Our Streets / Homelessness
The Never-Ending Homeless Threat
“I’m bothered by this morning’s events and decided to write this within just an hour or two of it happening.” Steve Dutton.
While finishing breakfast at my favorite restaurant on Flagler Street in downtown Miami, I was reading the morning’s paper when suddenly shouting broke my concentration. The manager of the restaurant was being threatened bodily by a big man, dressed in filthy dirty shorts and a grey t-shirt emblazoned with large, red letters spelling U S A on the front. The man was screaming at the manager, “I’ll f… you if you bother me!”
While the man yelled threats at other customers and employees who appeared they might come to the aid of the manager who was only asking the intruder to leave, I called 9–1–1 and was trying to explain why help was needed. The intruder did walk out but only after scowling at everyone and saying threatening curses.
I watched from my window seat as the intruder crossed the street and entered the Walgreens at the corner. Maybe three minutes passed before I saw him departing as the manager of the store was following him. She appeared to be chasing him from the store and then the intruder turned at the door (photo) and I learned he spit at her.
The Police responded
Soon the first police car arrived on NE 3rd Ave., and stopped at the barricades that are up because Flagler Street is closed. A few minutes later a second police car arrived on SE 3rd Ave., and also stopped at the barricades along Flagler Street’s construction.
The intruder was spotted outside Starbucks a block away and after the two officers had picked him up, they returned in their vehicles to the SE 3rd Avenue corner outside of the Walgreens to continue taking information from both the managers, another employee and me. The intruder sat inside one of the police cars watching all of us.
Why am I writing this?
After the incident, police arrived and picked up the intruder, isn’t that the outcome we wanted? No it’s not…. Six years earlier, at the same location, a mentally ill homeless man attacked me and my partner, Thomas Lang, at the same time of day as we walked home having finished our coffee sitting outside the same restaurant location operated with a different name.
Thomas died only 70 hours later at Ryder Trauma Center following surgery from the injuries he sustained when the man who was also living on the streets came across to confront me for taking his photo as he yelled obscenities. Instead he ran towards my partner shoving him so he would fall back, hitting his head against the cement sidewalk.
The past six years have passed with me meeting City and County officials, plus homeless service providers, and those who own retail businesses nearby, and the residents who live in my downtown neighborhood.
My hope is that the Mental Health Diversion Facility first planned 15 years ago and where rehab construction began six years ago will finally open this fall so perhaps more mentally ill persons living on downtown Miami streets can be helped, and they will no longer be a daily threat to me and my neighbors.
Steve Dutton is the Founder of Avenue 3 Miami, www.avenue3miami.org
