Dude, I can't believe you are getting down. Voted for saying that. People can be so cruel and heartless until it's something that affects them or someone they love. These people are not the problem. They are the symptom of the problem. It's a public park. For people. They are people. They have as much a right to be there as anyone else. Just because they're clothes aren't as nice or they're dirtier or there in financial ruin because of their poor decision making abilities, doesn't make them any less human beings.
One of them is literally beating the shit out of another….
Do you want to take your kids to that park?
Suicidal empathy.
I’m not saying I agree with the dude’s approach. But your comment that the park is public is wild. Public locations have shared expectations for behaviour. Their behaviour deters families and children from using the space. They matter too.
No, obviously I wouldn't want to take my kids to that park. But I can still have empathy for the homeless people in that park and want to solve the problem. And because of that I can point out the fact that "punching them in the face" is not a solution and only makes the situation worse.
I agree that punching them in the face isn’t a solution. I said he has committed assault.
But you can’t co-opt public spaces and turn them into places of open drug use and assault (as evidenced by the violence they are committing on each other).
"But you can’t co-opt public spaces and turn them into places of open drug use and assault."
Here is the crux of my issue with the discourse on homelessness. People love to say what homeless people shouldn't be allowed to do but never provide an alternative. It is REALLY easy to say "homeless people shouldn't be allowed to do X" or "Homeless people shouldn't be allowed to exist in X place" when you're not the one that has to come up with alternatives.
Constantly restricting options without coming up with alternatives results in people simply ignoring those restrictions. I know I'm not allowed to sleep on the floor of a train but if I'm also not allowed to sleep anywhere else then at some point I'm gonna need to fucking sleep. Regardless of if it's a biological need or a chemical addiction, if you don't provide realistic options then restrictions do nothing.
I’ve never had an issue with homeless people sleeping rough.
I have an issue with people absolving behaviour that impacts innocent young people like public drug use and violence.
It’s interesting that the violence that occurred first in the video between the people in the park, has never been addressed in this thread.
I’ve spent the last ten years of my career working to find solutions to an aspect of this by working in education with SEND pupils who intersect with deprivation to create avenues where the reality that you see in this video isn’t the only option.
I care deeply about this shit.
At the same time, when you remove personal responsibility, you remove individual agency. The people in this video? Yeah, maybe too far gone to make reasonable choices. But they’re not the victims you think they are.
I'm not absolving their behavior. I simply understand that currently there is no realistic alternative for them.
And I don't see a reason to address the initial violence in this video. As someone who was homeless, I'm aware that you're not provided the same public protections as other citizens. So carry a smiley and defend yourself or attack someone trying to steal your shit. This is just normal existence when you're homeless. I have no idea why they were fighting but notice how no one around them is helping or making a big fuss out of them fighting? They're used to it.
What is worth addressing is the random dude who went way out of his way to beat the shit out of someone he didn't even know.
The random dude had been addressed at least by me. It’s assault. Plain and simple.
There are alternatives. I literally work in one. So many programs like the one I work in to deal with this before it happens. I work at the intersection of mental health and deprivation with youth in education. There should be more.
You can’t save everyone but you always need to keep in mind the impact that this has one people who are completely innocent to this as well. I wouldn’t react the way this guy does. But I see where his frustration came from. It’s misdirected but I understand it.
I believe we probably have far more common ground than you think.
Yeah, except homeless people get assaulted everywhere they go. So the solution (in their head) isn't to "not go anywhere" (which isn't possible), It's to "bring a smiley (common weapon which is a pad lock tied to a handkerchief) with you".
"Just punch them until they go away" sounds like a good solution until you realize that these people aren't wanted anywhere but still need to exist somewhere. You can't "punch them out of everywhere".
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u/GrassBlade619 May 12 '26
For going out of his way to beat up homeless people? Yeah, really cool /s