was slamming a young teenage girl's (yes, she was a prostitute) head against a brick wall of a downtown building that I just kept shouting at him like a drill sergeant until he let her go and slunk away. I'm 5'2". A couple of very well dressed, 6 ft.guys in VERY expensive suits just looked the other way and walked right on by on the far side of the sidewalk. Then the bouncer from the Edison Hotel (a notorious bar/strip joint in downtown Pittsburgh) came out and asked if I was OK. Now you know, he could have stopped the pimp (who was little and thin) very easily if he'd wanted to.

[Poll_Blind]

6. You know why they didn't step in? Because they're not men, you are.

I see alot of boys, some well into their 50's, and not all that many men nowdays. Thank you for being a man. You are one of the bricks that holds up our whole goddamned society. But when it becomes fashionable to find "better things to do" when someone's slamming a woman around like that the society they come from is in danger. Anyway, thank you!

PB

[Divernan]

11. Thanks, but I'm DiverNAN, sweetie & look like Mary Poppins!

Maybe that's what took the pimp off guard - it was like his grandma was in his face shouting him down. Hope I haven't shaken your world view. Some more detail. I was walking to a parking garage after teaching an evening paralegal class. I was in business attire, carrying a briefcase and an umbrella. I yelled at the pimp to let her go. He was stunned. Then he said, "Mind your own business." I said, "It is my business, I'm an officer of the court!" His next brilliant response was, "She be my wife." As if THAT made it just fine in his twisted world. I shouted back, "She's not your wife! You're a pimp! And even if she WAS your wife, you have no right to beat her! No human being has the right to hit another human being. Let her go!" Then he slunk off. As I continued on my way, a young black kid - maybe 12 or 13 caught up with me, also asked me if I was OK. I said, yeah just a little shaky. He said to me "You are right, lady. No human being does have the right to hit another human being. Wait till I tell my mama, I saw a white woman stop a pimp from beating up a girl." Words somewhat to that effect. This all happened about 10 years ago.

You know sometimes things happen which take us by surprise, and later we think, I should have done something. This is one time I just let my better instincts take over.

[Javaman]

14. That was a brave thing you did, but more so...

Think of what you did to change the lives of potentially 3 people and perhaps more. The woman that was getting hit, that child that saw you defend that womans rights and that child's mother, who maybe herself was a victim of abuse.

People like you are the ones that change society.

Thank you. :)

[Divernan]

16. I hope you're right, but as to the young prostitute, I felt bad

because I couldn't whisk her away from her world, or take her into my home - and she was still probably dependent on the pimp for a place to stay. But I hope it planted a seed in her mind that she was worth defending - maybe no one had ever done that before. Something sure went wrong in her childhood that she ended up on the streets. But my friends - other lawyers - whom I told about the incident half jokingly told me I was crazy, and that they wouldn't feel safe walking around town with me. But I knew I did the right thing and a few years later I broke up a situation in the parking lot of a mall where one group of older teens were beating up on two younger smaller teens of a different race. We were driving down a lane to park our car and I saw the fight and yelled at him to stop the car. I got out and again started with the drill sergeant's bellow, tossing in a few obscentites (Leave that little boy the fuck alone!) I got the 2 younger kids to come to me and got them into a restaurant where I had them call their parents to get a ride home instead of going back out to wait for the bus. But you know what? The guy I was dating, who was a strapping 6'2", never got out of the car. He told me later he was trying to call 911 on his cell phone. That may have been a much safer approach, but my thinking was that there could be a hellof a lot of damage done before the cops arrived, and there had already been a number of violent attacks in that parking lot. I never felt the same about him after that. I'm older and frailer now, but if I see someone abusing kids, it makes me just as angry as if those kids were my own, and I will start mouthing off again.
But thank you for your kind words. I think helping people makes you feel so good that it is its own reward.

[Poll_Blind]

24. LOL! So sorry, my eye lit on your handle and I read "diver DAN"...

PB

[rppper]

30. good for you divernan.....sometimes words are all it takes....

....to stop something like that from happening. i intervened once at a grocery store where this man was threatening his wife/signifigant other. i basicly told the guy he wasn't going to do that in my presence(shaking her by the shoulders...she was about 5'0" and 90lbs dripping wet...and yelling drill seargent style into her face)and that i might take his lead and do the same to him. i'm not a little man however..6'2", heavilly tattooed and a solid 250lbs...i was a good bit bigger than he was. what happened after they left is anyones guess, but i bought her a few moments of peace at any rate.

last month a jury here in daytona beach convicted 4 youths to sentences ranging from 20 to 27 years for the beating death of a homeless man. these little jewells beat the guy, picked up a large log and threw it on the man, then jumped on the log untill the guy was dead. i hope the same happens to this guy. it's sad how this country treats those who have nothing.

