The Homeless

Yesterday, I headed home from work late, about 7 p.m. And I walked the regular route the parking garage, which is about 5 blocks from my office building. I'm walking on the sidewalk, opposite the downtown Neiman Marcus, and I see an obviously mentally ill homeless guy about 50 yards ahead. And this guy is agitated. He's yelling at me, but I can't quite understand him. As I get closer, he says "You better not cross this line motherfucker!" So I chose not to engage the guy in conversation and ignored him. He continued screaming nonsense things like "Don't smile at me" and "I'll beat you". I kept on walking. But I felt pretty threatened by this insane person who could obviously could do me a lot of harm. There was no one else on the street at this time, I had no weapon other than my car keys and my parking garage was still a half block away. I kept on walking and the guy, thankfully, didn't touch me. So this experience is exactly why I don't feel real sorry for the homeless in downtown Dallas. I'm sorry for anyone who's mentally ill because they can't help that. I'm sorry for anyone who has the will and means to work and can't get employment. And I've accepted that the homeless are never going to leave downtown Dallas without some major breach of civil rights laws. But do I have to feel threatened for my own safety when I do something as common as walking to my car?