Homeless man damaged police car because he prefers jail, officers say

[The Straight Story]

Homeless man damaged police car because he prefers jail, officers say

A man accused of shattering a police cruiser's windshield with a cinder block told officers he did it because he was tired of being homeless and hungry and wanted to go to jail, Frederick police say.

Two police officers who saw the incident arrested the man and charged him with two counts of malicious destruction of property, police said. The incident happened about 6:45 a.m. Sunday behind police headquarters at 100 W. Patrick St., authorities said.

Police said the man, Robert V. Jenifer, 22, was immediately arrested without incident. Police say he told the officers that he was "tired of being around with no food, no home," and he wanted to go to jail.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/crime/bal-destruction0217,0,1129294.story

Back in the day when I was a deputy this was fairly common here in Ohio during winter. We had folks who were regulars who would do things like go into a kmart and pee in the aisle just to get arrested. They didn't want to hurt anyone just get into jail for the weekend and get warm and have something to eat.

It would not take much for us to build more shelters for people - problem is no one wants them in their area and no one wants to use our tax money for it (some would rather increase spending on weapons than the people those weapons are supposed to protect).

[liberal N proud]

1. Remember the Andy Griffith show?

Otis would let himself into the jail to sleep it off?

At least jail has a cot, warm blanket and a meal.

[Elwood P Dowd]

7. Otis was subjected to police brutality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL9TunUh_bw&NR=1

[dkf]

2. I saw that our city estimates 292 units for affordable and elderly housing

will cost us $96 million. This was in our stimulus request.

I thought that was a hefty chunk of change myself.

[provis99]

3. unfortunately, this is a common thing

My aunt used to work at a hotel in Calgary, Canada where homeless guys would stand in the doorway and deliberately obstruct it, so the cops would be forced to arrest them. That way they could get a warm jail cell for the night.

[LakeSamish706]

4. Big problem with this is that the cities/towns etc. are hurting as well....

and can't afford to house these people. What's to be done?

[Jackpine Radical]

5. 20 years ago when I worked on a psych ward, theere was one moderately schizophrenic

woman who would get herself committed every fall when the weather turned cold. Your mentin of the guy peeing in the aisle at K-Mart reminded me of her because one year her trick to get the attention of the authorities was to take a can of her own urine and pour it over the veggies in the local grocery store.

It wouldn't work anymore because it's much harder to commit anyone, and nobody wants to pay to keep them there, so these hays they would just get thrown in jail pretty fast.

About the second year June did that, I decided to make her life miserable for her. Back in those days you could smoke on the psych ward. She was of course a tobacco addict, soI wrote a behavior program that made her earn her cigarettes by participating in group therapy, cleaning her room, showering, etc. Then her boyfriend started smuggling cigarettes to her. Then I restricted her visits with him, making her earn them with the behavior program. And so on. We had our own little war of nerves going.

As I think back on all of that, I realize how much I've mellowed over the years or something. These days, in that situation, I would probably just leave her alone.

[maryf]

6. Its not shelters we need, its affordable housing...

Unfortunately the recovery bill didn't see fit to supply enough for the 3 applicants for every two units. Everybody has a right to a decent home, not a dormitory shelter with no privacy...