Weirdest thing happened to me tonight...

[jjmalonejr]

My wife and I were walking home from the store. It was dark and we were being approached by a tall, scruffy, sorta creepy homeless-looking man carrying a blanket and some other stuff.

As he passed us, he called my wife a cunt under his breath. (I didn't hear it, but she told me about it later).

Since he passed by us without incindent (from my point-of-view, since I hadn't heard what he said to my wife), I was a bit relieved, since I was a little bit nervous as he passed us on the sidewalk nearest to my wife (I would have preferred to get in between them, just in case).

Anyway, after he passed by us, he stopped a few feet behind us, turned around and said in the nicest voice "Hey, would you mind lending me a cigarette?" (We were smoking as we walked).

He was polite and pleasant, so I assumed he was cool. I said, "Sure!" and reached into my pocket to get him one. As I was coming towards him with the cigarette, he dropped everything he was carrying and said "Boy, you Jews really know how to steal from people."

I'm not Jewish (although I could pass for a member of the tribe), but it nevertheless felt hostile and I was pretty thrown off. I quickly gave him the cigarette, and turned around to walk away (not wanting a confrontation).

As we were walking away from him, I could hear him apologizing, sounding rather embarrassed about what he'd just said. It was as if I was dealing with two different people, a nice harmless fellow and his angry alter ego who would spout these mean things that he would never say.

It was really weird. It freaked me out the rest of the way home. Even though he scared me (because I had no idea if he was gonna snap and do something violent), I felt sorry for him.

[KitchenWitch]

1. probably had Tourette's syndrome

that kind of thing is not uncommon with sufferers.

[salin]

2. tourettes comes to mind. n/t

[slutticus]

3. I've met people like this.

They'll act threatening and insult you (usually very quietly, under their breath), but when you confront them, they back off very timid-like and they'll apologize. It's always been homeless people that do this. I always assumed it was some form of Tourettes Syndrome. I feel really bad for them.

[MercutioATC]

4. Mental illness certainly isn't unheard of among the homeless.

No big deal. I wouldn't worry about it.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

20. Another legacy of the glorious Reagan years

When he slashed funding for mental health so that people who couldn't take care of themselves ended up on the street.

I have a feeling we're going to see a huge wave of homeless vets in the next couple of years... :grr:

[MercutioATC]

21. But they're homeless by choice. Haven't you heard?

:eyes:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. He was so fucking ignorant

And noe he's all but deified by those who suffer from the same malady.

[MercutioATC]

23. Is it any surprise? He worked with a chimp before he was President.

:evilgrin:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

24. LOL

I hadn't thought of that! Someone should photoshop Dumbyass's face on Bonzo!

[rockymountaindem]

5. Is that sort of thing a sign of Tourette's syndrome?

Or does that just result in cursing a lot. On the other hand he could be schitzophrenic. I'm Jewish and even I could forgive him a remark like that judging by your account. It sounds like this fellow needs some help.

[Straight Shooter]

6. I think you and your wife treated him with compassion and kindness.

:thumbsup:

[hangemhigh]

7. Or he was an asshole,

who got a free smoke for calling your wife a cunt. Could happen.

[jjmalonejr]

11. No, he sounded absolutely sincere when he apologized.

I didn't stick around long enough to look in his eyes, but I got the distinct impression that the guy who asked for the cigarette and apologized was not the same guy who swore at my wife and hurled an anti-Semitic comment my way.

I could be wrong.

[hickman1937]

8. As Ronald Reagan said:

"You can't help those who simply will not be helped. One problem that we've had, even in the best of times, is people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice." -- President Reagan, 1/31/84, on Good Morning America, defending his administration against charges of callousness.

[Gemini Cat]

9. I'm sorry that happened.

However, it wasn't tourettes syndrom. People with tourettes spend time twitching and ticking, not cussing and fussing and insulting people. That type of behaviour is something else.

[u4ic]

10. They do both

the cursing/vocalizing that often accompanies it is not intentional.

[Gemini Cat]

14. That's a severe case of tourettes

The cussing part, that is. Most of the time when someone cusses who also happens to have tourettes, it's for a reason. Like getting bush in office for example.

People with tourettes aren't dangerous or particularly foul mouthed.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

12. It takes on a lot of forms

I knew someone with it-- intelligent, nice guy. Just every couple of minutes he'd shrug his shoulders, put his head back and start "barking". It lasted a few seconds and was over. His co-workers were cool- they ignored it as if it hadn't happened.

[Gemini Cat]

15. That is also a severe case of tourettes.

Most people with tourettes don't bark. Some do, but that's a very small percentage.

It's cool that his co-workers were cool about it however!

[jjmalonejr]

13. He had no tics that I could see.

It was total Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde stuff.

[auntAgonist]

16. perhaps mental illness

thank goodness neither you , your wife nor he was hurt in any confrontation.
I hope the next person or persons he meets are as kind.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. Could be touretts, but also could be an un-medicated

schitz or a poly-drug abuser who's brain does not know up from down from minute to minute.
Lots more of those than TS.

Or he could be post-traumatic brain injury.

[shelley806]

18. Most likely diagnosis is schizophrenia; the psychiatric problem

is probably why he's homeless. Very sad indeed.

[EC]

19. I've seen this type of behavior in

war vets, shell shock or as they call it today post traumatic stress syndrome. During the last Republican reign many mentally ill and vets were kicked out of clinics and homes to survive on the streets, the beginning of our homeless. We have one in town that lives in one of the old hotels downtown that is now used for the "safe" mentally ill, they just wonder during the day, anyway the one I'm thinking of, (all the locals know him),goes around kicking and swearing at parking meters, it's kinda disquieting to strangers that see him, there are others that do different things too, always includes swearing and insulting. One vet in a wheelchair, his legs were blown off in Nam, does things like your encounter, calls women cunts and swears about the Jews and also hates other soldiers that have both legs, yells at them to get him a girly magazine or something else and then guilts them by saying things like "you still have both your goddamn legs, you can get the cunts to f**k you, I can't so do this little favor" etc.