Learnem-I do agree with you. If in fact he was a transient, where were his family members? Why collect upon his death?

If, indeed, he was a transient, I think that a lawsuit is out of the question.  Why collect off of someone that you did not take care.  What kind of financial loss could they possibly claim.  Emotional? Where were they when he was sleeping on the streets.  Can anyone confirm that he was without a home?

The Good Samaritan comes to mind.

30  In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins^[e^] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

 36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

 37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." 
      Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

HM, the man in the story was not a homeless person; he was a regular everyday individual traveling from one place to another. His clothes were obviously well-made, or they wouldn't have been worth anything to the robbers. I have yet to see a homeless person in this valley whose clothes would fit into that category.

"Homeless" is a PC term for a vagrant, which until recently was a crime. Jesus wouldn't have felt sorry for a bum - he would have told him to get his butt in gear.

Helping someone who temporarily cannot help himself, such as the man in the allegoric tale of the good Samaritan, is perfectly acceptable. By helping someone who can help himself, but won't, you are doing nothing more than enabling him, and your actions ultimately help no one.

As you can see, John, the details are pretty sketchy. So in typical "Ray Harwick" fashion, I just imagined the circumstances and thought  "but for some astounding luck, there go I."  The mention of the relatives swooping in to claim any remaining "wealth" got to me. I saw that happen to someone once, a man of simple means who had died alone and lonely, and then his family showed up to divide up the spoils of his life. It nauseated me. That's probably what I was reacting to. I've had valleys in my emotional life in which I felt like giving up, too, and being a bum and I remember well the brick walls I hit that put me in that frame of mind. So, I'll just call it the difference between my experiences in life and you can call it being a bum.

Was this gentleman a transient?  I must have missed that news release.  Can you please provide the link that has that detail in it?  Not everyone that goes there is a transient or a drug addict.  Jefferson Park has huge trees with lots of inviting shade.  Since when did relaxing in the shade on a hot summer day automatically make someone a transient?  Garces Memorial High School holds their swim team practices there.  Many folks relaxing with their ipods turned on would never have heard a truck coming across the grass.  Why would someone even imagine a truck coming across the grass?  The first time I was at Jefferson Park I was surprised to see a BPD patrol car drive across the park and pull up to a picnic table where folks were sitting.  When I told the guys at my office about it they were shocked that I had taken my son there to play.  They advised me it was unsafe and a veritable bullet zone.  That was over 18 years ago.  I have never encountered a problem at that park or at Heritage Park either.  Not all of the folks who live in the 93305 zip code are gang bangers or homeless.   

I'm with sys_mom. I haven't heard that he was a transient. Even if he was, no one here knows the circumstances. I had a dear friend once who became a transient after the onset of schizophrenia.  His family and friends still loved him but there was nothing we could do to get him off the streets; that is simply the way he wanted to live. I've been reading the blogs off and on for the last two years but barely started commenting. I'm already getting pretty sick of people jumping to conclusions.

Reyna, I have to agree with you.

I have a friend who has a son that drank all the time.  This man would walk up and down White Lane drinking vodka that he bought panhandling because he surely did not have a job.  His brother would let him stay with him sometimes, but the drunk brother would pick fights and smash things up.  Then the brother would tell him to get out.  The mother would let him stay with her and he would pick fights and was buying her teenage grandkids who lived with her booze.  She would tell him to leave.  This would go on and on and on.  There were some times that he would sleep in the park.  This could have easily been him.  It wasn't that his family did not care about him...it was more that it was hard to let him live with them because of his heavy drinking and abusive behavior.  I would have thrown him out too.  My first order of protection is my family.   This man's teenage kids would see him staggering down the street talking to himself...can you imagine what they were feeling???

You never know what kind of family situation this man had.  Everyone is so quick to assume that his family never cared two figs about him.  My friend's son was like 43 years old and a full blown alcoholic and even showed signs of mental disease.  She tried to have him put in rehab but he refused to go.  She tried to get the county mental health involved, but they would not do anything because he refused their help.  Her hands were tied.  But she had kids that lived with her and she could not risk something happening to one of them.  If they did not hear from him for a few days, she would put out a missing person's report and I think once put an article in the paper. 

Don't be so quick to judge people.  Not to mention that it costs money to bury someone and obviously this guy did not have a job so someone in his family had to pay for him to have a proper funeral.    Sometimes you can love and care about someone but not know what to do with them, just as my friend did.  And sometimes you have to make judgement calls that tear you to pieces but nonetheless have to be made.  You never know that this family of this man may have been like my friend's family.

Last summer my AC went out on a 100 degree day. Since the repair man couldn't come for 2 days, I went to the library, visited family and friends, and went to a park to read and sit in the shade. It was way to hot for me to nap there, but if I could have, I would have. In the evening I got a motel room. So not everybody that goes to a park is a transient. And if he was, so what. A jury will decide if the city was or was not negligent. That's why this country is great..

Hypotheticaly, lets say you were sitting in a parked car. Parked legally on the side of a street. A city owned vehicle slammed into your car and killed you. Would the city be liable? I think so.