Homeless Man Arrested for Stealing Bread

Every once in a while I do a google news search to see what the latest homeless news is. The top search article headline tonight read: "Homeless man arrested for stealing bread" and the blurb read: "homeless, and presumably hungry, Carlos Salvador allegedly tried to steal rolls from a Freeport convenience store on Thanksgiving day...". Underneath the blurb is another blue underlined link that read: "Female clerk tackles homeless man stealing bread." What are your first thoughts reading that? Mine were that the Press is trying to make readers feel sorry for the poor, hungry homeless guy and to dislike the heartless store clerk, in addition to the police who arrested him. Of course there is more to the story than that.

When I clicked on the first link it took me to a Newsday.com story. The headline read: "Homeless man burns store worker in failed robbery." There is a large photo of Carlos captioned with the blurb mentioned above, which continues to tell readers the clerk tried to stop Carlos from stealing the rolls and "he allegedly threw hot soup on her". Reporter Nia-Malika Henderson fails to tell readers where Freeport is, but I assume it is not in the Bahamas. Henderson does inform readers that the 28 year old Carlos is a citizen of Guatemala who has "four prior incidents, including drunken driving and larceny charges." Theft of a bicycle valued at 200 hundred dollars cost him "15 days in jail". She also tells us Carlos would not give an address to the police, lied about his name and "court documents" listed "several different birth dates". Police investigators plan to contact the Immigration department about the case.

Thanksgiving is a banner day for homeless in major cities around the country. In Long Beach, California there are so many churches and organizations providing meals for the hungry, a homeless person who has a huge appetite can have an unusually filling breakfast, a turkey dinner with all the trimmings for lunch and another one at dinnertime. There are additional Thanksgiving meals served at different locations on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Many of these places, such as St. Lukes Church, also give gifts to all who come for the meal. Sometimes there is also a brown bag that contains a sandwich for later, a piece of fruit, a juice box, bag of chips and often a candy cane or chocolate kisses.

Even the Long Beach homeless with disabilities, that make it hard for them to travel to the various locations for a Thanksgiving meal, will not be hungry this weekend. The homeless bring a doggie plate back to them and share those brown bag goodies. In addition people bring leftovers from their holiday meals to the homeless. Much of tonight's homeless news search is about the various groups that did something nice for homeless people on Thanksgiving.

The homeless news in Los Angeles California is about the annual Hollywood Celebrity event. Actor Kirk Douglas started the tradition of stars serving food at the Los Angeles Rescue Mission. Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart, Nia Long and Spencer Pratt were among the stars reported to have joined L.A. Mayor Antonio Villagrosa this year. Reporters Patricia Yollin and George Raine of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that 5000 turkey and ham dinners were served at the "Glide Memorial United Methodist Church by "1,200 volunteers including former Mayor Willie Brown and District Attorney Kamala Harris". A picnic for homeless in Golden Gate Park served "300 or so guests at the 14th annual community picnic thrown by the sociology and psychology departments of Belmont's Norte Dame de Namur University".

Reporter Saira Peesker of CTV.ca News brings news about an series of events "paid for by Canada Council for the Arts Funding". The events are held at a homeless services drop-in center, St. Christopher's Meeting Place. Peesker says the neighbourhood made national headlines in August, when a St. Catharines man was stabbed to death by aggressive panhandlers." The Thursday event geared to bring culture to the homeless featured dub poet Michael St. George who is a "Canadian Reggae Music Award winner".

Other homeless news tells of people becoming homeless after fires; a 79 year homeless man dying on "the coldest night of the year"; the opening of the first homeless shelter in Kauai, Hawaii; and about a Czech Republic man being sentenced to 13 1/2 years in jail for setting a homeless man on fire which killed him. The most interesting news article of those I read was about New Orleans homeless being given vouchers to stay in motels. If you are ever bored with repetitious news headlines, do a google news search for homeless news. Never know what you will find.