Man charged with setting homeless man on fire

[Bluebear]

SANTA ANA, Calif.—An Orange County auto mechanic has been charged with arson for allegedly dousing a homeless man's shopping cart with gasoline and setting him on fire.
Hector Medina pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Superior Court.

The attack occurred Sunday in an alley behind Firestone Complete Auto Care in Santa Ana where Medina worked.

Prosecutors say Medina became angry when he saw 64-year-old Ruben Sandoval whom he'd caught sleeping in his car two weeks earlier.

Prosecutors say Medina took a gas can from the garage, doused Sandoval's cart with the gasoline and struck a match. Sandoval's beard caught fire and he suffered second and third degree burns to his body, face and hands.

Medina was arrested later near his home.


http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_14131293

good heavens what is happening to us...

[EFerrari]

1. What is the MATTER with people.

:(

[Snotcicles]

19. You would have thought the homeless guy was wearing a Nader button or something.nt

[Mari333]

2. well, when the nation's leaders get away with killing millions of Iraqis

and walk away scot free, that sends a pretty strong message to people that its okay to be a murderous bastard.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Yup.

We have a nation that now equates morality with hating gay people, immigrants, and atheists.

The old notion of "Do unto others..." has been obliterated.

The right wing even used empathy as a put-down not too long ago.

Too bad Jesus can't come back and comment on all this...

[GreenMetalFlake]

6. The Golden Rule: they with the gold make the rules

[CreekDog]

9. Nah. This one is on that guy

I'm going to argue against anything that says that the perpetrator is anything less than 100% guilty for the crime committed.

And I'd argue that for Iraq too.

[Shell Beau]

16. Absolutely.

Him doing this had nothing to do with the war at all.

[Lil Missy]

3. Jesus Christ.

:-(

[HBravo]

5. Eye for an eye

[Earth_First]

7. Absolutely

NOT!

I fail to see how this helps anyone in this equation.

The auto mechanic should be held financially liable for the recovery and assistance of this man.

[JoeyT]

8. The fairest way to do this would

be to let the homeless guy have the house, car, and bank assets of the guy that set him on fire.
To be absolutely fair about it, the defendant can have the shopping cart and whatever clothes he's wearing at the time of the sentencing.

[HBravo]

13. If he survives

other than that he should be lock away for ever. Hate crime is hate crime.

[northernlights]

21. all the money in the world will not lessen that homeless man's suffering

but spending a year or two in a burn ward, having his charred skin peeled off periodically while he screams in agony just *may* teach that mechanic compassion.

[TheBigotBasher]

10. That is just disgusting.

Thousands upon thousands have been made homeless by what has been to the ordinary American 30 years of recession, declining real rates of pay boosted by debt secured on a debt.

This is what happens when people are than led to believe it is the fault of the poor.

[Ocracoker16]

11. Another hate crime against a homeless person

Recently, some jurisdictions have modified their definition of hate crime to include homeless individuals. I hope that more hate crime bills will broaden to include homeless people. Homeless people are unforftunately vulnerable to abuse, because they are so disenfranchised in our society. People take advantage of that and think they can get away with hurting and killing homeless people. I am glad that they caught this individual who set this homeless person on fire and I hope that the court will punish him appropriately. Law enforcement must take crimes against homeless very seriously and the courts must come down hard on those who hurt homeless people with the mistaken idea that homeless people are dirt and that nobody will stand up for these lesser people. Taking advantage of the vulnerability of the homeless people is an offense on top of the crime committed.

[bobbolink]

23. Thank you for mentioning that. Could you please tell me what areas are doing this?

I have been disgusted with homeless people being left out of hate crime designations, when we are so often victims!

"Law enforcement must take crimes against homeless very seriously and the courts must come down hard on those who hurt homeless people with the mistaken idea that homeless people are dirt and that nobody will stand up for these lesser people. "

Sadly, from what I'm hearing, LAW ENFORCEMENT seem to be the purps sometimes! I have particularly heard that about Santa Fe, including murder, and I have experienced being targeted by cops myself. It is truly ugly. Luckily, because I had some clergy backing me, they weren't able to do what they wanted to me, but one admitted that was his agenda.

