An allegedly homeless or vagrant man was found dead in a local creek last fall, according to a Dallas whistleblower who witnessed the incident.
Randy Griffin, a landscaping contractor, claimed to The Dallas Express that he discovered the body while working outside a building near the intersection of Harry Hines and Lombardy in Dallas in September — within Council Member Omar Narvaez’s District 6.
Narvaez’s district has struggled with crime and is currently seeing spikes in prostitution, narcotics, robbery, and car theft, according to data retrieved from the Dallas Police Department.
Griffin explained that he had been driving a tractor when he was met by a rotten odor.
“I smelled something,” he described. “I thought it was a dead fish or something.”
Griffin says he began to search for the source of the smell, leading him further into the nearby offshoots of Joe’s Creek.
“The water was probably 3 inches in that creek bed, maybe 4 inches, but I turned around and went back by, and there was a guy’s hand sticking out of the debris, and I got off that tractor and looked at it,” Griffin recounted.
“It was a body,” he continued, noting that he called Dallas police. Alongside other debris in the creek was a mangled tent, leading Griffin to conclude that the dead person was likely homeless or a vagrant.
The hand was covered with maggots that were in the process of consuming the decaying body, according to images and videos obtained by The Dallas Express.
The corner of Harry Hines and Lombardy is close to several overpasses where homeless people, vagrants, and panhandlers often congregate.
“Well, you know, they’re just all over,” said Griffin. “I mean [they] pretty much have left me alone, but I mean, they’re making messes on street corners, you know, parking [themselves] underneath bridges, it’s just not a normal thing.”
“I don’t know what the solutions are, but hopefully, there’s something in the making. I personally don’t know what to do about it,” Griffin added. “There’s a lot of it, and hopefully, they can come to a solution of how to solve it.”
The alleged incident described by Griffin comes as the City of Dallas has struggled to address what Mayor Eric Johnson has called the “scourge of homelessness.”
Late last week, Johnson announced a new task force to address the issue, as reported by The Dallas Express.
“We have residents of this city who … see growing numbers of encampments in their neighborhoods. They see people passed out on the sidewalks,” the mayor explained.
“They see people walking naked on the streets. They see trash. They see waste,” he continued. “They see tents pitched on our freeway underpasses.”
“They want and they expect to live in a city that does not tolerate, and certainly does not facilitate, disorder,” Johnson added.
Some have criticized the mayor, suggesting that the task force is little more than an election stunt to generate support.
“More City Hall Nonsense,” Mark Roberts, a Hillcrest Forest resident, claimed. “Of course, he’s waited until [just] before the election to take this act. And the Task Force recommendations are due on June 15…[just] after the election.”
Roberts continued, “This is all for show … This Task Force will make the same old recommendations — if we just throw more money at the problem, it will go away. It won’t.”
Last year alone, over 5,000 people suspected to be homeless or vagrant were arrested in Dallas County. Law enforcement whistleblowers have claimed, however, that they have been instructed to keep their “hands off the homeless.”
A recent poll conducted by The Dallas Express found that 52% of Dallas respondents believed that homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling were serious problems. Some local businesses have hired private security to prevent customers from being accosted, as The Dallas Express reported.
The Dallas Express has reached out to the Dallas Police Department for more information concerning this incident but has not received a response at the time of publication.
The Dallas Express also reached out to Council Member Omar Narvaez about the rotting body found in his district, but he failed to respond.
For more Dallas News, discover how Monty Bennett calls to help the homeless in a speech to the Metropolitan Civic and Business Association.
Check out what Kansas City, KS has done about their homeless situation. They cleaned up their mess long ago.
The Zero KC initiative started 6 months ago and no conclusions as to effectiveness. Programs to help others are are good but need to be measured for effectiveness before being adopted by other cities. Here is the link to the announcement of the initiative. https://www.kmbc.com/article/zero-kc-initiative-announced-to-end-homelessness-in-kansas-city/41343444#
Mayor Johnson will never take advice from any City, he and the DA. Are doing a horrible job. I don’t care what party a leader run’s in it’s about taking care of the Citizens and Voter’s get out and stop putting the liars in.
He will never reach out to Kansas City. As Martin Luther King Stated the Three Evil of Society’s.
1. Arrogance of Power.
2. Extreme Wealth.
3. Good Talk, which means nothing.
And a forth, watch out for those who wear robe’s, on the Bench and in the Church.
Great insight to a great speech about the “triple prong sickness” of War, Poverty and Racism, and as relevant today as it was in 1967.
So you just had to take a dig at the Church. Why don’t you visit one and make it better, since you are clearly a more ethical person?
