Follow up on that homeless person encounter.

Guess who I had a second encounter with, tonight?

Yep, three nights after that strange encounter where a homeless man came right up into my face and started demanding that I get out of his space and accusing me of stealing his things, I saw him again. I knew that the odds were high that I would eventually see him again, and there was no way I was going to change my routine to avoid it.

As I was crossing the street by Lovejoy Bakers, I saw him, in the same clothes, carrying two reusable grocery bags -- one in each hand -- walking perpendicular to my direction. It was surreal, as he never looked sideways in my direction. After he passed me, I stopped and decided I should take some photos and video of him, just in case.

At this point, I think most people would have turned and walked away; I decided to turn around the block in his direction and see where he was headed. After turning the block I saw him across the street and stopped to take his photo. He turned, saw me then started walking towards me. Thinking that he'd recognized me, I made a quick decision that this time, I was going to walk straight at him with the intent of confronting him.

I got right up into his face and asked him, "Do you remember me from the other night?"

He had a puzzled look as he meekly replied that he didn't.

Just a foot away from his face I glared at him and asked, "Do you remember yelling at me to get out of your space?"

He was confused and mumbled about having to get out of the street to keep his defense strong.

At that point it was clear that he wasn't in the same state of mind as he was three nights ago, and didn't understand what he'd done; at that point, I was glad that I didn't overreact and crush his trachea and break his neck for shoving me, three nights ago.

As I started walking away I told him he should stay safe.

And that was that.

I still think he's a danger to people. I've seen many mentally ill homeless people, and several shouting obscenities to an invisible person, but none have ever stopped and physically confronted me. That this guy did so, reflects his dangerous nature. But we live in a f'ed up society where his civil rights are protected until he seriously harms someone, even though everyone knows that he's a danger to society.