The pressure comes from only five more nights left before emergency dorms at Boulder Shelter for the Homeless close for the season, and from plans under way to crack down on transients from Denver and elsewhere hanging around Boulder all summer just drinking, drugging, panhandling, committing petty crimes, and trashing our fair city (see previous blog entry: Boulder Homeless Camping Commission).
This morning at BSH, as many were preparing to board the free bus to downtown provided by Special Transit, several arguments and skirmishes broke out. As a witness, I can tell you that everything was instigated by out-of-town bums. In one case, a grapefruit was thrown at a homeless Boulderite by a Denver transient; in a more serious case, a mentally ill female transient slapped the face of another transient woman and also stabbed a homeless man in the face with an ink pen. The verbal and physical tussles continued on board the free bus.
BTW, this mentally ill woman claims to be the illegitimate daughter of Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy, demands that other homeless people pay her the sum of $5 million, loudly proclaims to passersby that she is a “real woman”, etc. She also invokes the name of Allah as she waves the Koran at those she argues with, even as she curses a blue streak including many variants of the “f”-word.
These Denver transients must leave Boulder as soon as possible when BSH closes this weekend. As far as I’m concerned, they shouldn’t be allowed to come back in the fall on an equal footing with homeless Boulderites — they should go to the end of the line for available shelter/services everywhere in Boulder. They have no respect for themselves, no respect for other people from any walk of life, no respect for authority, and it’s time for Boulder to give ‘em the bum rush back to Denver.
Addendum Tuesday, April 27th 2010: See the BCSO jail booking report for this date; scroll down to the name “Walton-Rogers, Erica” –
http://www.bouldercounty.org/sheriff/jail/daily_booking_report/viewfile.asp?fileid=1268
At this point all I can/should say is: The best thing about Samaritan House is that it isn't the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. When are those kids going to learn how to run a shelter? or maybe they should hire some grown-ups to run it?