woman tells Mac council about threatening situation, possibly with homeless man
A lady with broken English and a Thai accent has a lot to say about human dignity and the homeless situation in McMinnville.
I will call her Kate. She has Kate’s Thai Cuisine food truck near Adams and 14th street.
She went to the McMinnville City council meeting last night (Tuesday) because she wanted the city to know what is going on and she was not aware of how or when the city meets. She saw a posting on Facebook talking about last night’s meeting and so decided to go.
She tells KLYC NEWS her concerns. She wants everyone to be safe. Everyone, herself, her kid and her husband…..and all of the community………….and that prompted her coming to the city. She is concerned about the young homeless she says she sees arriving on buses, and that there seem to be more of them.
She is concerned with increased vandalism and theft, and she says we should all look out for each other. She says no city should buy bus tickets to send their homeless to another city. They should take care of the problem locally.
There was an incident last August she told the council about. Last August, she saw a man in his 30’s come out of the Champion Teams outreach center nearby and walk past her food truck. He was mumbling. He turned and walked back towards her food truck in a threatening matter, with fist raised.
He then stopped, walked away. The man then returned with fist raised again. Kate’s husband yelled at him, Kate grabbed her kid and went into her food truck. The man turned and ran into the Dairy Queen across the street.
As near as we can tell, Kate called the non emergency number for YCOM, she apparently did not call 911, and talked to a call taker.
She said a man approached with fist raised, was confronted and turned and ran into the Dairy Queen where there were kids. Kate was concerned for their safety. Kate says she was told by YCOM that if the man did not have a weapon there was nothing that could be done. Kate said okay and hung up.
City Councilor Adam Garvin says they are looking into the incident.
A health inspector who was there followed the man into the Dairy Queen and determined the man went through the Dairy Queen and out the other side. No one was injured.
In another incident, Kate said a man approached and wanted to work.
He said he would work for food scraps. She said don’t say you will work for scraps. Work for food, you have dignity as an individual. Don’t ask for scraps. Work for food, there is dignity in that, dignity as a person.
Her English may be broken, but her message is not.
