A disturbing trend that is taking American middle class families by storm. If you haven't heard of 'Bum Fighting' before, you'd better sit down for this one. Teenagers, usually drunk, high or both go around town looking for homeless men to fight.
One group of teens in Wisconsin were on one such search. They found 49 year old Rex Baum. They had a few beers with Baum, and then for no reason whatsoever began throwing sticks and piles of leaves at him.
This then quickly escalated to beating him with whatever they could find. They started out by punching and kicking Baum, after that lost its lustre, they found a BBQ grill and began beating him with that. When Baum's head got lodged in the grill, they got Baum's own baseball bat, which he kept around his site for safety, and began beating him in the head and upper body with it.
After Baum stopped trying to defend himself, one of the boys, who were ages 15, 16 and 17, spread his own feces on Baum's face and cut him with his pocket knife to see if he was still alive.
When they had determined that they had all of the fun that they could handle for one night, they covered Baum's body with a plastic sheet and hoped that animals would eat him before the police found him. After this, they went to McDonald's for 'a bite to eat'.
When police found the body 2 days later, they began their search for Baum's killer. They probably would have gotten away with the killing, except they just couldn't keep it to themselves. They told just about everyone they met that they '...beat the hell out of some bum.'
They were all arrested and plead no contest to first degree reckless homicide. They are currently serving 15 years each for their roles in Rex Baum's death.
The National Coalition for the Homeless say that in 2006, there were 122 attacks on the homeless, 20 of which resulted in death.
What kind of sick society do we live in that this passes for amusement? These kids should get a lot more than 15 years for what they did to this poor man. This guy had nothing to protect himself, and he was beaten to death with the only possessions that he had left in the world. Talk about kicking a man when he's down...literally.
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2 comments:
What a horrifying post. I pray this is not a trend but an isolated case of the lowest scum of our earth.
I don't think it's the "society" but a horrible flaw in human beings. This is why we must never forget the concentration camps of the second world war. We need to be continuously reminded what horrors human beings are capable of rendering on one another. We see every day how vicious we can be if we don't keep ourselves under control. And it's usually the weakest of us who becomes the prey. Scary, isn't it?
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