Throw the Book (and/or) Chains at Them

By Alicia Dorr in News on Jul 10, 2007 5:57PM

This morning three relatively young men were charged for viciously beating a homeless man with chains and a sign. The only provocation for the attack was apparently when the man bumped into one of the men as they were walking out of a bar near Randolph and Wabash. Because of an accidental run-in, 40-year-old Franklin Hayden ended up in Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition with the possibility of losing an eye.

To be honest, we've never felt that the "if it bleeds, it leads" philosophy held much water. It often seems a bit cheap to us, or some elaborate attempt to keep people scared. Every once in awhile, however, there's a homicide or devastating crime that is so shocking that it seems essential a community holds it up in front of itself as a mirror and asks — is this who we really are?

Disrespect of homeless people runs pretty-well deep, to the point that "average" people will watch bums fighting one another as if it were totally acceptable. While this may not be your attitude, when something like this happens, we still have to consider it. This dehumanizing of an actual person happened in our public space, downtown, and it is absolutely disgusting. You have to wonder, if you walked by something like this at 11:30 at night in the Chicago streets, what would you do?

Photo by Laurent Orseau, via his website.