My mixed feelings would render me incapable of doing anything, for fear that whatever I do could be the wrong thing. Same thing as when I saw some schlubby middle aged white guy getting a blow job in the entrance to the Pioneer Square tunnel station. I was very uncomfortable, but I didn't want to hurt the kid giving the blowjob, or force them into a more unsafe place where someone would be more likely to assault or murder them.....

I don't know how to love them...

You should definitely hire a rider to go a block ahead of you with a big Trigger Warning sign, just in case.

Leave it alone. I once had a homeless person throw a half eaten donut at my head.

Life in the big city and all that.

@2 I see what you did there!

I think I might have seen this same fellow on a couple of occasions on the Jose Rizal bridge as I was going by on my bike. Once he just shouted obscenities and once he chucked something at me and missed. If it's the same person, I think his grudge is against anyone on a bike, since he probably read me as male. I just figured him for another fine representative of the Seattle Times Editorial Board.

If this person is located Downtown in a Metropolitan Improvement District neighborhood then you can call the MID at 613-3905. They have safety ambassadors, outreach ambassadors and work with a community mental health director (along with UGM) who is out on the streets trying to connect people to services. http://www.downtownseattle.com/MID/

Depends on what your concept of the role of the state in the maintenance of social order is. When individuals, for whatever reason, seem unreachable by indirect social controls that would otherwise restrict them from putting others at danger (or behaving as if that's a reasonable potential), then maybe the state or some other direct acting organization should be involved. Call a non-governmental social work agency in Pioneer Square and ask them what they'd do.

***trigger warning****

Get some lunch meat and ride by him again and throw it in his face and yell "eat me, motherfucker"!

Mace the shit out of him. Maybe he will learn but I doubt it.

Is it possible you were riding like a bitch?

I kid, I kid, that's awful, and I'm awful for joking about it.

But also, what were you wearing?

Maybe get him a bike? Seems like someone stole his bike.

@10

I don't see how riding like a bitch would justify a fuck you.

In NYC, in the past I'd probably have reported them to 911 as a homeless mental patient in need of assistance. But, after a couple of recent incidents where police ended up killing the person of concern (not anyone I reported, btw), I'm somewhat reluctant to do that anymore.

@13: Seattle Police has supposedly been trained on this under the Memphis Model. If you talk to the police, ask specifically for a crisis intervention team. Maybe even ask to see if they will connect you with the CIT.

"Why did I say "dude"? I never say "dude.""

I suspect you could have called him/her "irascible person" but "dude" is more effective when posturing.

@14: SPD has shot at least three people over the past year and a half who had dementia or other perceived mental health issue. Don't call the fucking cops. Is having some food thrown at you worth someone losing their life?

@10, you crack me up. Laughed out loud.
@12, you need to develop a sense of humor.

@10: I think maybe the homeless guy was thinking about this. They just didn't realize it was figurative not literal.

My feeling is that it’s aggression toward women in general, bolstered by a belief that even the toughest woman on the planet wouldn’t turn simple harrassment into an ass kicking. I’m pretty shaken up every time I have an unexpected run-in with a mentally ill person on the street. I’m a 6’ 190 lb guy who might look possibly threatening if there was ominous music playing and I had my hoodie pulled up. But any time I’m the target of random aggression I freak out. It almost makes me cry and I ruminate on it for months. Then I build an emotional shield from the experience.

I’m trying to develop a preemptive emotional shield of words. “Calm down, dude!” seems like a good start. “Whoa, take it easy. Everything’s going to be ok.” has worked. “Just try to watch for crosswalks in the future, dammit!” worked once after some jackass decided that me tapping on his SUV window when he cut me off in the middle of crossing the street was reason enough to jump out and shout, “that’s right! Keep on walking you little pussy!” Quietly apologizing and then loudly, annoyedly pointing out that I apologized has worked.

After the experimental word play, I then go back to the place where it happened to reassure my panicking subconcious that I’m not unsafe on the corner where my adreniline spiked. That seems to be a pretty important part of not letting the experience cripple me in some way.

Kill everyone in a three-block radius.

WWSD? Buy an SUV and move to the suburbs.

So you found where Seattleblues has been.

911. I hate to say it, but it's the only responsible option. We've had more murders and assaults on random people by the mentally ill than the police have killed. This guy left alone could just as easily throw a brick next time.
Call the cops and let them sort it out.

@17

You should get a stepladder.

That's an assault committed by a clearly unhinged person. What if he kills or rape a woman next because you were afraid to hurt his homeless feelings? Call 911.

Call Phoenix Jones to pepper spray him.

Maybe he's not a fan of your reviews?

20 wins the thread

@22 FTW

I think it's more of a tie for @20 @22

@3,

Waste of a perfectly good half donut. No offense.

On the several occasions that a homeless person has screamed at me, I've said, "Sorry, I'm someone else". That works more than half the time.

I believe the proper response to this sort of thing is to organize a posse.

