BY THE VILLAGE SUN | Two guys got into a bloody scrap at Grand Street and the Bowery on Thursday and both came away the worse for it.
A Twitter post by a witness brought the incident to light. The tweet noted the fight was right outside where a homeless drop-in center is being proposed.
According to police, just before noon on Feb. 17, a 35-year-old man went up to a 25-year-old man and asked for a cigarette. Somehow, a fight then broke out between the two and both of them wound up getting injured.
The younger man suffered a nasty-looking laceration to the back of his head while the other guy hurt his knee.
Someone called 911 and police responded to the scene. However, the 25-year-old told cops he didn’t know how he got hurt. He was taken to New York-Lower Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital for treatment, where he was reported in stable condition.
The other man told the cops he fell and hurt himself. He refused medical attention.
It wasn’t immediately clear, at least not from a police spokesperson, if the men were homeless or where they were living since neither wanted to file charges against the other, so police did not take down their information.
A police source said, “It just looks like two dudes who may or may not have been fighting each other, and they didn’t want to get involved with the police.”
The Twitter poster noted that the scuffle’s location was right outside 231 Grand St., where a new homeless drop-in center is proposed. The Village Sun recently reported on Paul’s Place, a similar type of drop-in center and so-called Safe Haven — featuring 70 lounge chairs available for overnight stays, plus 24 longer-term “stabilization” beds — that will be opening on W. 14th Street as soon as next month.
Nearby Sara D. Roosevelt Park and the surrounding blocks have been a magnet for drugs and violence and homeless individuals, so the Chinatown-area drop-in shelter and its supportive help could provide a valuable service.
The dust-up’s location was also just a block and a half away from where Christina Yuna Lee, 35, was brutally slain in her apartment by a push-in attacker a week ago. News reports described the alleged killer as homeless, saying he was staying nearby at the Bowery Mission at the time of the crime.
The poster, JWONG, stated that one of the men in the scuffle was arrested, which was not accurate, according to police. She tweeted that, “according to local press,” one of the two was “a homeless individual roaming the area in the past several months and is emotionally disturbed.” That could not be confirmed by The Village Sun. She also said the guy who fell and hurt his knee was an “old man,” but 35 is not even considered middle-aged.
Perhaps use words that are very clear. There is no connection between these men, who may be housed men, and a future building that will have nothing to do with fighting, whether people are housed or not. I believe that you did not intend the connection so will end with following research as last comment.
What do you mean by so called?
The definition of so called is something that is alleging to be something you are not sure it is. An example of so called is when someone says he is an actor but you don’t believe he is. You might say “the so-called actor.” adjective. 1.
So-called Meaning – YourDictionaryhttps://www.yourdictionary.com › so-called
Search for: What do you mean by so called?
Why people say so called?
You use so-called to indicate that you think a word or expression used to describe someone or something is in fact wrong.
So-called definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionaryhttps://www.collinsdictionary.com › dictionary › so-called
Thanks again, Susan. The Village Sun felt that the language and “slant,” if it can be called such, of this news item, were both clear. And we will stick with the No. 1 definition of “so-called” given by the Oxford Dictionary, which allegedly (notice, we’re now avoiding the use of “so-called”) is “the world’s leading dictionary publisher.” It was JWONG, the Twitter poster, who highlighted that the fight was in front of the proposed homeless drop-in center. Again, The Village Sun report could be said to have helped debunk some of JWONG’s misinformatoin. Also, regardless of whether these men were fighting, if they are homeless, maybe when and if this facility opens, it could provide help to them (if they are still around the neighborhood then) and others, as well.
What do you mean by “so-called” safe haven? “So called” is generally used as negative language. It is either a safe haven, which is a specific type of transitional housing shelter, or it is not.
There is absolutely no information to point to the men being homeless, so why is homelessness noted at all? Other stories do not note that — “men may have homes.”
This is heated and emotional so very important to be factual and not heat up story for more clicks.. thank you
Susan, thanks for your comment. This news item was not intended to “heat up the story for more clicks.”
As for the use of “so-called,” it was used in the sense of definition No. 1, below. The fact that that definition is listed first would seem to indicate that it is the more common usage:
“so-called”
Definitions
Definitions from Oxford Languages
adjective
1.) used to show that something or someone is commonly designated by the name or term specified.
“next on the list are so-called “soft” chemicals like phosphorous acid”
2.) used to express one’s view that a name or term is inappropriate.
“she could trust him more than any of her so-called friends”
Google’s English dictionary is provided by Oxford Languages.
Oxford Languages is the world’s leading dictionary publisher, with over 150 years of experience creating and delivering authoritative dictionaries globally in more than 50 languages.
Also the “so-called” refers to the type of housing, which is a category or type or class of housing, so capitalized, “Safe Haven” — meaning, “this is what people technically refer to it as, this is its name” — and is not intended to cast doubt on whether it really is literally, lowercase, a “safe haven,” where people can be safe. The Village Sun is not doubting this proposed program or whether it would provide a valuable service, just the opposite. And there is a sentence in the item saying that this could be a beneficial facility to help homeless individuals in the area and, in turn, the area itself. The news item also includes a helpful link to a listing of community board meetings with information on the meeting this Thursday at which the proposed Grand St. drop-in homeless shelter will be presented to Community Board 2. Susan, you had asked us to include this monthly calendar listing of meetings in The Village Sun, thank you!!!
Also, there’s no assertion in The Village Sun’s coverage that the men actually were homeless, just that these were two guys, who, according to police, “may or may not have fought” with each other. The two men denied fighting with each other, clearly. Since there were no charges filed by the men against each other, no one’s personal info was taken down by the police, apparently. The Village Sun was not there, so we can’t speculate if they were homeless or not.
The person who put out several tweets about this, on the other hand, apparently did put out incorrect info, and The Village Sun item points that out. First, it’s not true, as the tweeter stated, that one of the men was arrested. Second, the guy who suffered pain to his knee was not what most people would call an “old man,” as JWONG, the poster claimed, since according to police he is 35 years old. JWONG also calls one of the men “homeless…roaming around…emotionally disturbed.” Again, The Village Sun could not verify that.
The Village Sun did not actually embed (include) any of JWONG’s tweets because, frankly, they seemed off-target.
If these men were / are homeless and if the drop-in center at Grand St. is approved, hopefully they would be able to get help there.