Most homeless folks that die on the streets are invisible and forgotten, a team is dispatched and the corpse is collected, area cleansed of any unpleasantness, and nobody would know why you have now vanished.
What is more tragic is the fact in most instances you will be listed as a John or Jane Doe and their will not be any trail to find the tragic tale you even ever existed.
Not this time...
Marcus - Corner LuLu's Restaurant - Deceased
You see even I did not know that the photos I took of him desperately trying to shine the light on the plight of his condition would be later determined to be photos of Marcus dead. So many homeless folks laying around Redding's streets at that hour, how can one determine who may be laying their sleeping, or a motionless corpse?
So many homeless folks...
I suppose a corpse with his pants half down laying motionless has now shockingly become the Redding California norm, with people driving by Marcus's corpse on the side of the road on a busy Saturday night on Reddings downtown Market street like the motionless city of Redding metal roadside salmon art that sits in the median of Market street... Oblivious
Take a early morning drive around Redding, one really cant blame the night shift of the Redding police department for the "corpses" because there are bodies laying all over Redding's sidewalks and streets at that hour, sometimes with their head in the gutter, like Marcus.
Marcus - Safeway
The fact of the matter is City of Redding and Shasta County mental health officials left Marcus, a handicapped disabled double amputee homeless man to sit in the harsh elements and suffer on its streets until he was dead.
Not quietly, not invisibly , and not forgotten, much to the angry chagrin of many I know.
Marcus - Safeway
Marcus had told be he too had been beaten and robbed by Redding youth, and he like many now are so afraid to be attacked by Reddings notorious anti homeless vigilantes as well as robbers and thieves that pray on Reddings most vulnerable homeless population.
Oh did I mention it is now a crime to be homeless in Redding as well ?
They sleep in the light of Reddings sidewalks because like Marcus did they feel safer and believe if they are attacked there would be witnesses and the faintest chance you or I might stop and intervene should we drive by.
Until the weather changed and the sprinklers came on Marcus found such comfort in the Safeway parking lot and sidewalk.
Please dont tell me you have never seen him...
Marcus - Safeway
Marcus - Safeway - Hospital Discharge Bag on Chair
What can we learn from Marcus's tragic demise? Well there is a huge hole in Redding and Shasta Counties social safety net, he certainly is not alone. Many homeless here in Redding are in the condition of Marcus's last days, about to be another Redding roadside homeless corpse.
Just another bizarre piece of morbid motionless roadside art...
