Hate crimes against homeless on the rise in Modesto

Modesto police called the attacks cowardly, random and unprovoked.

Two 55-year-old homeless men — severely beaten, bloodied and unconscious — were found lying in public bathrooms at Modesto's Enslen and Graceada parks in June 2008.

Police arrested 23-year-old Michael "Boogie" Anthony Hardwick Jr. of Modesto in the crime. He was sentenced in April to six years in prison.

"They didn't have anything. They were homeless," prosecutor Wendell Emerson said of the victims. "I think it was just a cruel crime where he just picked vulnerable victims who couldn't fight back."

New data released last week show homeless people nationwide were singled out in more than 1,000 attacks over the past 11 years by perpetrators motivated by anti-homeless hostility and a perception of their victims as easy targets.

Last year was the deadliest in a decade for hate crimes against the homeless, with 43 people killed, according to the report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. That's an increase from 27 killings in 2008.

The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group chronicled such brutal crimes as homeless people doused with gasoline and set on fire and others beaten with aluminum baseball bats, golf clubs or pipes. The research showed some assailants killed merely for the sport of it -- a "thrill kill" in police slang.

"It's just a sad commentary," said Brian Miller, a pastor and homeless advocate in Turlock. "What is it in the heart of humanity that you could take someone so down that they're homeless and commit a violent crime against them?"

Three hate crimes highlighted in the report were said to have been committed against homeless people in Merced, Sacramento and Fresno counties during 2009:

Six young men entered a homeless encampment in Merced, with at least one person allegedly punching a homeless man multiple times in the ribs and hitting his girlfriend in the face as she tried to intervene. "They were just picking on anyone they could find," the male victim said.

A Sacramento man who was listening to music alone suffered seizures and a concussion after a group of "thrill seekers" reportedly pummeled and stomped on him as onlookers cheered.

In a story that made national headlines, a Fresno police officer was accused of holding a 52-year-old homeless man's hands behind his back as another officer repeatedly punched him in the face. Bystanders initially had called police to aid the homeless man, who they believed was ill, and the incident was caught on video. The homeless man has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the officers.

Fear of seeing 'face in the mirror'

Neil J. Donovan, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said a festering resentment or hatred of the homeless may be driving more people to take action against them.

Donovan said people's economic insecurities -- including worries about possibly finding themselves on the street one day -- can drive them to transfer those frustrations onto the homeless.

"It's the fear of that being your face in the mirror," Donovan said.

Feelings of exasperation against some Modesto homeless played out in front of the Modesto City Council in June, which in a split vote decided to take back McClatchy Square from the homeless who inhabited it. Council members approved a plan restricting use of the downtown park to those who make reservations and pay fees after some downtown business owners complained about public urination, alcohol use, drug dealing and verbal abuse of park visitors.