Tourist beware. Transients beat tourist in Ocean Beach (San Diego: crime, live)

[beachrescue]

Today while I was in Ocean Beach on In front of South Beach Bar a large female transient attacked and beat a tourist. The tourist tried to flee the attack but the transient pursued the tourist. The wife of the tourist was on the phone to 911 and was asking for some one to help. No one was defending the tourist which lead a citizen and off duty security defending and placing the transient under arrest. The transient fought with the citizen and struck him several times, with the help of security from a local bar he was able to get handcuffs on her. This woman was out of control, intoxicated and heavy and strong. When San Diego police arrived several of the transients hippy friends stated it was not her fault, that she should just be let go to attack another tourist.
The local bars and liquor store need to STOP SELLING BOOZE TO TRANSIENTS.
This transient was yelling **** you call 911 they wont do anything. She is right, SDPD is not doing the job they need to do by arresting and keeping these violent dangerous people off the street. Ocean Beach is overrun by drug addicts and transients and is unsafe.
My suggestion is don't visit or spend any money in OB until the city cleans it up, it is the dirtiest beach in California

[earlyretirement]

Yikes, this is horrible. Just out of curiosity, did you see what brought on this reaction? Was the tourist doing anything to provoke something like this? Just terrible. I hope they are ok.

[beachrescue]

She was angry that they would not give her money. The security had to beat her to control her and the freaks and pot heads in OB wanted PD to arrest the security guard. They want it out of control, the want the tourists to hand them money. Its the Boooze. The stores need to stop selling them booze. SDPD needs to arrest them all, the transient stated she had no ID and she did not have to carry any. The city needs to stop this and stop in now. It dangerous

[tickyul]

San Diego is just getting worse and worse when it comes to the drugged out bums........the city encourages more and more of these bums to come to the city by treating them so nice......tons of services for these stinky citizens. The downtown area is just a mess that is getting worse and worse.

[DondeDemonios]

This is an unfortunate occurrence. The individual should certainly be held accountable for her actions. Ocean Beach has had a long-standing issue with a young, drug-using population of runaways/homeless. It is something that needs much more attention, and the man-power and funding to really relieve the problem probably is not there.

I think it is also important to remember that homelessness is a complex problem, and the homeless population is just as diverse as the non-homeless population. There are all kinds of people that are homeless. You cannot equate homelessness with drug use, alcohol abuse, and criminal behavior. These problems are prevalent in the home-having community just as they are in the homeless community. Making generalizations and perpetuating stereotypes will do nothing to resolve the true issue. Many of the homeless suffer from psychological diseases and conditions that are often untreated. Many may also have addictions as a result of self-medicating, or may have become homeless as a result of those addictions. Some of these people turn to crime as a result of their addictions or out of desperation.

What these people need in order to stop behaviors like the unfortunate one recounted by beachrescue is adequate support and services. Putting these people in jail for short periods to 'pay for their crimes' without proper medical attention, addiction treatment, or things like career counseling is an ineffective and misguided attempt at deterring these behaviors.

I encourage anyone who has strong negative feelings toward the homeless population to spend time volunteering with a program or service group that is involved with homeless populations. Meet productive and honest people that have gotten help for their problems and are contributing members of society. Meet people who have never had a drink or taken a drug, or are in recovery, or have turned their lives around because of the services they receive. Meet people that continue to struggle, with the same problems your loved ones grapple with every day. Meet people just like you.