[colorado_ufo]

31. You absolutely made my day!

[saigon68]

36. THIS WHY WE NEED CONCEALED CARRY

[alarimer]

39. Bullshit

She did it without using a gun.

[saigon68]

41. She did what?

What is "it"

[OKIsItJustMe]

44. (Check Post 4 by Divernan)

4. I intervened in an attack once and no one else stepped in to help.
I knew at the time I was risking being attacked myself but I was so angry that this pimp was slamming a young teenage girl's (yes, she was a prostitute) head against a brick wall of a downtown building that I just kept shouting at him like a drill sergeant until he let her go and slunk away. I'm 5'2". A couple of very well dressed, 6 ft.guys in VERY expensive suits just looked the other way and walked right on by on the far side of the sidewalk. Then the bouncer from the Edison Hotel (a notorious bar/strip joint in downtown Pittsburgh) came out and asked if I was OK. Now you know, he could have stopped the pimp (who was little and thin) very easily if he'd wanted to.

BTW: Thanks Divernan for caring.

[saigon68]

45. I was talking about the person STOMPTED TO DEATH

YIKES

[superconnected]

46. The 5'2 woman stopped the guy from beating the prostitute without a gun.

Instead of escalating violence, she stopped it.

Many people are able to handle situations without a gun.

I have to wonder about people who cant.

[Haole Girl]

43. The more I learn about people, the more I like my cat. n/a

[SIU_Blue]

47. quote of the day

it just kinda caught me off gaurd.

:rofl:

[KansDem]

15. Several years ago, I read a quote in one of the news weeklies...

I believe it was Newsweek but can't be certain. You know that section near the beginning of the magazine ("Notable Quotes" perhaps?) where there is a selection of quotes from the famous and infamous, the known and the unknown for that week, chosen because of their impact?

Anyway, one quote was from a man who witnessed a woman drowning (a river running through a major US city). He was asked why he didn't help and his response was "I didn't want to ruin my suit." I remember thinking, "Man, I sure hope this kind of thing doesn't happen again" but now I see I was wrong.

[Divernan]

2. It also highlights US has dumped the mentally ill out on the streets

of our communities. The attacker sounds totally out of control, even to the point of attacking the would be rescuer instead of running away. Could have been having terrible paranoid delusions; could have been a homeless vet with postraumatic stress syndrome + drugs. Criminologists estimate that 30 per cent of our huge jailed population are mentally ill and should have been institutionalized and medicated, rather than incarcerated. But you know there are more profits to be made from building prisons and privately contracting their operation, than in those state operated mental facilities that were closed down back in the 70's. This is a major contributing factor to the statistic that the US jails a far greater percentage of its population than any other country.

[seriousstan]

3. That poor man, perhaps the DEAD WOMAN's relative could start a fund

for his treatment.

[Divernan]

5. Of course she deserved to be protected from violent people.

(She evidently didn't have any relatives to help her out or she wouldn't have been homeless.)

My point is criticism of our society for putting all of us at risk - yes, you too - by not treating the mentally ill, who can become extremely violent. This guy could as easily have freaked out and attacked anyone who came within his line of sight.He's been in and out of prisons for some 30 years -probably totally unemployable - throw in drugs and alcohol, and you don't have a healthy personality to work with. There IS such a thing as mental illness, and it can be treated in a civilized, industrialized country.

"In Los Angeles County, more than 82,000 people were homeless on any given night in 2005, including about 48,000 within Los Angeles city limits, according to survey by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority."

Anyone have any data on what percentage of the homeless are considered mentally ill?

[WhiteTara]

8. when Raygun emptied the hospitals

20 years ago and closed community mental centers, it turned 100s of thousands of people on the street then and without the mental health resources, it multiplies expotentially...not to mention the collective nervous breakdown we are all having during this nightmare time.

[noonwitch]

9. It wasn't Reagan who did that, it was done at state government level

The trend in the 70s was to get people out of state institutions and into adult foster care in the community. This was a move that was not only because of the cost of state institutional care, it was also considered to be more humane than institutionalizing people for their entire lives.

This is an example of people wanting to make the patients' lives better, only to find out that a good number were better off in those state institutions.

[benddem]

12. it was done because of the policies

of the Reagan and Nixon administrations.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

34. Reagan, yes, Nixon, no. Reagan's cuts were huge.

Nixon actually increased spending for a couple of programs. Remember, by today's standards, Nixon would be viewed as an anti-corporate socialist.

Reagan cut funding for testing and treatment in prisons (lots of sick people ended up there, and without testing, diagnosis and proper meds, they got tossed in the "hole" or solitary.

He was, besides Bush, the worst man at the worst time in the worst possible office. Bush has managed to exceed his damage.

