Homeless man in Texas set ablaze, attack caught on videotape

[PfcHammer]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-06-17-homeless-fire_x.htm

Homeless man in Texas set ablaze, attack caught on videotape

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — A group of men set a homeless man ablaze as he slept in an attack captured on surveillance videotape.

Police were looking for up to eight men who participated in the attack Tuesday outside an agency that helps the homeless. The victim,
Lucas Adama Wiser, 21, remained hospitalized Thursday with third-degree burns.

A surveillance videotape at Corpus Christi Metro Ministries showed a dark sport utility vehicle and a smaller vehicle pulling up to Wiser and setting him on fire. It was unclear whether his attackers doused him with a flammable liquid.

"Then you see the fire and they ran off," police Capt. John Moseley told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in Thursday's editions.

[LittleApple81]

1. What is wrong with Texas? why are they so mean? remember the

Black man who was dragged by a truck? and now this poor (literally) guy burned?????

[PartyPooper]

6. Maybe because they had Junior, aka "the frog killer", for governor!

He was such a great role model for all Texans!

:eyes:

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[schultzee]

16. I lived there for 3 years, now I would not even fly over that cesspool.

Compared to Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi look good. So imagine. There is serious white trash in Texas and some of them are filthy rich. I hated that place. Glad to be out of it.

[Jake_DeLeon]

20. to be fair...

you cant blame everything on white trash, although they do pose thier own problems.

Most of us down here in South Texas are Mexican, from the looks of the video there were alot of people, maybe its gang related or something.

[Maestro]

40. Then stay away but there are good people here too!

And I hope they catch the ones responsible and incarcerate them for a long time!

[atreides1]

51. There are good people in Texas

Yes there are good people in Texas, but it's the evil, power mad, religious fanatics who seem to be in charge.

The good people of Texas can't seem to get a break, and with assistance from Bug Killer Delay, they're not going to get one.

At least in Colorado, the State Supreme Court was able to stop the Republicans from doing up there what they have done in Texas, opened
the door to a one party system. The Texas Supreme Court was bought and paid for long ago, and you and the other good people of Texas are
going to reap the whirlwind.

You have my sympathies.

[mom cat]

24. Follow the migrations from the old penal colonies in the US.

There is a clear pattern of violence that spread from those cesspools of humanity that Europe did not want. They transfered that violent contingent to where it could grow relatively unimpeded in the wild lands. Texas has many natives from those regions and their decedents still embrace those "values" and opinions. I know. I grew up among them and am an escaped descendant.

[Maestro]

42. I can think of other heinous crimes

in other states!

[SayitAintSo]

52. At least they don't drown their children like they do in SC ....

Oh wait.... they do .....don't they ?

[Tight_rope]

62. I think it's the air and the water....I get crazy too sometimes..but not

crazy enough to actually do harm. Although, I must be honest and admit that I think about it just as much as my fellow Texan!

[goforit]

2. Bush just can't get enough shock an awe, eh?

[Nlighten1]

3. Texas.

Ug

[DenverDem]

4. What's wrong with America?

There are redneck idiots everywhere. Ever been to South Boston?

busholini jr is not a Texan, he's a Conneticut Yankee carpetbagger.

[Skittles]

5. I would have to agree

there are digusting people in every state.

[schultzee]

17. Yea, but something in Texas attracts these people.

[TexasBushwhacker]

21. Well, don't forget we're a really BIG state

[calimary]

49. Even so, I refuse to wear my cowboy boots until bush is gone.

I don't even want to look like I might even remotely be a bush supporter. They're WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY in the back of my closet. If, indeed, I still even have 'em.

I've got a couple of friends in Texas, so I sympathize. Ahh Texas... Saw one of those "Don't Mess with Texas" bumper stickers on the freeway not long ago, and I just smiled. I always think, in response: "I'LL mess with Texas ANY OL' TIME I DAMNED WELL FEEL LIKE IT. I'M from CALIFORNIA. We're BIGGER."