Yet another opinion, but you asked so here it is: The homeless person who threw garbage at you might have a mental illness that makes them...nuts. Coo-coo. Crazy in the coconut. No, those are not the correct, polite terms to use but it's gets the point across. Whatever you do, don't call the SPD unless you want the offending garbage-throwing homeless person shot dead. If that's your objective, however, then I'd call the SPD right away. They are very good at shooting first and asking questions later. It's their specialty.

Recently I had a homeless man come up to me in the International District as a friend and I were leaving a restaurant. The homeless man was angry, dressed in a combination of rags and layers of clothing. He wasn't mentally stable and had clearly been suffering on the streets for a long time. He spouted off words that made no sense. He had no idea what he was saying, or rather, I had no idea what he was saying. Maybe neither knew what he was saying but...he was saying it. Loudly. Pure gibberish, he yelled at me. I walked on, not wanting to upset him more.

When people fall through the cracks and end up on the street, they find themselves a little cracked. It's not easy on the street, especially with an untreated mental illness. Next time a homeless person throws something at you, do what you did this time - keep on moving on. They have enough shit to deal with inside of their heads, let alone the challenges of living on the street.

And now, time for a song: "Your crazy in the coconut!":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8BWBn26b…

@34: That's actually useful, especially if the person is clearly mentally ill. Just confuse them a little bit and get out of range as quickly as possible.

How new are you to city life if you get so wound up about an interaction with a crazy homeless person?

It seems many of us, myself included, would handle the incident the way you did. But this guy's next target might respond to being on the receiving end of thrown garbage by beating the living crap out of him or worse. For his own safety he needs help. A mental health counselor per @5 and @14 is probably the best choice.

I wouldn’t worry about it Bethany. He’s probably just read your writing. It makes most of us want to throw garbage at you.

(Sorry. That was shameful. Just too damn easy to let pass.)

"Motherfucker" is my go-to word of choice in these situations, so I think "dude" is definitely better on the de-escalation meter.

Don't know what you should do, but asking slog for advice is probably wrong. So far you have been told that if you don't call the cops you are responsible if he rapes or murders someone, and If you do call the cops you are responsible if they murder him.

As an aside, I had a friend who spent a lot of time in mental hospitals. Whenever a crazy person accosted her on the street she would say, "I don't feel like talking right now". Surprisingly effective.

@36, That's all nice that you didn't do anything, but that wasn't a violent assault. Throwing something at a person on a bicycle is.
My sister had a homeless mentally ill guy on her block in NYC who would wander up and down the block and angrily scream at white women. The neighbors and the cops just shrugged him off as a homeless crank. A couple months later one of her neighbors was attacked by this guy when he found a knife on the street. They survived, but barely.
Clearly the guy needed help. Social services didn't do anything because the police never got involved. The police didn't get involved because enough people just shrugged it off.
Seattle Police are getting better about this kind of stuff by using crisis intervention people. Besides all that, if it wasn't a homeless person but someone just throwing shit at cyclists trying to hurt them you'd want the cops all over them, right?

I'd probably yell "fuck you, asshole!" and ride away. But, I'm a btich.

Do nothing. Someone else will take care of it for you if the guy continues to cause problems. The world moves more efficiently when good people ignore the world around them.

Hi Bethany,
This actually happened to my bf last week. He was waiting for his bus in the early morning and the homeless guy just through garbage at him shouting "DON'T STARE AT ME". My bf didn't do anything to him, definitely the homeless guy was lucky that day:)
I will not be surprised if it is the person you saw today.
I used to live in sf and there was that huge homeless guy who intimidated passersby. He usually hanged out near McDonald's on Market street with a constant flow of tourists. When I saw that he was there I crossed the street. But you know what, he disappeared in several months. These people don't stay for long. So don't be very upset!

Taraval--it's "threw" not through, and "hung out" not hanged out. I can't help myself. Thanks.

@19 ObeyTheFist: I get you. I'm slightly bigger than you and I'm always stunned when someone gets aggressive with me. I think I/we are used to generally passively intimidating the rest of the world just by being tall males, so when someone gets in our faces it is a surprising and scary moment.

@53: Yes, that's already underway. Look around you. However, that doesn't mean it's okay to call someone those names in anger.

And you're not helping yourself calling us 'ladies', and calling gay folks 'homos'.

Buy a gun. Get two plane tickets, for you and him, to Florida. Ride by him again and when he throws garbage at you, shoot him. Tell the police you thought it was a grenade and you were standing your ground.

Perhaps if this man ever suffered a single consequence for accosting people, he would alter his behavior. He knows, however, this being Seattle, nobody is going to do shit lest they have to a) do something, or b) question whether it's PC. In other words, he knows he's loose in a city of pansies, or to use his word "bitches."

Actually helpful idea: knock this asshole's legs out from under him or kick him in the nuts. Sternly suggest that he shut the fuck up and leave people alone. This may benefit us non-garbage throwing fucks in the long run.

@49 grow the fuck up, nobody thinks it's cute how your boyfriend didn't beat somebody up.