Ari Porth Hasn’t Proved Need For New Homeless Protection
BY SAM FIELDS
Guest Columnist
State Rep. Ari Porth (D. Coral Springs) has introduced HB 11 which will make homeless people a protected category when criminally attacked. This means defendants will get extra punishment.
This bill here grows out of the 2006 death of a Fort Lauderdale homeless man, Norris Gaynor, who was murdered by local teenagers out for kicks. In the end they got sentences from 30 years to life.
Whether or not HB 11 a good idea I cannot say. I only know that the evidence that Porth cites says the exact opposite.
If his numbers are correct, the safest thing to be is homeless.
Porth quotes FBI stats which claim that in the last nine years 774 homeless have been violently attacked.
That’s 86 attacks a year.
According to HUD on any given day there are about 670,000 homeless and during the course of the year over a million find themselves homeless.
Porth’s numbers show the annual rate for violent assaults on the homeless is less than 13-per-100,000.
According to the FBI, the national average for violent crimes on all of us is 467-per-100,00.
The homeless are safer than the rest of us!!!
Something just does not jibe. I look forward to his explanation.
Here is an early Sun-Sentinel.com story about the bill.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Sam – unlike most of your other posts, where you delve deep into a topic when giving your opinion (whether I agree with that opinion or not is an entirely different topic), you are being intentionally superficial here.
The statistics you cite relate to REPORTED cases of violent attacks on the homeless.
As I am sure you are aware given your experience in criminal law and with the justice system generally, those that are the furthest outside the system are the least likely to actually use the system to report crime.
I am certain you don’t really believe there have only been 774 violent attacks on homeless people over the last 9 years.
But while I think you’re analysis is (intentionally) faulty, I think your underlying criticism of adding homelessness to the categories of people for enhanced penalties is correct.
All violent crimes are hate crimes by definition. That the person happened to be homeless, African-America, Jewish, etc. doesn’t make the crime itself more harmful or hateful, it attempts to criminalize the THOUGHTS behind the crime.
I find that to be a slippery slope.
Burning a cross in someone’s yard or defacing a synagogue or cemetary with swastikas are crimes in and of themselves — calling them hate crimes doesn’t change that.
But as always, I commend you for bringing up an interesting topic that is likely to generate a bunch of posts here.
Did you need to take continuances in any of your MM cases yesterday and today because you were spending time thinking about and writing this piece though? 😛
August 7th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Your sympathy for the homeless is boundless!
I can’t imagine that you, ultra-liberal, do not believe that the most defensiveless in our society need extra legal protection.
The homeless are singled out for attack, just like gays and Jews and blacks are.
I agree with ASA Ari Porth. We need this law.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
From this strong conservative Republican, Ari Porth is a great public servant. We need more people like him in the government. You can be partisan about some things, but this is not one.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Here is what the new law should say:
If an individual assaults or batters another person, the individual faces up to ten years in prison.
However, if you beat up a white guy, who is not homeless, Jewish, disabled, or an illegal alien, we’ll only give you up to five years in prison.
August 8th, 2009 at 4:33 am
The New York Times Saturday, Aug. 8, had a comprehensive story about homeless crime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/us/08homeless.html?_r=1&hp
August 8th, 2009 at 4:56 am
Just like all the other Democratic Bills, it won’t go anywhere in this legislature.
Why don’t they work on something other than social issues which are DOA? How about legislation that reduces the cost of the government?
August 8th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Dear Readers,
This was not a comment on the homeless. It was a comment on an argument that did not seem to make sense.
Or do some of you believe that discussions about the homeless are not subject to critical analysis.
To merely do so makes you a racist, bigot, inconsiderate greedy bastard.
August 8th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Dear Readers,
This was not a comment on the homeless. It was a comment on an argument that did not seem to make sense.
Or do some of you believe that discussions about the homeless are not subject to critical analysis.
To merely do so makes you a racist, bigot, inconsiderate greedy bastard.
August 8th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Dear Readers,
This was not a comment on the homeless. It was a comment on an argument that did not seem to make sense.
Or do some of you believe that discussions about the homeless are not subject to critical analysis.
To merely do so makes you a racist, bigot, inconsiderate greedy bastard.