[Maestro]

41. Exactly!

[benfranklin1776]

7. Sick repulsive psychopathic subhuman thugs.

When they are caught will it be revealed that when young they tortured animals like, say, putting firecrackers in frogs?
There is a certain unique breed of sick pervert that is afoot in the land today which gets its jollies from causing other human being's suffering while scrupulously maintaining an artificial veneer of "societal respectability." Sadism has become a form of recreation for some folks. Things like this and the acceptability of torture to some Americans causes me to fear sometimes that the age of enlightenment is being snuffed out by a rapid reversion to mindless barbarism as the rule not the exception.

[2Design]

10. Are you talking about our pResident??/ the one who condones

tortures and went to great lengths to see how far he could go...

[benfranklin1776]

11. He is the prime example of the mindset yes.

Attempting to cloak torture with a patina of legalese to give it legitimacy all the while publicly crowing about his alleged committment to democracy, the rule of law and human rights. That is precisely the type of duplicitous, evil mindset to which I refer, but sadly it is not confined solely to him. Many others in today's society seem far to willing to follow his example i.e "Outraged about the outrage over torture," "Nothin but harmless fraternity pranks" etc ad naseum.

[2Design]

14. Yes they are training the young that it is ok to torture and bully in

school and lie....they thought clinton doing a BJ was a horrible lesson....

How do you explain to a kid, no being a bully and beating people up is not ok.....When you have a pResident and his cabal doing it...

This is disgusting behavior. There was an article in another paper I read where a homeless man was killed by a brick.....

We teach them the homeless, are derelict and not worthy. We as a society do not help them. Housing has become impossible for many and we have a government who is more willing to spend umpteen million dollars on bombs and bullets than on its own people.....

And they call themselves Christians....that is what appalls me. And they say they are pro life. They kill always.

[benfranklin1776]

15. By their deeds ye shall know them.

I agree with your observations. Those who engorge themselves on violence or enthusiastically cheer it on or enable it are in no measure Christians though they may profess loudly that they are. I recall Jesus preaching the parable of the Good Samaritan which was an exhortation to bind and heal the wounds of those people in need, even if they are complete and utter strangers. Suffice to say He would take an exceeedingly dim view of those who inflicted such wounds.

Once you begin treating certain people as "untermenschen" as a matter of official policy, violence and brutality against them is sure to follow as it becomes somehow legitimized to certain people's twisted minds.

[impe]

28. You are eloquent

My family just recently found my lost sister many states away, who was MISSING for 18 months and homeless, I am reminded every time I see someone in this condition of this great parable! It is unimaginable to me that any "human" could do this to another human being and I fear that the day of reckoning for those and for this country that turns its eyes away from those less fortunate, is not too far away.

[AndyTiedye]

22. They Want to Turn the US into a Nation of Bullies

> they are training the young that it is ok to torture and bully

That is quite intentional on the part of the reThugs, and we can
expect this to get a lot worse if they stay in power long enough
to start up the draft again. The resulting militarization of
society legitimizes the bullies in their role,
while blaming and further marginalizing their victims.

There was never a serious effort to deal with bullying in schools
until after the draft ended in the 1970s. They used to consider it
an essential preparation for the military. Of course, the people who
made that determination were bullies themselves.

and the bullies all grow up to be Republicans.
The geeks are more likely to become Democrats.

Three and a half years ago a bunch of grown-up schoolyard bullies,
using classic bully tactics, stole our country from us and have been
using their ill-gotten power to bully us and the rest of the world
mercilessly ever since.

We can't simply "fight back". We need to outsmart them.


This is my One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Ninth Post to DU.

[Bhaisahab]

23. well said. makes me feel civilization's wheels are coming off. n/t

[Career Prole]

9. Harmless fraternity prank. Just the boys blowin' off steam.

I believe in an afterlife not because I want some eternal punishment lined up for assholes such as these, but because if this f**king world is all I leave my daughter then I've cheated her horribly. I want to believe she'll have something better afterwards. :cry:

[benfranklin1776]

12. I echo your sentiments.

I too hope there is an afterlife if for no other reason than to see that the universal scales of justice are balanced and those who sow such monstrous evil reap their just desserts. However remember tis better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness. Burke was right in that evil triumphs only if good people do nothing.

[celestia671]

13. The homeless are always targeted for violence

When we lived in Dallas, my daughter and I were pulling up to the laundry mat and we saw this guy with blood all over his face standing outside. The manager told me that he was homeless and had been beaten up and sprayed with mace. The police were called, but nothing was done.

