Homeless Vietnam vet mugged while sleeping at Veteran's Memorial Park, prosecutors say

It happened about 3 on Thursday morning near the veterans' park south of Westport. The victim woke up when he found a group of young men going through his pockets. He started to fight with them, even though he got clocked a few times with a brick. They started to drive off, but he jumped into the back of their truck. Eventually, he landed at the Quik-Trip on Main and called police.

He lost $500, his cellphone and an extra pair of shoes.

Prosecutors have charged two men -- Rolando Aaron, 19, and Paul W. Simmons, 19, both of KC -- with first-degree robbery. Here's a PDF of the probable cause. They both say they were fighting in self-defense.

Comments

[Kevin]

Hang them and save the taxpayers some money

[D-man]

get this man on his feet. I don't know where things went wrong but we need to make sure our vets aren't sleeping in parks
D-man
OIF1

[Nick]

Where else but in America could the homeless carry 500.00 dollars in their pocket while sleeping in the park?

[joshua]

500 dollars is a magical number when dealing with prosecution. I don't know all the laws but at 500 bucks the charges jump and so do the penalties. whether he

[Ni]

If gas prices keep rising the only place I’ll be able to afford to live and still have money left for groceries will be the park:-)

[JTW]

The government's treating vets not much better than these two thugs. You bet they'll get their day in court and all sorts of protection afforded such trash by "the system." Meanwhile, the vet will be lucky to get anything other than scars from the beating.

[please sign your comments]

i agree. the government could build a nursing home system to house these vets. or a trailer park. i'd pay for a vet trailer park so they could party and take it easy. but only for war vets. you'd have to serve in combat to be eligible. i'd bet the enlistment rates would go up, if they provided that benefit. i'm all for it.

[angry]

why are our vets homeless?

[JTW]

Angry: Good question, for which there are many, many answers, not the least of which is government indifference. The Feds had no problem coming up with hundreds of trailers for victims of Katrina, but just try and get some politician interested enough to introduce legislation to provide trailers for homeless vets. Such legislation would go nowhere ... too expensive, don't you see.

[D-man]

I'm a vet, I'm not homeless as you would probably guess. there are some weird reasons why combat vets tend to be homeless. part of it is alot of the bums AREN'T Vets at all, just poor people trying to strike a nerve and get a dollar, it's basically selling themselves as vets for sympathy. Now on to the real vets. when in combat you learn that you can live with less and live with what you can carry on your back. some people find this to be a point in their life that they can't get back. In combat there are feelings and thoughts that are unique. Such as a constant state of danger. A dependence on fellow man. you also don't have to deal with the things that life brings. Plus a constant state of self reliance at it's most basic is something that they know they can do. If you had never been without then you will never know how to do without. These guys went for weeks in the weather, relying on their knowledge for a good bit of their survival.
Another Idea is that (this one is kind of skewed but makes a little sense) when a lot of people were drafted they were of lower class/income. some of these guys would have probably ended up homeless at some point in their life whether or not they went in the military. This is due to lack of education and valid experience to make it in the workplace. Any other ideas would be invited.

[Keith G in P.V.]

D-Man, I agree, agree, agree...and in the end, disagree. Yes, there are tons of phoney vets, some on the streets. And there are a lot of circumstances/conditions at play with the real vets struggling like this.

It's WE, THE PEOPLE who must ultimately take responsibility. We elect congress and the president. They may be sleazy politicians, but they respond to definable public demands. We can bemoan their fate as we read the papers and type in our office or home. What do we do face-to-face? Demand the police get them off the street, out of OUR parks, out of our sight?

There are no easy answers and no easy solutions. In the end, WE, THE PEOPLE have to solve it, with or without the government as the administrator.

[monty]

C ould these be the Black punks shooting and beating up White kids in Westport?.....Shut up Monty...Barry Hussein is running for office.Please dont sick Diguid or Lokeman on me.

[Retired Vet]

I wonder if this guy was recieving disability?
There actually are communities for vets, but only in certain states, Kansas isnt one of them. I think I would have atleast spent the $39.95 a nite for a hotel room though. Sleeping in a park in Kansas City is worse than sleeping in Iraq.

[Dolphingal]

I think it's safe to say these two idiots will never make anything of themselves. I wish the vet would have had a gun....end of story. Dead offenders are better than repeat offenders.

[John Mack]

The one on the left looks like Curious George, and the one on the right looks like Bubba Gump.

[Rosie]

The fact is that there are MANY homeless vets. Stand Down KC serves many of them every year, twice a year. Many are homeless due to mental health issues that have gone untreated. Such a person might well have had a large amount of cash in his pocket and been in a park. Having said that, I would expect to be more likely to hear such a story around the 1st or 3rd of the month or around the 2nd Wednesday of the month as that is when Social Security & disability checks go out. I don't mean to imply that the victim is being untruthful, simply that most individuals understand that it is unwise to try and survive in the homeless environment without entrusting one's cash assets to a payee or a trusted family member, an agency, the V.A., someone. I am glad this man had the guts to fight back and that there are suspects in custody. I hope the man's assets are recovered in full.

[please sign your comments]

The only reason people remain homeless is they choose the rock or the bottle over a roof. I have yet to meet one chronically homeless person who really wanted a job more than to get high and drunk. I hate homeless. One tried to rob me the other day. He ran up to my car and stuck his hands right in my face and demanded money. I had no where to go so I had to use a stun gun on the guy.

They disgust me.

[wayne point]

This crime against John Mack is horrific in it self,i came across this story while searching for my uncle John Mack the viet nam vet whom our family have not herd from for over twenty years,is this the John Mack i've been searchin g for.

Wayne Point