An earlier diary detailed a truly disgusting interaction between Sarasota police and a homeless man. Coincidentally, this came just after I ran across the story of a very different interaction between Florida police and the homeless, this one in Ocala, that made it onto the German news site SPIEGEL ONLINE. The full story can be found at Today News.
While stopped at a traffic light, [TiAnna Greene] saw a Florida police officer sit down on a street curb next to a homeless man and hand him some food and a cup of coffee.Greene posted the pictures on Facebook, and the officer was identified as Sgt. Erica Hay. She was on her way to a local doughnut shop when she saw him, so she grabbed some food and went back to eat with him; ‘Nobody wants to eat alone,’ she said, adding that she liked eating with anybody."What really caught my attention was the fact she then pulled out food for herself and started to eat with him. She just seemed very, very comfortable," Greene said. "I got my phone out and started snapping pictures because I was so overjoyed by the interaction."
"Isolation is the worst part about being someone who is homeless. They're isolated from everyone, and I think any type of interaction is a positive thing," she said. "He was great. He was nice to talk to. He's got a story, just like everyone else. It just happens to be a sad story."It’s nice to have an occasional reminder that good things do sometimes happen. By the way, Hay, a 20-year police veteran, is white; the homeless man is black.
