{"id":5758,"date":"2009-08-21T15:29:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T15:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/supporting-a-fallen-friend\/"},"modified":"2009-08-21T15:29:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-21T15:29:00","slug":"supporting-a-fallen-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/supporting-a-fallen-friend","title":{"rendered":"Supporting A Fallen Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"On the morning of Sunday, August 2nd, a local homeless man named Todd was brutally beaten by baseball bats while sleeping on public property near the beach on Ocean and Granada. He is in intensive care at a Long Beach Hospital. I knew him as a relaxed homeless man at Starbucks. He never asked for money, or help or even sympathy. When I looked at him, I would see sad eyes, but a glimmer of hope. I always tried talking to him, but most of our conversations consisted of, \u201cHey man, how\u2019s your day, can I get you a coffee?\u201d His usual response was plain and simple: \u201cI\u2019m alright thanks. Oh I\u2019m good,\u201d and he would point to a coffee sitting on the table. I spoke with Shawn, the store manager and he mentioned how Todd always paid for his own drink and always minded his business. He described Todd as a man struggling for something normal in his life. A set schedule at his favorite coffee shop gave him a sense of being and maybe even inspired him to get on his feet.<\/p>\n

I am sickened at the thought of beating an innocent human (or anything for that matter). I hope the criminals are caught and given the book. I pray for Todd\u2019s health and that he recovers. I thank God for my resources and I tend to use them to help the less fortunate. Let’s look out for our brothers and sisters, even if that means they\u2019re on the street for now.<\/p>\n

Here are some images I took from the Vigil last evening. It was a good turnout and I\u2019m happy for the Police Escort and cooperation on 2nd street as we walked to Todd’s favorite coffee shop (the small Starbucks).<\/p>\n

Enjoy, and please pray for his recovery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A vigil to honor a Belmont Shore homeless man who was beaten as he slept draws a huge crowd to his favorite coffee shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":70262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5758"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5758"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}