A couple of nights ago, two homeless people beat a woman so badly she lost 14 teeth and is in a drug-induced coma.

The Tribune writes it as if it were an unprovoked attack, just another reason to fear homeless people in the South Loop:

Burgess and King walked up to Hoffman, 36, and Hall and asked for cigarettes, which Hall and Hoffman did not have, prosecutors said. The couple took a few steps before Burgess attacked Hall from behind, knocking her to the ground, Hoffman said.

Over at the Sun-Times, the story becomes a little more clear, and we realize that the victims weren’t as innocent as portrayed by the Tribune:

When the homeless woman asked the woman celebrating her birthday for a cigarette, she was told to “go get a job” by the woman or her companion, the [police] source said.

I lived a couple blocks from where this happened while I was in college, and, yes, some panhandlers could get pretty aggressive. But a little bit of eye contact and a simple “Sorry, no” usually is enough to get them to move on to the next person.

Telling a homeless person to “go get a job” certainly doesn’t mean you deserve to lose 14 teeth and be put in the hospital, but when will people learn to keep their mouths shut and keep walking?

Especially when you have no health insurance and don’t know who you’re dealing with…