People can be so evil and cruel. :(

[uncle ray]

18. probably got the idea from the video store

several months back, my girlfriend surprised me, brought a dvd home from the video store called "Bumfight!" i was amazed she would rent anything with such a title! i gave it a chance, i've seen some nauseating things, but this was one of the hardest to sit through. i thought "ok, pay a couple of hobo's to go at it in the ring, right?" innocent enough, give a small fortune (to them) to a few guys who are living on the streets? HA! much of the video was of anonymous men going up to sleeping bums and humiliating them/beating them up, etc. how about a parody of the crocodile hunter, but hunting bums? he'd come up on bums, hogtie them with duct tape or zip ties, and "tag" them like crocodile hunter might.
i swear the only thing that made me able to get thru the video was that i was (somewhat) positive that there is no way that they would do this on video without getting consent from the bums beforehand, just a realistic acting job, i'll stick to believing that. though nothing indicated it was real or fake, you have to reason that hopefully nobody would be able to commercially release a dvd actually attacking bums.

it would not surprise me at all to find the people involved seen something like this dvd.

[pop goes the weasel]

27. I can't believe you watched it!

In Austin, there was a homeless man beaten to death this week. He ran into the lobby of an upscale hotel to get help and no one did a dmaned thing. His attacker followed him in there and finished killing him. This in "liberal" Austin. The same morning I heard about it on the news, on the radio, I heard some asshole morning zoo-type DJ (and this DJ might have been on a station from another city--I wasn't paying attention) going on about the same video you saw, how it is just so damned funny. Yeah, right.

Something has to be done, and it has to be done now. This sort of violence will spread and escalate throughout our nation.

[uncle ray]

53. it was hard

i consider it similar to having to watch the Berg video, you have to see the ugliness to comprehend what is going on in this world. tho whole time i was thinking about homeless vets, and the type of people who wouldn't stop to consider what those homeless might have done for this country before they act out because of something like this.

[pop goes the weasel]

57. I've personally known many homeless folks

My own parents were homeless for a while. I have friends who were homeless. When poor people or people who have been unemployed too long or people who have serious health problems (mental or physical) have just one more crisis hit them, they end up on the street. The notion that our society even has a "safety net" is laughable. There is no freaking safety net.

All the time I see empty buildings--businesses, warehouses, homes. Why aren't some of the homeless vetted and asked to live in these places to keep them occupied so they don't become targets for vandalism? Why don't we have programs to help people before they become homeless? Why can't people who have mental health problems or addictions get help when they ask for help instead of being neglected until they land out on the street, the victim first of an abusive society long before they are victims of callous thugs on a thrill-kill?

I realize no one here can answer that, and that most of you share the outrage. All the damned Repub concern over the unborn, and no concern at all for the born. It's a sick set of misplaced priorities.

[Jake_DeLeon]

19. Yeah thats pretty sad...

I heard about it in the news tonight. I live in Mathis which is pretty close to Corpus.

Our own little town has its own little drama too. Some chick had a miscarriage and some freak got the fetus and buried it in thier front yard, implying that they murdered it.

[Ilsa]

34. I used to be from your neck of the woods.

I lived in another small town there in the 1970's (GW), then lived in CC for about 8 years.

[loudsue]

54. You live in MATHIS??

My (now-deceased) Aunt used to live in Mathis, on the lake. I'm SOO PROUD there is a DUer in MATHIS!!! There is hope for the world!!

:kick::kick:

[gatlingforme]

25. I hope they find these scum and have them go through the

crappiest penal system in the US. - the goood 'ol boy Texas Justice way.

[Jake_DeLeon]

26. if the homeless guy dies of his injuries...

then they will face the death penalty, although I wouldnt want the homeless man to die just so they could face the death penalty.

Althought I have seen some pretty bad pictures of burn survivors (usually car crashes) and I have thought to myself if I were in that position I would probably prefer death.

