"You just don't get to surround people", 9th person arrested for harassing homeless man

[Liberal_in_LA]

Ninth person arrested for allegedly shoving, spitting on homeless man

By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News

PORT ANGELES -- Police have arrested another juvenile alleged to have assaulted a homeless man last week after he declined to give a group of minors his beer.

The 15-year-old girl was arrested on investigation of fourth-degree assault.

That brings the total number of arrests in the Wednesday evening incident to nine.

Five juveniles and one adult, 20-year-old Briana Miller, have been charged with fourth-degree assault, defined as non-consensual touching or putting someone in fear of bodily harm.

---------------------

Authorities say individuals with the group shoved and spit on 43-year-old Kirk Thiets after he pulled out a pocket knife.

Police said that Thiets acted in self-defense.

---------------

Smith said each of the nine teenagers and young adults could be found guilty of fourth-degree assault whether or not they all had shoved Thiets or spit on him because each is alleged to have participated in putting him in a fearful situation.

"The act of surrounding someone can be construed, given the totality of the circumstances" as intending to cause harm, Smith said.

"You just don't get to surround people."


http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20101003/news/310039987/ninth-person-arrested-for-allegedly-shoving-spitting-on-homeless-man

[Angry Dragon]

1. Good for the police on this one

There are still good police out there protecting the public

[Codeine]

2. He should have cut the little fuckers.

[existentialist]

4. Your hat reminds me of part of a poem:

"I'm nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody too?"
Emily Dickinson

[Tunkamerica]

8. I doubt the poster is Tom Morello

[JoeyT]

10. +1

Testify.

[applegrove]

3. Good. The vulnerable are always victims on more crimes. Good that they are getting the book

thrown at them.

[MadMaddie]

5. This is happening more and more

these young people are attacking the homeless at an alarming rate.

Is it because the rhetoric coming from certain groups in this country refer to them as less than human?

These young people feel that they are allowed to exhibit this behavior. I wonder if these kids will just get probation and a slap on the hand?

[RagAss]

6. One day they'll surround the wrong motherfucker....n/m

[ThomCat]

7. Wow! I'm impressed that they're actually arresting people.

It's so rare that the police actually do anything to protect homeless people. Usually it's the cops themselves that are the ones harassing homeless people.

I guess it would be too much to hope that this signals some kind of real change. This is probably a one-time occurrence.

But it's still nice that they're rounding up the crowd that harassed and threatened this guy, even if we can't count on the protective attitude continuing.

[Rex]

9. Ah yeas...America, land where if you are completely powerless and homeless

don't fall asleep or ever get hurt. No one will help you or call the police. The homeless must defend themselves from what we have created.