There are lessons here about the Homeless and society's lack of concern for their welfare, even when it appears fairly obvious that one of them might be dead.
I do understand a person's hesitation in approaching a strange man to determine whether he's conscious or not, since some - and I stress "some" here - of the Homeless have appearances that are quite frightening, especially to those who aren't exposed to them on a regular basis. That the man appeared to be sleeping might make it even more difficult to arrive at a conclusion or make an assessment on his status because who knows how someone might react when they are "rudely awakened" by strangers?
The ball gets dropped when - and therefore, the responsibility gets pinned on - the Royal Oak Police, who failed to act upon repeated calls to investigate a man who was reported in the same location for more than a week.
Here in Nashville, our Metro police officers are usually quite proactive (some would say it goes beyond proactive and into the realm of harassment) in investigating reports of Homeless persons "sleeping" just about anywhere in the city. I doubt anyone would spend a week dead in a public park here without being discovered, especially in an area where that person could be seen and reported by so many others.
This story out of Detroit does highlight another angle though, one that is an uncomfortable reality for local cops; check on someone's welfare a little too much or a little too aggressively and get accused of "harassing" the Homeless population. Leave a Homeless man alone and get blamed for ignoring a dead Homeless man in the bushes for a week. Understand I'm not absolving the Detroit police from their responsibility in the matter. It's just that sometimes, the lines aren't as clearly drawn as we might like to think they are.
Elizabeth Conley / The Detroit News
Royal Oak Police say the man's body was hidden in a thicket of brush along a brick wall between Memorial Park and a Detroit Edison facility.
Cruise crowd didn't notice body
Homeless man found Monday in Royal Oak park may have been dead since Aug. 18.
Mike Martindale / The Detroit News
ROYAL OAK -- He's referred to simply as "Unknown Man No. 0732" at the Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office, and he was probably just looking for a place to grab some sleep.
On Monday, a strong odor coming from bushes in Memorial Park prompted a call to police, who found an unidentified, decomposing man's body less than a half-block from Woodward Avenue, where just nine days before more than 1.2 million people had gathered for the 13th Annual Woodward Dream Cruise.
Police believe the man was dead by Cruise day, Aug. 18, because of the state of the body when it was discovered. They also said he had been spotted by a city worker who mistook him for a sleeping vagrant, and that thousands of visitors walking through Memorial Park to the cruise likely passed within a few feet of the body, hidden in a thicket of brush growing along a brick wall between Memorial Park and a Detroit Edison facility.
The park is at 13 Mile and Woodward, considered by many to be the epicenter of the Woodward Dream Cruise.
"We had reports a park worker saw him lying there (in the bushes) at various times since Aug. 18, but for some reason never did anything -- figuring it was just a sleeping vagrant," said Royal Oak Police Lt. Corey O'Donohue. "But after more than a week of seeing the person in the same spot you would think they would have called someone.
"I mean, there are kids playing in that park. Why wouldn't you report it?"
Greg Rassel, director of Royal Oak's recreation and public services and also a vice-president of the Dream Cruise Committee, said it was "another sad tale of the homeless."
"Apparently he had been there some time, lying out of sight in some bushes," said Rassel, who would "neither confirm nor deny" that a park employee had seen the man in the same spot on several days and did not report it.
The fully clothed, badly decomposed body was found within a few hundred feet of playscapes, picnic tables, park benches and an area where food vendors had hawked soft drinks and snacks during the Dream Cruise.
O'Donohue said the man is believed to be that of a 58-year-old Royal Oak resident who has been homeless since he was evicted in June. The fact that the body was decomposed makes identification more difficult than it is in many cases.
"There were reports of him living in his car," O'Donohue said. "If it is him, for some reason he decided to stay in the park. We hope to be able to make a positive ID through relatives and his dental records. Tests still have to be done, but right now it appears he died of natural causes."
The man was dressed in a lightweight, blue jacket, a light green and blue striped polo-style shirt, blue-green pants and black shoes. Alongside the body were emptied bottles of rum and wine, and a beer can.
Residents along Starr Road, which runs along the north border of the park not 100 feet from where the body was found, were saddened by the grim discovery. Several noted that despite posted signs -- including one near the death site that warns the park is closed between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., and "violators will be prosecuted" -- people are frequently seen sleeping there on summer nights. But they typically vacate the park before the sun comes up.
"Sure, we see people sleeping in the bushes all the time and one guy sleeps on the slide over there next to the swings," said Bob Pasquinelli, who lives on the street within view of where the body was found. "They never cause any problems or trouble.
"My daughter was walking the dog near that bush two days ago and it went ballistic. She figured it was a squirrel or a rabbit. Now we know better."
Another neighbor, Margaret Sokol, also expressed sadness for someone down on his luck.
"If the guy needed help, here (he was) right under our feet and we never heard a thing," she said. "Kids scream when they're playing over there, so who would really know?
"Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people walked right by those bushes and never saw him. Or if they noticed him, did nothing."
Monica Duncan, director of the South Oakland Shelter that has operated in the area for 22 years, said that doesn't surprise her. She also has heard of homeless people spending a night in the city park.
If "it was a one-day thing, like the Dream Cruise, I can understand how people might overlook it," Duncan said. "But day after day? For over a week? Lying in the same spot?"
Duncan said her Royal Oak shelter provides cots for about 30 people nightly but also turns away another 30-35 people.
"The need is great out there, even in the suburbs," she said. "Those we have to turn away, we still try to provide the basics: food, clothing, let them use the laundry to clean their clothes or a telephone to find somewhere to spend the night."
You can reach Mike Martindale at (248) 647-7226 or mmartindale@det
