Forty-two homeless people in Los Angeles were the victims of homicide in 2019, the third consecutive year in which the number has risen, NPR reported on Tuesday.
This increase is happening even as the number of homicides overall has fallen in recent years. This has led to a reality that while only 1% of the city's residents are homeless, that segment of the population makes up approximately 17% of the homicide victims in Los Angeles during 2019.
The city has said that exacerbating the problem is that there was a 16% rise in the number of homeless people this year to some 36,000.
Homeless people "are the most vulnerable people in our city to be victimized by crime," LAPD Commander and Homeless Coordinator Donald Graham told NPR, adding that in approximately two-thirds of these homicides the suspects were also homeless.
Graham said that his detectives out in the field are seeing that "everyone involved here is suffering from at least a minor form of PTSD. When there is a fight over territory or property, all of that becomes so magnified."
This year's number of homeless homicides was up from 39 last year, 29 in 2017, and 22 three years ago, according to figures provied by the Los Angeles Police Department.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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