Homeless for the Holidays

Every time I pass a homeless person on the street, I silently wonder to myself whether they have a family? When I see a man walking barefoot through a busy intersection while clutching a blue tarp and wet wool blanket, and sporting a beard like a post-apocalyptic birds' nest, I will routinely "invent" a family history for him...like an E! True Hollywood Story, except without the celeb component. Does he have a wife and kids close by, perhaps starving and alone in the back of a van? Is he estranged from his family? If so, how does the family rationalize the fact that they are essentially allowing a blood relative to beg for food and struggle to stave off death?

Well, a story caught my attention a few weeks back, which speaks volumes of the relationship between the homeless and their absentee kin. The family of a homeless man who was shot and killed by a Mighigan State Police Trooper has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officer, just one week after the officer was acquitted in a criminal trial. The very family which allowed one of their own to wander the streets of Detroit without food or shelter, has now instituted a lawsuit seeking $10 million in damages for the substantial "loss" they have apparently suffered as a consequence of his untimely death.

I can just imagine the damages portion of this trial, as a tearful mother weeps for her late son on the witness stand, and attempts to convince the jury that while her son was NOT INVITED to Thanksgiving dinner, and routinely steals money from his brother for crack, his loss will forever shatter their lives. The whole country will likely be riveted by this trial, or at least those with close family members who comprise our escalating homeless population. If the trial results in a multimillion dollar verdict, you can be sure that the "families" of homeless men and women will pray that their non-prodigal sons and daughters piss off a cowboy police officer in a dark alley.