Homelessness is a complex issue….victimization is not
The “Most Vulnerable” Who Victimize
Part 1 of a 3 part series on crime in the street community
Meet Udo: a 72 year-old German immigrant. He walks his dogs regularly along Evergreen Park Drive near the Thurston County Courthouse in Olympia, WA. Many people know of him — he used to have a 3 legged pug that got so old he eventually resorted to taking him for walks in a baby stroller. I’m sure many passersby just thought he was pushing a grandchild. I work nearby, and he always says hello to my little boy when we see him. He is a very friendly and intelligent man, the kind you want walking through a neighborhood.
Udo often walks his dog several times a day, which sort of makes him the welcome eyes and ears of the neighborhood. On November 13, 2019, while on a walk, Udo was assaulted. He was attacked without warning in Evergreen Park, a small park with a trail among a myriad of condo and apartment complexes. Udo had been calling in a report about a man who appeared to be unconscious in the park, when the man roused and assaulted him. He was pushed to the ground and punched numerous times until he lost consciousness, but the beating continued after that.
Two people from a nearby office came to help him, as the man was still punching him, and ran the assailant off. Had they not done so, the attack may have continued unabated. The man was described as being in a rage. Udo sustained a severe concussion, black eyes, and a broken nose. The police caught the assailant the next day, thanks to a stroke of luck. He had been aggressively panhandling and accosting people in downtown Olympia, and the responding officer recognized his photo. An interesting but alarming side note is how a photo of the man was taken.
Udo was attacked at 3:45 PM. About 30 minutes prior to the attack, a woman encountered the assailant, Grant Brannaman, at the park bus stop. She described him as “yelling and punching at the air, and wearing a black face mask.” Although she remained quite a distance from the bus stop for safety, she took a photo of the man behaving erratically. Brannaman travels with a wheelchair, and panhandles with it, but has no mobility issues. He was actually arrested for running naked through a city fountain this summer:
https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/crime/article231524773.html
Brannaman was ultimately not able to get on the bus. Approximately 30 minutes later his assault on Udo took place. Witnesses also reported him pursuing two women at nearby apartments just prior to the attack. Responding officers recognized his photo, and also had Udo and other witnesses ID Brannaman from a photo lineup. Brannaman was arrested the next day in downtown Olympia, where most of the street population of the entire county converges.
Meet Grant Brannaman: Upon being arrested, Brannaman admitted to the beating. He actually boasted to the interviewing officer about the boxing combinations he used to assault a 72 year-old man. Brannaman also made light of Udo’s heritage, something of a derogatory nature about Germans, and proclaimed that his “very good attorney” was adept at getting him off for having a mental illness. While there are circumstances where mental health treatment is substituted for sentencing, they generally don’t involve cases where the perpetrator brags about his ability to avoid prosecution. Upon seeing the injuries he had inflicted, the judge set his bail at $250,000.
Brannaman appears to have a lengthy criminal background, dating back to at least 2013 in Oregon, including rape. He is a sex offender with mandatory community registration, and has now added to that resume in Washington with indecent exposure and assault:
https://www.eugene-or.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=926&ARC=1904
https://sexoffenders.oregon.gov/Map/FullOffenderProfile?offenderId=38373
From all indications Brannaman had been squatting in an area filled with encampments just outside of downtown Olympia called Percival Creek Canyon. Although it has recently been rekindled with salmon spawning, it has become an unchecked wasteland decimated by massive camps, needles, and human waste. Squatters have been found to be regularly dumping garbage, wastewater, and 5 gallon buckets of sewage into Percival Creek. The pedestrian stairway and wooden footbridge into the canyon currently go unused, making hopes of someday creating a pedestrian and bike trail seem unrealistic. Brannaman fled into Percival Creek Canyon briefly, after accosting two women near Evergreen Park.
It looks like he may have been psychotic and/or using meth. His Facebook profile reveals scrambled thinking, repeated endorsements of methamphetamine, and a young man who quite fancies himself as a rapper.
https://www.facebook.com/K1ngsnorth
His history of living in Oregon, as well as offenses there, is interspersed with migrating and offending in Olympia. Olympia has developed a national reputation for being very progressive, and a sanctuary city for homeless individuals. That has led to a dramatic tension between homeless advocates and city residents concerned about the impacts of encampments and the street population on the community. Like many communities, the issue dominates social media, city council meetings, and local elections.
Meet Me: I spent 10 years serving this population, 5 of those years were as Thurston County’s Homeless Outreach Case Manager. This was not ivory tower philosophical debate on policy or the proper use of acronyms. It was hands-on, driving people with lice in my car to help win a VA or Social Security disability claim, or get a haircut, or get into drug treatment, or get ID by going to 4 different offices, or beg a landlord to give them a shot at housing. By the time you have someone like me, let alone a majority of progressive, liberal, democratic Olympians calling for change, you can pretty much bet things have gone off the rails. By the way, I am calling for change.
It is time for city officials and law enforcement to say, “Enough! You will not live off the grid, lawlessly in our forests, public spaces, and streets. You will not live under a bridge, in ‘The Jungle’, in parks, trespassing on private property, or anywhere but a shelter. You do not own downtown. You will follow rules or suffer the consequences.”
It is time for citizens to say to our leaders and paid public officials, “Enough! You will not continue with your feckless and impotent policies of enabling or you will suffer the consequences. We will not become another Seattle. If you do not act to dismantle and deconstruct our toxic and dangerous street culture, we will fire you.”
Instead:
We hear city council members talking about trauma.
We hear their sanctimonious blathering about root causes of addiction.
We hear them talk about it being a “complex problem.”
We hear them talk about “the system” being unfair.
We hear them talk about the recognition and notoriety they are receiving for their compassion and innovation in how they are handling things.
We hear them talk about encampments:
— as if the voluntarily homeless were a tribe.
— as if they have to be managed as a group.
— as if they need to be given their own reservation.
How about breaking up the groups of addicts, criminals, and squatters? How about destroying their bicycle chop shops, drug dealing operations, and human trafficking exchanges?
How about taking our city back? How about creating a community where kids, women, and senior citizens like Udo freely walk and enjoy their city, fearlessly?
Part 2: Assault, Murder, and the Death of Caring https://medium.com/@Info_14568/assault-murder-and-death-of-caring-df2699227fb9?source=friends_link&sk=5a43c810ad8e736365468e8017f9f4b7
Part 3: Common Sense Policing
https://medium.com/@Info_14568/common-sense-policing-a4314552e1ac?source=friends_link&sk=0ff170d5fb92c82db6d4039903f92b82
