LAT: Skid Row Deaths Stun City Council

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-skidrow21dec21,0,896799.story?page=2&track=morenews&coll=la-story-footer

Four people were found dead on skid row Monday, a toll that shocked even veteran police and social workers who are used to seeing routine misfortune.

None of the dead appeared to have been the victims of foul play. Three of the deaths were suspected to be the results of overdoses; the fourth victim wore a hospital band on one of his wrists and may have died of complications from stomach cancer.
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Capt. Andrew Smith of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division said the deaths were the most that he could remember in one day on skid row — an area that is notorious for drug use and homelessness and where the LAPD says suburban law enforcement agencies and some hospitals have routinely dumped homeless people, criminals and drug addicts.

The individual dying of stomach cancer wore a bracelet identifying him as a patient in a convalescent hospital. The hospital refused to comment when contacted by the LA Times.

More evidence of the shredding of our social safety net and the decline of America into barbarism.