Senseless Cruelty: LA Homeless Man Burned to Death

by Shannon Moriarty · 2008-10-13 12:34:00 UTC
Topics:

On Thursday night, a homeless man - known to many as "Mr. John" - was doused in gasoline and set on fire. According to witnesses, the attack was unprovoked. The LA Times reports:

About 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Garcia said he was at work when a woman ran inside the restaurant, screaming for a fire extinguisher. He ran outside to find the man lying on his back in a nearby parking lot, his body still ablaze.

The man's clothes had been burned off, his face blackened and swollen, the tips of his clenched fingers sloughed off. The smell of gasoline hung in the air.

"There's no name for what they did to him," Garcia said.

Los Angeles police said that someone splashed gasoline on the man and set him on fire. No arrests have been made, and investigators are still puzzling over a motive for the grisly attack.

"This is one of the cruelest crimes you can imagine," said Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz, who oversees the LAPD's Central Bureau. "As an officer who has responded to many murders over the years, this is amongst the most horrific."

This story left me speechless and deeply bothered. This man, identified as John McGraham, was a fixture on the street where he was killed for over ten years. Neighborhood business owners and residents said he was a kind, thoughtful, and friendly man who took pains not to offend anyone with his presence. People who passed by him everyday would buy him donuts or exchange smiles.

According to the victim's sister, who wrote a letter to the LA Times, her family had tried reaching out to him on several occasions - to get him off the streets or into a mental clinic - but never with any luck. 

It seems as though John McGraham was targeted simply because he was homeless. He was vulnerable, unprotected, and unable to defend himself. 

Cruel, senseless hate crimes against the homeless have increased at an alarming rate in the past ten years. From 2002 to 2005, hate crimes against the homeless increased 300%. Fatal attacks rose by 67%. A new study found that this number has increased even more - 65% - since 2005. 

In fact, the especially heinous nature of these crimes has prompted some states, such as Maine, to add "homeless" to the groups protected by hate crime legislation. 

It's tragic that some people can be viewed as less-than-human simply because they don't have a place to live. 

RIP, John McGraham.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Spare Change? How to Appropriately Respond to Panhandlers
NEXT STORY:
Sallie Mae Blinks!

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.