Posted on 09/08/2004 11:44:22 AM PDT by Help!
Coffee shop owner reaches breaking point with homeless
To Skip DuCharme, Lakota Coffee Co. is like his living room, and he doesn’t like people to put their feet on his furniture.
The owner of the downtown coffee shop on Ninth Street let me know this one of the first times I chose to hang out at Lakota on a weekend and propped my feet on one of his wood-carved chairs. He asked me to put my feet down.
I didn’t blame him.
It’s no wonder, I thought after I talked to DuCharme last week, why he wouldn’t want a man who had urinated all over himself to sit in one of his chairs either.
About a month ago, DuCharme tried to stop such a man from sitting in his coffee shop. Now he faces a municipal charge of obstructing a government observation. No joke. DuCharme was ticketed for trying to keep a homeless man soaked in urine from sitting in one of his chairs.
DuCharme’s legal problem occurred July 30, but really, the series of events that led to his arrest go back more than a decade. For as long as Lakota has been around, the sidewalk outside the store has been a gathering place for homeless men and panhandlers. The foot traffic is heavy there, and it’s a good place to find a college kid with a good heart who might flip a guy a quarter or two.
For years, DuCharme didn’t do much to discourage the homeless hanging out by Lakota. It was that kind of place. In the winter, he’d allow the vagrants to come in and get a cup of coffee and bagel to warm up. The locals who hung out in Lakota appreciated the humanity of the place. It was a little microcosm of Columbia, with all classes represented.
Over the years, things changed. Some of the homeless got aggressive. They didn’t want coffee and bagels, but cash. They overstayed their welcome. DuCharme became one of the forces behind the anti-panhandling ordinance that passed in Columbia last year.
"I only have so much patience," he says.
Indeed, his patience was put to the test on the last Friday of July.
It was the end of a downtown sidewalk-sale celebration, and the homeless had been pretty active all week. At one point, a couple of vagrants were hanging out in front of DuCharme’s store, making it tough for customers to come and go - one man was passed out on the sidewalk - and DuCharme called the cops. They came, and the homeless went on their way.
One of them, though, apparently was angry and came back.
He walked into the store and just started urinating. Right there on the floor. All the way back to the men’s room, though he never quite found the toilet. DuCharme hit his boiling point.
"I told the guy: ‘You’ve crossed the line. You’ve got to talk to the police,’ " DuCharme says.
He called the police again, and they showed up. While they were in his store, asking him about what happened, the urinator came into the store and attempted to sit down next to the police officer who was talking to DuCharme.
"I asked him three times, in front of the police: ‘Sir, you’re not invited to sit in my establishment. Please leave,’ " DuCharme says. The man refused and tried to sit down. DuCharme says that at this point he grabbed the man by the shoulders and tried to force him out of the store.
The officers didn’t like it and got in the way. In the process, DuCharme tripped over one of the 50-pound coffee bags that sit on his floor around most tables. On his way to the ground, he grabbed the officer in front of him to stop from slamming his face on the wooden floor.
At that point, DuCharme says, he became the focus of the officers in his store. "I was taken by the two officers and smashed against our computer bar," he says. Handcuffed in his own store, DuCharme was led out to a police cruiser, where he sat for 20 minutes.
Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm says his officers did nothing wrong.
"Mr. DuCharme was arrested because he decided to deal with the situation himself and physically remove the transient," Boehm says. "We just can’t let someone be assaulted in our presence, even if we understand why he was mad."
That’s not how DuCharme sees things. He’s been mad for 11 years as some homeless vagrants assault his business, and not much has been done about it.
"I don’t think I’m guilty of anything," he says. "I shouldn’t have to be a jerk to protect my business."
In November, DuCharme faces a court date. So do the urinator and another homeless man, who both were arrested.
Boehm says that since the panhandler ordinance passed, downtown arrests of homeless people have been up. His officers have made six arrests of homeless men downtown this year. "We only made 10 in the previous eight years," he says.
DuCharme would say that’s the problem. It’s why he was a supporter of the tougher law.
The irony, of course, is that it wasn’t a law that was needed, but attention to the problem. The men who caused the problem in DuCharme’s store were arrested for trespassing and public nuisance, laws that were on the books before we decided to ban panhandling.
The good news for DuCharme is that the homeless guys all talk among themselves. Since July 30, for the first time in a decade, he hasn’t had any problems.
"It’s taken this type of incident to take care of the situation in front of my store," he says.
Perhaps all’s well that ends well. The city prosecutor should remember that when she sees DuCharme in court.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tony Messenger is a columnist at the Tribune. His column appears on Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday. He can be reached at 815-1728 or by e-mail at tmessenger@tribmail.com.
It's the age-old story: it's always the person who fights back who gets in trouble.
Columbia, where? We talking the Peoples Republic of Canada, here?
Friendly local police need to be prosecuted for obstructing a citizen.
Missouri, believe it or not.
""Mr. DuCharme was arrested because he decided to deal with the situation himself and physically remove the transient," Boehm says. "We just can’t let someone be assaulted in our presence, even if we understand why he was mad."
The expected results when we no longer consider private property to belong to the owner of that property!
Nope, that's Missouri.
ping
Columbia, Not a City of Evil, but some citizens want it to be.
Note: The only place I know of in the State of Missouri which did not pass the amendment against Gay marriage was the City of the Columbia - although the vote from the County wards made this Central Missouri County pass it at that level.
In Vietnam these homeless folks would be considered wealthy based on annual income.
Correct.
Unfortunate we have to read down to Post #8 to find out what state this Columbia is in.
Location was posted under Topics.
Wow, a whopping 6 arrests in 9 months. Instead of bragging about it he should be apologizing to the store owners for not enforcing the law.
Once again, it's easier for the cops to deal with the civilized than to crack down on the uncivilized. The number one reason to avoid Santa Monica is because the whole place is soaked in piss and homeless people are living on the sidewalks.
No kidding. I was in DC a few weeks ago when a "homeless" guy pulled out a portable DVD player and started watching a movie. I almost blew a gasket when I saw that.
Between Columbia, St. Louis, and downtown Kansas City, I'm becoming very happy I left Missouri.
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