Matt I do attend Church, open your bible to MICAH CHAPTER 6:12. I think you will know what I am saying. Maybe you need to attend Church or just read the Bible.
Don’t hate just read! Be blessed.
Texas cities are under the spotlight since so many are moving here from places they found unlivable. If city governments don’t do what must be done to eliminate vagrancy and street living, our good fortune will be short lived….and we’ll remember whose watch oversaw the failure. Dallas Mayor, running unopposed, should not assume he has a mandate to continue supporting mediocre officials and the laissez faire attitude responsible for our many, many city problems.
Please spell check on my post. I became too passionate and forgot to do so. Thank you!
All of these community leaders and politicians are not working together. It’s self interest. Yes, there are some great politicians,however we lack great leadership. The good politicians can not do it alone. There are good people in the world, however, you can not find them anymore because they are surrounded by wolves in sheep clothing. My heart ache for the children and the elderly, mental illness, drug addicts. The strange thing about it is that some of the greatest minds that could make a difference are behind bars treated like animals. Sad but true, we are becoming a society of the worst savages…….just wait! The worst is yet to come and it is manifesting quickly? Money can afford s you the necessities and allow you to do things you like, however, there is numerous things money can’t buy. I am done and great souls please ignite your passion to love and help people. Don’t be afraid. We are courageous! BE BOLD!!
I believe Mayor Johnson is prejudice, lacks morality and is only in the game to satisfy his own agenda. His comments, actions and reality of the homeless situation lacks compassion, eagerness and any validity to his so called “efforts”. He as not shown or done one ounce of anything to try and help the situation. I believe he’s leaving it ALL up to the taxpayers. I think he thinks if he lollygags the general public will come up with some solutions and to his rescue and he can reap the accolades. How bout this? Let’s raid John Wiley’s house again and use his money to establish a task force to audit all the apartment owners that get 100% tax break for having low income or affordable housing complexes but in fact are only devoting 4-7% of the apartments to said housing. Then the City of Dallas should fine them and make them pay back the excess tax break with penalty and interest per unleased apartment. Then start selecting the Section 8 voucher program applicants for those dwellings forcing those complexes to fill EVERY apartment that is empty. And I would suggest filling of those spaces should be one complex at a time so no landlord/owner gets overlooked allowing for non-compliance to the order.
How’s that sound? Kinda simple well maybe not the funds but you understand the jest. I just want to get off the streets and have housing which is not available no matter what and hasn’t been the whole 5 going on 6 years I’ve been homeless and God knows I try everyday…everyday. There is just no vacancies in low income or affordable housing and the move in cost is essentially 3 mths rent up front. Where do I get those funds? Oh and to even qualify my income must be 3 times the rent first off.
It sounds like people don’t get out and VOTE. I would never suggest anyone’s is raided, unless you know something we don’t know.
We have the Police, Sheriff, FBI, ATF. The late John Lewis said if you See Something, Do Something and then Say Something. Just Do it!
Dallas is becoming LA 2.0. The city officials are going down the same road Los Angeles did 20 years ago by instructing the police to keep their hands off the homeless.
Sounds as if the mayor is talking out of one side of his mouth to the public and saying something completely different to the police department by instructing them to leave the homeless alone.
Another amazing similarity in this is that both cities, Dallas and Los Angeles have a solid 100% democratic city hall. If your getting the same results with city officials as you are getting in LA then its time to vote these horrible city officials out of office and try something new, like voting for republican conservatives that are truly conservative and will make an honest effort to clean up this mess created by liberal and leftist democratic policies.
First, they are DEMOCRATS. Democratic is a PROCESS. Democracy is an ideal. A democrat is a member of a political party. We need to assure that the PROPER communication of what and or who we are speaking of is apparent.
One must also remember that our Founding Fathers realized that a true democracy can NEVER work. The reason is that PEOPLE are ignorant and selfish in general. Therefore they will vote for what they want to be GIVEN and steal (tax) from others to pay for it. Simply put, it is like a Jr High School presidential election. The candidate that promises free ice cream every Friday for all students WILL WIN the election, However there is no way to pay for the ice cream without taking money from somewhere or something else, possibly ending finance for other programs if that President was successful at all.
The way the Founding Fathers assured that all voters would vote in a responsible manner was to require that all voters were PROPERTY OWNERS. This worked for many, many years and the country was actually healthier overall. Roads were necessary taxation was necessary, but the VOTERS wanted those things and to limit taxation at the same time. IT took THOUGHT to elect someone that understood the REQUIREMENTS of society without burdening society through theft of hard earned income (called taxation) .
