Homeless Man Beaten To Death on Capital Square

Why?

Because there is no safe place for people to sleep at night if they are homeless. And the city won’t accommodate a group camping situation where people do have safety, or help figure out how to make that happen. County hasn’t been much help either making it near impossible to camp in the county campgrounds. Even if people do use the shelter which many also consider unsafe, that only works for 60 days a year or unless it is less than 20 degrees or there is other bad weather. The other 305 days of the year, they are on their own to sleep outside without a door to lock to keep them safe. Or a roof to keep them dry. Or walls to keep them warm. Or a mattress to keep them comfortable. Or . . . or . . . or . . . And Carrie Riddle explains other risks here . . .

Yesterday was an awful day of playing “Dead? Not Dead?” Media sources reported the person was dead yesterday morning, likely because word on the street was one of the Madison Detectives told witnesses that the person had died. So word spread quickly. I checked in with Joel Despain after not being able to confirm and he was able to confirm the person had not passed on.

from: DeSpain, Joel
to: Brenda Konkel
date: Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 12:13 PM
subject: RE: confirm?

Hello Brenda,

I checked with the detectives and he is still alive. I will update our incident report if/when his status changes.

Regards,
Joel

But the sad news this morning is confirmed.

The victim succumbed to his injuries on 06-19-13 at 10:14 p.m. at U.W. Hospital.
Last updated 06/20/2013 at 1:36 AM by Sgt. Galen Wiering

There was a candlelight vigil last night and here is the prayer from Father Jonathan at Grace. I’m not sure what else to say. I’m waiting for more details on the person who did this, but I”m strongly suspecting there is an equally sad tale on that end of the story as well. Bottom line is there are a lot of people out there with untreated issues and who have given up or been given up on – and we have to start seeing these human beings as members of our community that deserve a better quality of life.

Austerity sucks. Madison can do better. Right? How much longer must we wait?