I would really like to know where the laws are reflecting homelessness as hate crimes.

Thanks! :yourock:

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Oh, God! This isn't the wild west. Why are people acting like this?

[bobbolink]

24. Why? Because its allowed. Because we don't have large numbers of advocates.

Because we are politically ignored.

THIS is the predictable result.

And it is reflected right here at DU.

[GreenPartyVoter]

29. Imagine the difference in reaction if this guy has snuck into someone's home and set them on fire

while they were sleeping or something. You know there would have been a furor over it.

[bobbolink]

32. That's a very good analogy.

What will it take to get people to understand that homelessness is a JUSTICE issue??

[TexasObserver]

14. Recommend

[Starry Messenger]

15. What in fucking fuck!?

:cry:

[bobbolink]

25. Why are you surprised?

Is this news to you?

[Starry Messenger]

31. Did I say I was surprised?

It's a fresh obscenity and it made me cry.

[bobbolink]

35. "What in the fucking fuck" was not surprise????

Geee....

Coulda fooled me..... I guess you did. :P

I hope it made you ANGRY enough to start taking action!

[canetoad]

17. If there is a Hell

There is a special place reserved in it, right above the hottest, most sulphurous embers, for those who try to destroy another human being by fire.

The long and ghastly history of burning of 'heretics', witches, disobedient women, and more recently tramps and the homeless is much more than inflicting the most excruciating agony. It is a symbolic reduction of the victim to nothing but ashes; of no value whatsoever.

[bobbolink]

27. We are already of no value. And we are fully cognizant of that. That just completes the picture.

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. awful

[bullwinkle428]

20. If his last name was Bush, he'd be Governor of California by now!

"Heh-heh-heh...ah luv watchin' them blowed-up frogs!" :scared:

[varelse]

22. Horrible

:(

[Cerridwen]

26. Did anyone else notice...

he was charged with "arson"? Shouldn't there be a something-degree manslaughter charge in there as well?

I am not a lawyer so I wanna know; is arson property only? And the guy who so inconveniently got in the way of his burning property, does he count?

[bobbolink]

33. You're kidding, right? We homeless PEOPLE aren't considered PEOPLE.

That is one of the reasons why I object so strenuously to calling us "The Homeless"..... we are PEOPLE who happen to be homeless.... as a result of being ignored, btw.

WE are PEOPLE first.

I doubt that very many actually see that.

I appreciate that you could see the results of that.

[blondeatlast]

37. Sounds to me like the prosecutor is going after the case s/he is guaranteed to get the perp

prison time.

Sad to say, but that's how prosecutor's think. The pros wants to make sure the guy goes to prison, and this way he can.

[Jamastiene]

28. War and terruh terruh terruh

and now terror, pronounced correctly...

has completely desensitized an ENTIRE generation plus.

I'm afraid it is only going to get worse. The longer these wars go on, the more likely we'll see America get more and more violent.

Oddly enough, it might be a good idea to keep the 2nd Amendment just to protect ourselves from all the violence. I certainly don't count on our government to protect us any more.

It is turning into a lawless, violent, yet somehow Puritanical* about sex, ALWAYS, all at the same time.

*I really shouldn't insult the Puritans. They weren't quite as closed minded about sex as our society in America is today. :banghead:

:(

[bobbolink]

34. It doesn't ALL relate to war, yanno.

Homeless people have been demonized, including by folks such as Thom Hartmann, and right here at DU.

Demonizing and dehumanizing people results in this very thing.

In your terms, it is a WAR ON HOMELESS PEOPLE.

That is somewhat different from what you are talking about.

In other words, just ending wars WON'T change the dehumanization of us homeless people. THAT must be done by people like you.

[applegrove]

30. How sick is that.

[Blue Owl]

36. Couldn't he have picked a Big Pharma lobbyist instead?

Sorry, that was a mean joke -- I don't endorse torture.

But how much does it suck when someone already down on their luck is further dehumanized like this?

I seriously doubt the homeless man did anything to deserve such treatment.

A big pharma lobbyist, on the other hand...