Ken Williams: Leaving Denial, Facing Cruel Reality
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/051309_ken_williams_leaving_denial_facing_cruel_reality/
By Ken Williams
The death of Ross Stiles, closed by the Santa Barbara Police Department for lack of evidence, has been reopened
I’ll be the first one to acknowledge there’s much I don’t know, and even less that I understand. I am frequently tormented with doubt, torn with the inability to see life as it always is. I try not to jump to conclusions, but also not to miss the forest through the trees. Yet, with so much death and violence affecting the homeless at this time, I feel like a drunk staggering down the street fighting for equilibrium.
Recently, when the homeless, and at times, the cops, relate the newest atrocities of the streets, I’m unsure whether I’m hearing the news right or if I should be instead questioning my sanity. I remember when I first heard of Ross’ murder, I searched frantically within my brain for another angle on the story. Perhaps he fell; perhaps he succumbed to the diseases that attacked his body. Unfortunately, I talked to people who saw things, and knew things. Then I thought back to another unsolved murder, and reality slammed me into dark corners I’d rather not be.
Recently, while working my rounds of the camps and streets, I was informed that Alan, a wheelchair-bound man, was at Cottage Hospital on life support. This was the same man whom I had received an e-mail about, telling me the same story. But a new twist was added. He had suffered the kind of wounds that are usually caused at the hands of another.
While still trying to process this new information, I ran into a homeless woman, who told me of another homeless man, Alex, who was set on fire. I found myself again staggered, trapped in a cloud of confusion with this newest onslaught to human decency. I checked this last story with other professionals and they confirmed at least part of it. A homeless man was in fact lying in a coma with burns covering 60 percent of his body, but he couldn’t tell the authorities much, as his injuries were so severe, and his life was in danger.
Walking the streets more slowly now, I tried to make sense of it all. The first thing I feared was a rush to judgment (I’ve been there before), that Alan, who succumbed to his wounds, would be cremated before an autopsy could be performed. Did I know for sure how he died? Obviously not. But I did know that without the findings of the coroner, the answers would be lost forever. I contacted my attorney friend, Joe Allan, and asked him to request of the coroner that an autopsy be performed. He was kind enough to do so.
Again, while working my rounds, Dr. Lynne Janhke and I heard more troubling news. Within a day, I found out that six other homeless persons have been assaulted. As far as I could tell, at least four of them were the result of what appeared to be gang violence: A group of young men were going about beating the homeless. For what? Kicks? Gang initiation? Or simple stupidity force-fed by testosterone?
The only thing for sure that morning was that I stood on Haley Street looking into a young, boyish face with stitches running over one eye and looping downward. Another man stood by telling me a similar story, while holding his broken hand gingerly. Suddenly, Alan and Alex’s injuries were put in a context that added a terrifying dimension. I fear what the connected dots meant.
I, of course, am neither police officer nor coroner. I rely on their expertise and sense of honor and ethics to answer these troubling questions. The only thing I know for sure is that I now walk in fear with the homeless; they, with the fear of bodily injury and death, me with terror of what the next story will be, what the next encounter with a homeless person might divulge.
I wait ever more anxious and despondent for all this madness to subside, while paranoia battles the truth of reality. I wasn’t particularly good at running from the truth in Vietnam; how violence changes us, and its dehumanizing effects. I guess I haven’t changed all that much.
Update On Ross Stiles Case
The murder case of Ross Stiles, which had been closed by police March 18 after his death on Feb. 4, has quietly been reopened. Why? What has changed? What new evidence or witnesses have come forward?
This week, the police department issued a news release noting that while no evidence of a fracture was found on Stiles’ skull, the cause of his death, as noted in the coroner’s report, was unknown blunt force trauma. Upon its review of the coroner’s report, the department reopened the case, and noted that Stiles’ death remains a “suspicious death investigation.”
As for the Gregory Ghan case, the one-year anniversary of his death approaches with his murderers still running free. Alex continues his existence in a coma, suffering the hell of a burn victim.
All of these cases cry out for justice.
— Ken Williams has been a social worker for the homeless for the past 30 years. He is the author of China White and Shattered Dreams, A Story of the Streets. Noozhawk Staff Writer Laurie Jervis contributed to this report.
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/051309_ken_williams_leaving_denial_facing_cruel_reality/