[gatlingforme]

56. Welcome to DU. I hope you enjoy this forum, it's alot of fun,

exchanging ideas, so fourth... Have fun, good point, but until you are there and you are burned, I guess we can't really tell what to think. All I know is that justice in Texas is a farce in a way and the penal system is quite barbaric. It's all money as you know and if you don't have it, then you will not get justice. That is with every state, but Texas takes it to extremes.

[Bandit]

29. Well Remember "There is America and there is Texas"

:shrug:

[DenverDem]

31. No difference between America and Texas.

Don't kid yourself.

[AspenRose]

35. Bandit's talking about the attempt to paraphrase JFK in France

Bush* said, "To re-paraphrase John Kennedy, there is
America and there is Texas."

I was raised in Texas (San Antonio, fortunately), and there is a difference, IMHO. Their marketing slogan for tourism doesn't read "Texas: It's Like a Whole Other Country" for nothing.

Texas is big enough, however, where tendencies towards extremism are greater in some places (East Texas) than others (the Rio Grande Valley).

[Bandit]

45. Notice the quotation marks

Bush* made that statement not me. I just repeated it for you all.

[DenverDem]

46. I get it.

It's still bushit.

[Maestro]

43. What?

Not quite. I'm an American and always will be...Texan second.

[Ilsa]

30. There have been at least three other attacks there...

Several weeks ago my family and i were there, watching the news. Business owners downtown are complaining that they aren't getting any assistance from the city in taking care of the homeless downtown (food, shelter, etc). One restaurant reported that their business is down because homeless people come into the restaurant and panhandle, then go outside and urinate on the entrances in front of people, etc.

They have a real problem there. That county is heavily burdened with paying for health care of indigent, "illegal" aliens, and the tax base is growing fast enough to pay for it.

I think these are radical vigilante types, trying to scare these people away. I hope they are prosecuted for such evilness.

http://www.caller.com/ccct/local_news/article/0,1641,CCCT_811_2973017,00.html (I hope you can link without registration.)

Video of torching released
Police hope viewers can name group that burned homeless man

By From staff and wire reports
June 18, 2004

Corpus Christi police released a videotaped torching of a homeless man on Thursday, asking local TV stations to air the video in hopes of receiving tips from viewers.

The Rev. Robert Trache, executive director of Metro Ministries, said the incident was at least the third against homeless people in a 24-hour period. He said one person was dragged along a street and another was beaten with a belt buckle. He said both incidents involved groups of young people. He said a Wednesday meeting discussed with police the possibility the attacks were connected.

"We were concerned this was beginning to be a pattern," he said. "My gut feeling is that there are people who sometimes decide that they will become vigilantes and attack people and view this as a civic good when it's really a crime."

During the meeting, the caregivers decided to form a group to identify problems and help the homeless. "We decided to create a coalition of people who deal with the homeless and the working force," Trache said.

He said they would be interviewing as many homeless people as possible about their experiences with being victims of assaults and problems with crime.
SNIP

[Ilsa]

33. I posted one of the other stories the other day of a homeless man

in a wheelchair, probably about mid fifties, possibly a Vietnam veteran, who was killed behind a convenience store.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x1283854

No wonder it took forever to find: it was moved to the Lounge.

[TahitiNut]

32. Is "The Fisher King" getting increased viewership?

Disgusting.

[johnnie]

36. We just had a case here in Cleveland

Some young punks going around zapping some homeless people with stun guns. The thought that anyone would go around to hurt others in any way makes me ill, let alone doing things to people that are just plain barbaric.
I personally don't think that it is any different than it has always been. But the sad fact is we are still cavemen beating each other over the heads with clubs and the people who think the human race are so superior any other living thing makes me laugh.

[AspenRose]

37. "Surviving the Game"

Anyone see that movie? Rutger Hauer, Ice-T?

That's what this reminds me of (the mentality).:puke:

[bleedingheart]

38. This is Ronald Reagan's legacy

The hatred of the poor, the demonizing of those in need...it all started with the "gipper". That bastard made it "cool" to belittle those on public assistance. It is only natural that the spawn of that greed should be even more malicious.

