Yeah, I hear ya. I live outside Detroit and have heard a lot about the violence on the homeless. I guess the average homeless person always carries around knifes or some weapon for defense because its really common. Because not too many people care about them, its going to go non reported, and the police quite frankly arn't gonna put some homeless assult on top of their "to do" list.
I think this has a lot to do with the net (oh crap, I never thought i'd say this, i'm getting old). The "Bum Fights" video's on the net are very popular. Just go to some BT and download them. They pay homeless people to beat each other up or attack each other. One of them I actually saw a clip of, they were treating it like the "Crocodile Hunter", this guy imitating an Austrailian accent dressed up like Steve Irwin, with help from others jumped on this homeless guy and held him and tied him up and did the whole skit talking about how its a vicious creature they are and prodding and poking them with the camera wedged in their faces. Then they do the release and run away just like the Croc Hunter. I sadly admit, I laughed my ass off the first time I saw it. It was quite funny. But as I look back, that was extremely mean and cruel. Those companies should have their butts sued off.
I don't have enough posts where I can post a link, but I'm sure there are a bunch out there if you google it "Bum Hunter". (actually I just tried to find a link, but I saw on two sites that the guy who did the "bum hunter" segments, actually contracted HIV from one of them and quit it. Good riddence.)
It's crap like this thats advertised on MTV that the little punks think is funny and i'm sure they want to try it to be cool.