I Just Called the Police on Homeless People—in Last Resort

Around dinner time I was walking down the street where I live, through the city’s largest encampment, when I was approached by a homeless lady I know. She asked me an innocuous question, and my reply led her to believe I’m a notorious pedophile distributing child porn as went the rumour (either that or covering for him somehow). And she got most hostile right off the bat, threatening me with all sorts of things if I showed up my face over there again. Not only that, I was quickly surrounded by a few more of their numbers and the situation escalated very rapidly.

Within minutes I would get repeatedly punched, kicked, beaten with sticks, choked, and even stabbed. Oh, one of them even tried to strangulate me with his belt. Don’t worry, my injuries are limited to light scrapes, a sore throat, and a swollen knee. I’ll make it.

You’re going to think I’m insane, but I stood my ground and attempted deescalation even as it went down to literal attempted murder. Even with the benefit of insight, I still think it was the best course of action. Allow me to enumerate the options that came through my mind in a split second when things started to sour:

1. Diplomacy
2. Calling the cops
3. Using force
4. Never walking down the street again

Forget number 4; that’s not acceptable and plenty enough reason to stand my ground and escalate instead. I’d rather not fall back to number 3 because unlike my wannabe assailants I know how to end a fight with just one hit. Number 1 looked futile but not devoid of merit even if it failed, so I tried that. It went as badly as you imagine. They dispersed only when the security guard showed up minutes later, save for one who pulled me away begging me to leave. I think they at least understood force won’t work with me, so standing my ground wasn’t as vain as it looks. But I couldn’t just bet on it.

That left me with the dreaded number 2. But I couldn’t think of a less bad course of action, and still cannot. Even factoring in that calling the cops on homeless people might end in tragedy, we’d already reached that point; if my attackers were to corner me in a life and death struggle on another day, they’d have better odds with the cops.

The officers arrived fairly quickly and were courteous. They must have known me already (I definitely recognised them) and decided not to be smartasses; I returned the courtesy by cutting the sarcasm to a minimum. Still, I had to point out I was an advocate and loathed getting the police involved with vulnerable people.

So what should we learn from this? Please don’t start screaming about public safety, sending more cops for more displacement, that won’t help. What we need is systemic remedies for social issues, starting with housing and drug use. Keeping people in survival mode indefinitely messes them up in the long run in ways that are virtually impossible for someone who hasn’t gotten through this to comprehend. Our callously incompetent system causes criminality and fosters it through the carceral system. It shouldn’t come down to this.

Another lesson I’d like to press is that homeless people are, for the most part, harmless. Police officers keep complaining that they have to shoot first and think later whenever a destitute person acts in a hostile fashion, but in my homeless years I’ve only met a few of them who struck me as capable of causing grievous injury or death short of using a gun at point-blank range. The rest of them are diminished, emaciated, and often crippled or injured. They don’t even really know how to fight, and the psychotic in particular usually cannot in any capacity. I just ‘survived’ such an encounter in which I was outnumbered and repeatedly struck with weapons, including a knife, and all I needed to do was keeping them at arms’ length. If I could do it with my bare hands without even fighting back, so can the cops.

I honestly cannot bring myself to hate the fools who attacked me tonight, and I definitely don’t fear them. They’re victims of the system. I’ll keep advocating for them, just like I’ll keep walking down that street even though I’ll never be safe on that block again. We have to accept that until we as a society get our act together and solve social problems, we will keep being exposed to such hasards.

Perpetual destitution isn’t acceptable, and institutionalisation in the carceral system isn’t the answer. If I’m being asked my opinion at sentencing time, that’s what I’m going to say.