[calimary]

50. He made it possible for so many of those in need to be thrown out ONTO

the streets. Santa Monica has yet to recover, and here it is 2004. Reagan was the original IGMFU president. IGMFU stands for "I Got Mine, F-U." It was his idea of "tough love." Make 'em boot up on their own, the lazy lumps! They're homeless because they're lazy and unmotivated and just a bunch of welfare queens. Perhaps if there is such a thing as reincarnation, (as we used to say here in L.A. throughout the '80's) Reagan and his ilk will come back in the next life as homeless, battered, crack-addicted teenage drop-outs, who are also pregnant.

What was it the Bible said about "...the least of my brethren"...?

That's why I like to call the republi-CON party the Party of Cain. Cain was the lovely guy who wanted to know if he was supposed to be his brother's keeper.

[BeHereNow]

39. America: Land of the Sociopaths

The country is full of narcissistic sociopaths.
Bush is their president because he manifests and
reflects the diseased hearts and minds of the population.
He is everywhere. In the movies, the music, the television
shows you see and hear the disease of America.
We are a disgusting, arrogant and ignorant putrid society
and I can't wait to get the hell out of this country.
These people deserve to be ruled by the Bush Cabal,
they have chosen it as it reflects their soul sickness
prefectly.
DUers will be welcome to visit me where ever I land...
We are the minority here and it's going to get worse-
So although I admire those who choose to stay and fight,
I simply don't think there are enough of us to succeed
and I think it will become very dangerous for people
like us in this hate mongering country.
BHN

[anarchy1999]

59. Well, BHN, Why don't you tell us how you really feel! Wow!

A very powerful statement. And thank you for saying it all so well.

Once again, Wow. You say it all so well. It is a heartbreak, though.

[uptown ruler]

44. sad...

and im sure those responsible would try to justify their behavior somehow.


Spread the Word
CausePimpingThePeopleAin’tEasy

[RamboLiberal]

47. And here's another one that happened in NYC at foot of Virgin Mary

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/204101p-176092c.html

Two teenage thrill killers savagely beat a homeless man to death outside a Brooklyn church yesterday - hurling bricks at him as he lay helpless by a statue of the Virgin Mary, cops said.
Police responding to a frantic 911 call from the priest who made the grisly discovery found 43 bricks strewn around Billy Pearson's corpse.

The battered body was tucked under a rosebush framing the statue in front of St. Gabriel's Church in East New York, where Pearson desperately tried to seek sanctuary.

Two 15-year-old neighborhood boys, Dashorn Washington and Jamel Robinson, were charged with murder last night as clergy, parishioners and even hardened cops expressed shock at the senseless explosion of violence.

"They are showing absolutely no remorse at all," a high-ranking police source said of the young suspects. "There is no reason for it; they weren't robbing the guy. This was just for thrills. Neither of these kids even said they were sorry he died."



http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/204101p-176092c.html

[saigon68]

48. POST THIS STORY SEPARATELY

[calimary]

55. Must be "compassionate conservatism" at work.

It makes me wonder WHO THE FUCK BROUGHT UP THESE KIDS? The Marquis and Marquessa de Sade? Or maybe some bush relative?

[JanMichael]

58. That is so damned viscious. I'm sick just reading the snippit.

The homeless in America are our greatest crime, it's without redemption, it's without foregiveness. I do not excuse our barbarity, I despise our cruelty...

That poor man.

[GingerSnaps]

60. I have a friend who is so stubborn that he is going to become homeless

He is out of work and he will not treat his loved ones like he cares about them. I feel sorry for him because he might end up like some of the homeless people that have been abused or murdered.

I begged him to tell and show his family that he cares about them and he loves them but he won't. The funny thing is he is embarrassed of his family and he is so stubborn that he is getting ready to loose them and become homeless.

They have asked him to do little things to show them that he cares and he refuses so they can't deal with him any longer.

I feel sorry for the homeless so many of them have issues with their families that they could clear up before becoming homeless but they refuse and end up on the streets.

With the Bush economy and freeper attitudes I am afraid for his life. He will also be out on the streets when winter hits and he will either end up dying by a crazy persons hands or from the weather.

I am trying to talk him into showing them that he cares buthe refuses. I have asked him to give his pets away to friends or they will die the minute that he goes into the streets.

I pray that he does the right thing because I care about him as a friend and he feels like part of my family.

[Tight_rope]

61. WTF! God help us....this country is going straight to "HELL"! n/t