Galveston "war from hell" about to begin

Yet another reason I won't be going to Galveston beach anytime soon

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2686086

Streets seem to get meaner for homeless
Men blame teens for rash of attacks at Galveston camp

By ALLAN TURNER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

GALVESTON - After suffering weeks of attacks at the hands of baseball bat-wielding teenagers, homeless men who congregate at a shopping center just blocks from this resort city's tourist-packed beaches vowed to arm themselves and wage "a war from hell."

"There's going to be a bloodbath," warned Michael Seesman, 50, informal spokesman for the men and women who camp in the area around 61st Street and Stewart Road.

In the past few months, the men said, African-American and Anglo youths have beaten them with bats as they slept, cut them with knives, threatened them with guns and pummeled them with fists.

"These kids attack us almost every day," Seesman said.

In April, May and June, 18 apparently homeless assault victims received treatment at John Sealy Hospital's emergency room — up from seven during the year's first three months. While emergency cases typically increase as summer approaches, said ER Director Dr. Brian Zachariah, at least three of the 25 victims told doctors they had been beaten with bats.

Emergency room doctors saw only nine apparently homeless victims in the first six months in 2003.

Only 1 report of attack
The attacks come as tension heightens between the transients and residents and business owners in the 61st Street area, which is experiencing a boom in new development.

Though thugs occasionally target the homeless in Houston and other cities — in April a man was set afire as he slept on a park bench in Corpus Christi — the Galveston attacks do not appear to be part of an areawide campaign of violence, Houston police and social service providers said.

Galveston police have received only one report of such attacks this year — an April incident in which a 50-year-old man was hit in the mouth. "I'm not saying this isn't happening," Police Chief Kenneth Mack said, "but it's not showing up in our reports."

Officials at the Galveston Salvation Army, the Jesse Tree and the Galveston County district attorney's office also were unaware of recent violence.

Residents familiar with the homeless — a population often plagued by chronic unemployment, alcohol and drug addiction, mental illness and, sometimes, legal problems — noted the men aren't likely to contact authorities when they are victimized.

"I think they don't consider the police their friends," said Patricia Stephenson, a businesswoman who has befriended the 61st Street homeless colony.

Seesman said the homeless often are harassed by police, sometimes through the use of the city's "impeding a sidewalk" ordinance, a law that prohibits blocking a sidewalk with one's body, bedding or possessions. Eighty-three citations for the offense, which generally brings fines and court costs of $127, have been issued this year.

Dangerous bicyclists
Seesman's group, which includes perhaps 12 men and women, is an easy target for its attackers. Members often spend mornings playing chess and sipping from bottles of beer or alcohol-based mouthwash behind an area supermarket. By midmorning, they drift away to menial jobs or lounge nearby.

Seesman, who said he is a Vietnam veteran, says attacks sometimes occur as early as 3 p.m. as half a dozen or more youths wearing black and white clothing ride to the camp on bicycles.

"One of them said, 'So you're the Airborne Ranger' and pointed a gun at my chest," Seesman said. "I just knocked it out of his hand."

Stephen Davis, 39, said several bat-wielding bicyclists accosted him as he strolled along Seawall Boulevard shortly before midnight several weeks ago. The teens chased him with the weapons, and he escaped only when a motorist stopped, opened the door to her truck and beckoned him to enter.

Roy Wright's arm was slashed from shoulder to elbow, the men said, while "Mouthwash Randy" suffered an apparent concussion in an attack, reappearing on the street days later with stitches above his eyes.

Plate glass windows in stores near the homeless camp are pocked with holes from BB pellets Seesman said were fired at his group.

Julia Walker, who has been friends with some of the men for about 10 years, said she has seen teens taunting the homeless with rocks but has not witnessed an attack. "I've seen the aftermath of the attacks, though. In the past two months, I've seen them all beaten up," she said. "They never were beaten up before."

Tensions rise on island
The attacks have come as some area residents and businessmen have grown weary of the homeless. Ted Hanley, executive director of the Jesse Tree, a social service agency, said the area around 61st Street increasingly has become a home for the homeless.

"There's been a real outcry from the community," he said. "We've seen a geometrical increase in panhandling. You virtually can't pump gas without getting panhandled."

Hanley said he is puzzled that the homeless congregate far from the shelters, soup kitchens and other services that are in the central city.

"Galveston is tolerant of the homeless," he said, "but sometimes I think the homeless have been indifferent to the needs of the business community."

One businessman, confronting a homeless man as he showed a reporter the site of a fire set in the camp, was blunter. "You're the ones setting these fires and breaking in," Mike Orlando shouted at the homeless man. "You're winos and drunks."

Although she was not familiar with the Galveston case, Ann Thomas, of the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, suggested Seesman's group may be coming under attack simply because it is perceived as vulnerable. "With youth, there is a general lack of regard for anything outside their circle," she said. "A street person often is seen as unimportant."

David Thomas, director of the Texas Center for Adolescent Rehabilitation and Education, noted there is a strong tendency for youths who are neglected or abused to prey on the defenseless.

"I would bet that there has been a lot of brutality aimed toward one or more of these youths," he said of the Galveston attackers. "They're expressing their anger. Unfortunately, they will end up in prison, either now or later in their lives, if they don't come to terms with this issue. Even if they do, they'll always be at risk."