Government
Homeless Killings Amid Affluence Highlight Increasing Violence
Experts see a growing desensitization to the homeless
A string of murders came to an end earlier this month when police arrested the man they suspect of killing four homeless people over the last month. The 23-year-old, an Iraq War veteran, has been charged with the murder of four homeless men, each of whom were stabbed dozens of times. These brutal murders have all taken place in a somewhat unlikely location: Orange County, Calif.
“You mean the home of the Real Housewives and the golden beaches?” asks Steve Kight. He’s the chief strategy officer at the OC Partnership, a group that helps facilitate services for the homeless, and clearly he’s joking. But it’s a sentiment that pervades the area, where the dominating affluence starkly contrasts the concept of homelessness.