When discussing the poor, articles such as this highlight the wide range of street people in our area. When some street people are abusive, (as in the story last week regarding the man who pushed a woman through a window downtown), we get responses like this "I 'don't give a damn' about what becomes of the thieving, assaulting, useless parasites attracted to and coddled in downtown Eugene and on the Willamette riverbanks; their feces, drug needles, food garbage and other trash wash up on the Springfield side of the river, after all. " (BTW: At this time, not one comment from the author if that statement in the comments below.)
So when we talk of ridding ourselves of transients, how do we know how to separate those who are choosing to engage in malicious activity from those influenced by drugs, alcohol and mental issues? This woman was certainly not a threat, so we're sympathetic. But where do our sympathies end because people have made choices?