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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVictim of ‘Miami Zombie’ attack graduated from Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School ~ NYDailynews.com
The homeless drifter whose face was largely eaten by the Miami Zombie was once a brainy 1964 graduate of New Yorks prestigious Stuyvesant High School.
Ronald Poppo, 65, was in the Latin Club and worked in the guidance office at Stuyvesant before his life hit the skids, his yearbook shows.
It was a long road from being one of the citys smartest and most driven kids to lounging under a Florida bridge Saturday, when a maniac attacked him at random in one of the most gruesome crimes on record.
Poppos life unraveled early. He was already homeless in early 1976, when he was treated in Miami for a gunshot wound and gave his address as a Salvation Army shelter.
...
The sad reality is there are many brilliant people who become schizophrenic and end up on the streets, said a Stuyvesant classmate, Felix Freshwater, who became a pioneering plastic surgeon in Miami.
Read more: HERE
Such a horrible story.
emilyg
(22,742 posts)jpbollma
(552 posts)If I were religious I would think this man was possessed. How absolutely horrifying.
Drugs. Story this morning on national news was that the man who did this was high on "bath salts." Every time I see a story about someone brutalized by a person out of their heads on some of these chemicals that people ingest now, I cringe at the zealotry of those who want ALL drugs legalized.
girl gone mad
(20,634 posts)Meanwhile the most dangerous drug of all, alcohol, is still perfectly legal.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)mzmolly
(51,016 posts)I think he was losing his marbles, and no one noticed. Perhaps he was delusional and just snapped?
Sad.sad.sad.
Joe Shlabotnik
(5,604 posts)Its so easy for people to slip between the cracks (ever more each day). And once they're on the street they become non persons, regardless of the bright futures they were once capable of. This is an extreme story, and no doubt the media will focus on the bizarre circumstances of the crime committed. But the real crime is committed by a society who turns a blind eye to the homeless, nameless and (and no pun intended) faceless, silent and desperate, because they are "worthless", "beyond help" and "burden" to those who are more fortunate. A society of self absorbed consumers is all to quick to race blindly forward, while consigning yesterdays obsoletes to the trash heap.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)If we are judged by how we treat the least among us. Then we are truly lost. It seems so hopeless. So many homeless, so many abandoned and terrified mentally ill people being preyed upon by the dregs of our society. That we allow such perversion because it's too costly to provide for them some manner of comfort & safety really speaks volumes about our moral compass as a nation.
Jamastiene
(38,187 posts)I hope the victim can at least not have to feel so much pain from it. A human bite is a nasty infection waiting to happen to begin with. That poor guy was brutalized in a most horrific way.
Oh yeah, before I forget to add it: Reagan turned a lot of people out into the streets who could have otherwise received help and lived functional and somewhat happy lives.
People who are schizophrenic are not unreachable or bad people. They deserve help and decent treatment and some respect. Instead, our society throws so many who suffer out in the streets and then mocks them.
mzmolly
(51,016 posts)I accidentally stumbled upon the injury photos. Viewing is not recommended, I might add.
I remember when Reagan turned the mentally ill out onto the streets. The homeless population increased dramatically. What a POS, he was.
Quantess
(27,630 posts)It sounds like the victim is still alive?
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)hidden taxes in America. A tax that costs us dearly, every day, year after year.
"Disposable people".