[LandOLincoln]

19. Maybe it was done at state government level,

but I was working in downtown Los Angeles in the late 70s/early 80s, and I clearly remember the number of homeless seemed to double virtually overnight after Reagan took office. I was suddenly seeing whole families begging on the streets...

[noonwitch]

40. Homeless families is a separate issue from homeless mentally ill

There was a huge increase in the homeless under Reagan-it was due to large cuts in social program spending at the federal level. It's a totally different issue than mental health care. The families you saw who were homeless were that way due to both the economic problems caused by Reagan's supply-side economics, that welfare wasn't enough to meet their needs, and there were suddenly very few manufacturing jobs, which used to be the mainstay of the working class. Reagan's policies did effect that situation.


Most mental health care is left to the states. There may be federal money involved, but the individual states run the treatment programs. In Michigan, the counties are now repsonsible for much of the mental health treatment.

The trend for de-institutionalization was more than just economic policy, and it was initiated from a treatment perspective, not an economic one. Mental hospitals were considered hellholes in many states, and "Snake pits". Read Frances Farmer's memoir "Will There Ever Be A Morning" if you wonder how badly patients were treated in some of these places. Or "The Autobiography Of Malcolm X"-see how badly my own state treated Malcolm's mother.

In the 60s, the institutions started changing and becoming more humane (some were always better than others). The extension of this reform and the development of psychiatric meds led to professionals thinking that perhaps a lot of the people in institutions didn't need to be there. They were right about some of the patients, wrong about others.

I am not saying that Reagan was a great president-I never voted for him and never supported his policies. Mental health policy in that time frame was far more complicated that Reagan's economic policies is all I'm saying.

[WhiteTara]

26. yes, it was Raygun

. By releasing patients and dismantling state facilities, Reagan shifted the burden for mental health services to county and local governments who lacked the resources to provide the "world-building" support systems recommended by researchers...
http://www.scientificanalysis.org/30yr2.html
:hi:

[EFerrari]

28. It's also true that "community care" didn't materialize. Not really.

The Edelman Clinic in Los Angeles, for example. should probably be shut down because it's actually dangerous.

The policy was akin to Bush's Social Security "reform".

[EFerrari]

27. Mentally ill people are 8X more likely to be the victims of

violence than to be violent themselves.

And a similar proportion of the mentally ill people sitting in jails don't need insitutionalization -- they need proper treatment which we can't seem to deliver in BushWorld.

[raccoon]

33. About this woman,

"She evidently didn't have any relatives to help her out or she wouldn't have been homeless.) "

Or maybe her relatives WOULDN'T help her out.

And muchos kudos to you for having the courage to yell at those abusers you've told us about.

[TheCrankyOne]

22. WOW

That is such a loving and enlightened thing to say. We must protect this man from himself and others! He needs help, not jail!

[The Magistrate]

25. Nonesense, Ma'am

He needs to be taken off permanently.

[slackmaster]

7. Reminder of an infamous incident in New York City

Kitty Genovese.

[davekriss]

10. What sewer must a human mind descend to...

...to be able to do something like that? It must truly be a living hell on earth for the perpetrator; too bad such people have the capability to pull others down with them.

[Javaman]

13. Who was Kristi Morales?

The article just goes into the plight of the homeless but doesn't give a face to this poor woman. They are just as guilty of ignoring the homeless issue as the rest of society.

What were her hopes, her dreams? How did she become homeless? What were the whys in here life?

This is the basic problem with dealing with homelessness, until we as a society see the homeless as fellow human beings, it will forever be a problem that comes into vogue only to have a band-ade solution and then swept under the rug until the next cycle.

I weep for Ms. Morales, because she could have been anyone of us or we could be her.

Homeless people are us. We the people. Democracy is not for the few that can afford it.

Instead of adverting your eyes at the next traffic light when a homeless person stands there with a sign, if you can't give them anything, don't ignore them, sometimes just an acknowledgment or a smile goes a long way.

I know what I speak of, I was there.

[slackmaster]

49. There but for - you name it - go all of us

I don't have much content to add, just a short rant of agreement.

I have a friend who is just a few steps from homelessness. She's about 50 years old and within a few years will run completely out of public assistance. She's been milking it for many years, working as much as needed, taking classes when she could, but her kids are growing up. One of them already left home.

From my viewpoint, her multi-faceted predicament is partly the result of bad choices she has made. But much is not; she got screwed over by two husbands and has medical conditions over which she has no control. I can forgive her the bad choices. Some people just don't make good ones. She comes from a large immigrant family, several of whom are also tangled up in webs of their own making. The ones you'd call "successful" have a dark side. Most of us probably wouldn't get along with them. My friend is the only one of her siblings who has been dirt poor all her life. She's sweet and kind and generous, literally to a fault (gives money to peole when it isn't in their best interests, etc.).

Unless my friend's family takes her in, or she somehow marries into money (not likely IMO), she may well be homeless in five years.

