The attacks committed against homeless people in Brazil might be brutal, horrific and above all cowardly, but sadly they reflect the wider problem of hate crimes against homeless people which occur daily across the world.
In April last year, The Big Issue Cymru and The Big Issue South West, both street publications and members of the International Network of Street papers, launched their Working Not Begging campaign following research from the organizations that found nine in 10 vendors were regularly verbally abused while selling the magazine and four in 10 had been physically assaulted.
In a special edition of the magazine raising awareness of such violence, Jody Clark, who works at The Big Issue's Bath distribution office, said that many vendors put off reporting attacks because they felt there was a lack of support among police. "There's a new game in Bath among the young drinkers called 'hit and run homeless'," he said. "When people are asleep in doorways they are kicking them. The vendors say they get the blame if police are called because the other person is seen as the upstanding member of the community."
Unsurprisingly, local media were horrified by the statistics, resulting in plenty of coverage for the message that assaults on vendors are not acceptable. After liaising with various local councils across the country on how to protect vendors from attacks by members of the public, The Big Issue introduced tabards to be worn by vendors to help make them more visible and to reiterate the message that what they are doing is working.
Yet within a few weeks another vendor was brutally attacked in St Ives. Graham Lewis, who had recently found accommodation after being homeless for 12 years, said he was left "scared and violated" by his attackers - who made it clear they were assaulting him because he was a Big Issue vendor. "I've been scared stiff of going out of the house," said Lewis a few weeks after the attack. "I haven't been out alone since."
It was little more than a month later, in August 2004, that we reported on the seven homeless people in Brazil who had been murdered and the eight others who were seriously wounded.
In November, The Big Issue Scotland reported an increase in assaults on its vendors, including one who was subjected to a terrifying attack by a screwdriver-wielding thug. The man was threatened that he would be stabbed if he didn't hand over his cash. He said it was the fourth such attack that had been carried out on him in the past six months. On one occasion he was robbed in broad daylight, in full view of passers by, none of who stopped to help.
In January 2005, we published a report from The Big Issue Australia on the increase in the numbers of attacks on homeless people there. Clint Risely, who had spent more than a decade on the streets of Australia, told how he had been stabbed, shot, doused with petrol, set alight, and repeatedly beaten. Other incidents in Australia included a 66-year-old homeless man who was set on fire by three teenagers as he slept, and a man who was bludgeoned to death while sleeping in an inner-city park.
With other street papers reporting similar attacks on vendors, it was decided at the 10th annual conference of the INSP, held in Buenos Aires this May, that all members would unite to pressure the Brazilian government into investigating the murders, as well as highlighting the extent of the problem across the world.
Within weeks of the conference finishing, however, news came of another UK vendor who was set on fire as he slept and suffered horrific burns and injuries. This vendor was so scared of repeat attacks that he didn't even want the city where he lived to be named in the magazine.
Two homeless men in Prague suffered similar attacks less than one month later. The first victim had oil poured on him and was set on fire while he slept on a bench. He suffered third-degree burns on most of his body and his injuries were so severe he could not be identified. The next day, a vendor of the Czech street paper, Novy Prostor, was set on fire after falling asleep on a tram.
Other organizations that work with homeless people are equally concerned about such attacks and at the end of June The Big Issue reported on a unique scheme being piloted in London that gave homeless people the chance to report crimes against them at community centres, instead of having to go to the police.
"The experience most rough sleepers have with police is an officer coming and telling them to move on, or else they have offending backgrounds," said Chief Inspector Musker of Lambeth Police, who helped conceive the scheme. "We are trying to get people to report incidents through a medium that is non-threatening."
Shane Halpin, executive director of INSP condemned those who "get their kicks from inflicting pain on defenceless individuals".
"These senseless attacks are a worrying trend for all those involved in human rights," he added. "Any attack on an individual is unacceptable, but an attack on a defenceless homeless person is abhorrent.
"It is said that one can judge a society on how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. INSP firmly believes that governments must act justly and swiftly in cases of abuse against homeless people and those found guilty of crimes must be prosecuted with the full force of the law. In countries where police forces have been accused of these attacks, as in Brazil, INSP demands a full independent investigation into the allegations.
"INSP will continue to monitor the reports from its member papers and will continue its public awareness campaign to the media."