In other words, ALL social programs were generally CHRUCH based and the government stayed out of handouts almost entirely.
It’s all very well to blame the Councilman representing the area and accuse the mayor of a re-election campaign stunt but how do these solve the problem?
VOTE PEOPLE, because Biden or Trump are not our Mayors.
Gregg Abbott need to have a Mayor’s conference. He goes to Washington D.C.
Go to the Texas Capital and call all the Mayor’s, of each Cities to Austin and bring their Police Chiefs, City Manager’s and District DA. They are responsible and getting a paycheck.
What will Greg Abbott do? Nothing. This isn’t a law and order problem, it is a housing problem. The arrest-release cycle just perpetuates the problem. It’s certainly more complex than can be addressed here, but criminalizing poverty and in many cases severe depression or mental illness is not an answer.
Vagrancy, theft, littering, public exposure, loitering, violence, etc. is not ‘criminalizing poverty’. Regardless of our economic state, we have a responsibility to society, and ourselves, to obey laws, and live peaceable with others.
We have mental health facilities, and I admit we need more, but this isn’t always about mental health.
A lot of people think the solution is to give them tiny homes, etc., but that doesn’t solve the problem, either.
One thing to consider is hiring them to do city jobs, or provide services like cleaning up litter, etc. the way they used to. I think that would be better than just more handouts.
B.R, Bonnie made a suggestion about Kansas City, Kansas. That’s our problem we all never think it will work. Try it and see if it works. Can’t be any worse than what we are currently doing, NOTHING!
NOTHING…..?
https://dallashomelesssolutions.com/our-initiatives/dallas-r-e-a-l-time-rapid-rehousing/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dallas-mayor-says-new-homelessness-task-force-will-be-different/ar-AA17AtMa
We are doing nothing. I guess we like what he is doing is okay. The majority of Texans voted him back in. We are having elections in May. I bet you only 20% of the eligible will come out. They will have more excuses than Carter has Liver Pills.
One dying is a good start. Now what do we do about the other 10,000? Call the Orkin man?
Poor man could have been a Veteran. How cruel!
So? Veterans are citizens, not saints.They are subject to the same problems as anyone else.
Mr. Brewer I know that but my 25 year nephew died in Iraq on May 19, 2005.
He took a bullet through the throat trying to save atleast20-30 people. He might not be a saint to you but to those soldiers he saved he was. Some of those are still his brother’s.
He was from Barksdale’s base, his son who was 2 at the time, thinks his dad is one of God’s Saints.
Hey Mr. mayor please they are more than a scourge they are people if your going to speak of them have the decency to speak of them with a little more dignity&kindness they are human biengs&they are God’s children also you are too..they deserve all the love&kindness they can get..?have you ever lived in sqaulor..have you ever suffered sleep deprivation&hunger born of a fractured mental state?most of these people suffer from the disease of addiction&hoplessness of sever depression&ptsd as I’m sure this is more than obvious?wanna do some good..go out among them&preach the gospel to them before they were in this condition they came from somewhere before they found themselves where they are now SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE may even have been doctors or lawyers teachers,ect..my point being they are people who got lost&gave up hope of ever being found but if you love god&you know him THEN THAT. MEANS YOU ARE HIS SERVANT wich means if you cannot minister to them at least treat them with dignity&respect thank-you sir for allowing me audience&good day
The Mayor will never do the right thing. Sorry, he doesn’t care. He didn’t clean up his areas, when he was State Rep.
He lives in a gated community now.
So now our mothers,fathers,sisters, brothers, aunts, uncle’s etc are a scourge..
Well, that’s a godly opinion.
For shame…people you have failed to love thy neighbor and thy self…how about extending a hand by protesting and forcing our so called leaders to open back up our mental health centers and curbing ridiculous prices for medical and ever increasing costs of rent. God judge you kindly for your hardened soul.
Signed: Disgusted with Texas and every other state as well
Your elected officials as usual are “ kicking the can” on down the road !
Where are the opportunities for these people?
The easy way has failed. Time to make homelessness more inconvenient and uncomfortable than it already is. Immediate take-downs of tents and improvised shacks. Dump their shopping carts and return them to the stores they belong to.Dallas belongs to those who contribute, not the parasites.
thry do that instead of shelters,because shelters have rules they don twant to follow..being sober, being cooperative, helping with cleanup.. are all required at shelters..the bridge shelter has never turned anyone away because they are too crowded.. safety, shelter, and 3 meals a day free are provided.. but you have to be sober.. that swhy street homeless will always be there no matter what you do.