[Cronus Protagonist]

17. Skid Row has it's own police station right on Skid Row

It's large, and, IMHO, there's no excuae for there not being cops in uniform walking around 24/7 - there are plenty of cops for jaywalkers in downtown - all they would need to do is stagger shifts for 6 of them and have them walk the streets 24/7 right outside the police station.

There are upwards of 500 people camping in the street in skid row, most of whom have mental problems. One would think that the area would be targetted for extra policing, but no, it's more important to hand out jaywalking tickets and keep bums away from the commercial areas, apparently.

I live 4 blocks from skid row, so I know. I see it every day.



Educate A Freeper - Flaunt Your Opinions!
http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

[Rex]

18. It's the 21st century and here in the most power nation on the planet

people still struggle and die over basic needs like shelter and protection.

[anotherdrew]

21. it's a total failure of our civilization. doomed if we can't do better

and we know we could if it were for the selfish republican shit bags who are ultimatly responisble for this death, as they are for so many others. They can all go and rot in hell as far as I'm concerned.

[stepnw1f]

20. God This Just Made Me Cry

the anger hasn't set in yet.

[-..__...]

23. And yet...

there are those here that take the position and insist that we currently exist in a "civilized society".

Yeah... right. :eyes:

[0007]

32. Not much has changed in the last two thousand years, 'eh?

[noel adamson]

29. Common occurrence in Eureka

That happens all of the time here in Humboldt County up the coast of California near the Oregon Border and, though not usually openly condoned, is just the most egregious manifestation of the bashing of homeless and mentally impaired people. One young man was beaten to death in his sleeping bag a few years ago not too far from where I lived at that time. He was killed with stolen Christmas trees early Thanksgiving morning. I wrote about this in an ongoing web log at that time and found it to still exist at http://www.fortunecity.com/business/telephone/1450/hatecrim.html#homeless

When the kids of the right wing meth community aren't doing this the police are. One mentally impaired (PTSD not Psychosis like the administration) woman was recently executed by police here in Eureka. The same police who express great contempt for the justice system they are sworn to serve and feel they should be judge jury and executioner themselves. http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-14,GGLG:en&q=cheri+moore+eureka

Another young man was shot to death here recently by kids of such right wing meth nuts and I am unable to find the reference to the incident in a search of local papers. Generally 8 years is the sentence for civilians and a short vacation for police.

They are doing the bidding of the far right minority. If you have a real problem there is no response from law enforcement. They are busy harassing homeless people, mentally disabled people and political dissenters. Thus we have a huge rate of violent crime in the USA while our prisons are bursting at the seams. We lead the world in imprisoning our citizens but the people in the prisons are drunks, homeless people, dress code violators, skin color violators and mentally disturbed people. Not even a good fraction of real criminals who walk the halls of power with relative impunity. By the way, where are the Iran Contra (Coke smuggling into South Central) people?

Here are the world prison stats; http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/worldbrief/highest_to_lowest_rates.php

[midnight]

35. Wow that is just crazy for someone to attack

a destitute person or anyone who is sleeping on the streets. Isn't it time the rich have some sort of charity ball to raise funds to build houses for the poor. I thought they enjoyed dressing up and showing off how compassionate they all are with there family values.

[Jed Dilligan]

37. What do you expect

when you have 50,000 people crammed up on those stinking hot streets of downtown LA, and a lot of them are crazy, and a lot of them are on drugs that make them crazy, and a lot of them have been through the nightmares of our wars and prisons?

Then again, imagine 50,000 yuppies in the same spot, they would have four murders every five minutes and not every five months! Maybe the homeless deserve a collective Nobel Peace Prize.

[Boxerfan]

38. Here in Portland a friend had his face crushed.Cops did NOTHING

I swear we are fucked as a society with people like this being allowed-Nay encouraged to keep us in fear. Securing positions for these right wing lunatics....

My friend was on his own property & a nieghbor had a drunken teenage party. Some of the partygoers sprawled out onto his property & he called the cops. They came & as they were shoing the kids off someone took a fire extinguisher & blindsided him. Cruched his face & after major surgery he has 4 plates in his skull. Police arrested NOBODY!!!

This poor woman deverved so much better. I have been homeless & it is terrifying to try & sleep while outdoors.Thank god I stopped drinking & was able to turn my life around. This society shows next to no empathy nowadays...

Hate to say, concealeds may not be the answer but t's obvious the police are not here to help normal working folk.

BTW, K & R!!!!!!

[Megahurtz]

42. God that's just sick.

:cry:

[flvegan]

48. "plight of the homeless" is wrong. It's the plight of the coward, forever

destined to harm those that have less and/or are weaker than they are.

Stomping a homeless WOMAN to death. Enjoy your cellmates, you pathetic little rat bastard.