Homeless Veterans Seen As Easy Prey,...

[SEATJERKER]

...This shi+ has got to stop

By KATE GURNETT, Staff writer
First published: Wednesday, October 20, 2004

ALBANY -- The attack on a homeless veteran Monday night may have shocked some, but didn't surprise the Rev. Perry Jones.
After 23 years of ministering to street people, he can quickly name their top two predators. One, each other. Two, teenagers.

For kids looking to act like thugs, the homeless present an easy target, he said.

"These people are vulnerable," said Jones, who runs the Capital City Rescue Mission on South Pearl Street. "They certainly aren't going to fight anybody back. It's bullying. When youth get together like that, they're piranhas. I've seen people get beat up for absolutely nothing, just because they were sleeping. And it's usually the youth, or coke heads looking for money."

Michael Coene, 50, was beaten Monday by kids who also torched a grocery cart holding his worldly possessions, including his supply of insulin and needles and other items of clothing he was collecting for friends. A 14-year-old Albany High School student was charged Monday with felony assault and released pending an Oct. 25 hearing in Albany County Family Court. Assistant Chief Anthony Bruno said he was driving at 9 p.m. Monday when he saw the boy whacking Coene with a shovel handle in Dana Park. Bruno said he chased and caught the South End boy. The boy had a prior arrest on assault charges in 2002. The boy's mother declined comment.

Investigators are still seeking five other teens, including three girls who allegedly threw bottles at Coene and another man in the tiny park at Madison and Delaware avenues. They also are trying to find out if Coene was carrying a knife.

Acquaintances said Coene is a small man and a loner. At some point, the girls drew their male friends into the dispute. The boy is accused of smashing Coene repeatedly with the shovel handle, causing him to stagger across Delaware Avenue. He collapsed in front of Susie's Patio bar, where two patrons dialed 911. One teenage girl crossed the street to Dunbrook Ltd., got a container of gasoline, then doused and lit Coene's cart, witnesses said.

No organized gang took part in the fight, said Detective James Miller, a Department of Public Safety spokesman. "This was girls having a smart mouth and targeting two people because they were homeless. It was a loosely knit group of teenagers."

Like many street dwellers, Coene has been robbed several times in the last few weeks, said Donna Wilson, outreach case manager for the Homeless Action Committee. Coene is insulin dependent but hasn't taken his medicine in weeks because thieves kept taking it, she said.

Coene was treated at Albany Medical Center Hospital and released Tuesday. Before the attack, Wilson had located an apartment for the Vietnam veteran, who hails from Rochester.

He returned to Susie's late Tuesday to thank those who came to his aid and tell them he planned to contact Wilson's organization for a place to sleep. After leaving Albany Med, he went to the VA hospital to get a new supply of insulin and needles.

He told those at the bar that, fed up with being kicked around and robbed of what little he had, he decided to fight back Monday night and feared for his life.

Incensed by word of the "cruel and depraved" attack, two dozen Times Union readers phoned and e-mailed the paper offering food, money, clothes and "a pair of size 9 boots" to the man they'd never met.

"That just scares me that young kids ... would do something like that out of boredom," said one reader, M.J. Powell, of Bethlehem. "It just turns my stomach."

Diane Bennett, an Albany attorney who lives in East Berne, was one of many determined to help set up a fund or collection to benefit Coene.

"I'm outraged," said Bennett, adding that she initially feared the victim might have been a man she'd met only hours earlier near the downtown bus station. "It would be nice if we could do something and get him a place to live, but even if it's just to get a jacket on his back."

One man, who identified himself only as a retired veteran from Clifton Park, called the paper to offer Coene what he could spare from his fixed income.

"I'm in no position to do anything except maybe come down with some clothes or a couple of bucks," the man said. The man just wanted Coene to know that "there's somebody out there if he needs a jacket."

Three years ago, attacks by young men on the homeless prompted advocates to call for more police patrols around a North Pearl Street shelter. Some victims were disfigured.

Mayor Jerry Jennings said he hasn't heard of many recent attacks by teenagers. "But one is too many. Someone should find out what's going on in the mind of these kids," he said. Such aggressive behavior is "a typical cry for help," he said. "This is a critical age."

Those who want to help Coene can contact Wilson at(518) 426-0554.

Gurnett can be reached at (518) 454-5490 or by e-mail at kgurnett@timesunion.co


...we have got to get together as Veterans , and help our own,...

...any help would be great, I'll be calling as soon as I get to work, offering up a room here might be the short term answer, but it looks like a lot more is nesc,..
...