Don’t assume that this this guy was failed by society simply because he is homeless. More people choose to be homeless than not.

hmmm… I started to write a lot more here but it was so long I’m going to turn it into a post of its own.

Before anyone accuses me of being a heartless bastard and not appreciating the hardships of being homeless… hear me out.

There is a sub-group among homeless people who are intimately aware of the discomfort their lack of hygiene causes non-homeless folks with whom they come into contact. Some of them use this knowledge to coerce donations out of people (e.g. standing in doorways and other close spaces where – unlike their persona – their fragrant odour becomes impossible to ignore).

Others are less interested in financial gain from their unkpempt condition and prefer to use their poor hygiene like a long stick with which to poke people. They do this to force passers by to acknowledge their presence. Deliberately bumping into people, or blocking their passage through crowded spaces is the tame end of the spectrum. At the aggressive/dangerous end of the spectrum are the homeless who spit, throw urine and feces, pick scabs and smudge blood… and other equally anti-social/dangerous behavior.

One of the real tragedies of being homeless is that one becomes nearly invisible… a virtual non-person. This sort of agressive behavior is a violent reaction to being stripped of their humanity and universally ignored.

Your urban outdoorsman falls into this latter category. His goal was probably more to force you to acknowledge his existence than to do any real harm. But his saliva, urine, feces and blood all pose serious health risks to the public. Imagine if he had landed a lucky loogey in your eye. You have almost no resistance to infection in your eyes the way you do in your mouth, nose and most other mucous membranes. If he had hepatitis C or AIDS or any of a thousand perhaps more benign health issues, you’d be in a world of trouble right now.

This guy has crossed over a clear red line from having been failed by society to actively trying to take revenge on society. That’s why he has to be taken off the streets.