Joseph Gould, the unarmed “homeless man” who was shot by an off-duty policeman, exists largely as an abstraction in the media coverage of his murder. Now his arrest record for “aggravated assault” is being highlighted.
For a number of years, I knew him as a local entrepreneur. I didn’t know him well, but I did know him well enough that his murder, and the associated coverage, seems all the more surreal and skewed.
In the late 1980s, shortly after we bought our small, three-story office building, I learned about Joe as a local-area window cleaner. Our building doesn’t have a lot of windows, but our streetfront windows get dirty quickly, and I used to have them cleaned a few times a year. At that time Joe had a crew of about three or four helpers. For $50 they’d spend a half-hour cleaning our windows.
Joe and his crew were in great shape. They worked quickly and steadily. They were polite and did a fine job. When they finished, Joe had some preprinted receipts that said “Joseph Gould Window Cleaning” that he’d fill out for the amount I paid him. He was proud of his work.
Joe’s business seemed to do well for a few years. Then I lost track of him. And I had our windows cleaned less frequently.
After about a year, I saw Joe on the street. He looked lousy. I told him I was surprised that he looked so banged up, and I asked about his business. He said that he’d had some problems but that he wanted to make a comeback. He then asked if I had any work for him.
Every few months I’d give him some ground-level work to do: cleaning the front door, the back yard. He was not in shape for any major activity. Because this is not a large building, and there’s not too much to do, sometimes he would ask for an advance of $10 or $20 in exchange for future work. I always trusted that he was good for the work.
I had advanced him about $20 about two weeks before he was killed. Whenever I advanced him money, he’d call it a “blessing,” and he was extremely thankful. I’d tell him that it wasn’t a blessing, that he was earning it. It was sad that he had lost his former self-assurance and pride.
Our office is in a busy part of town. There are a lot of fashionable restaurants nearby, so a lot of people are on the street asking for money. When they do, I usually tell them that they can do some work on the building instead, like cleaning the yard or shoveling the front walk, which I would pay them for. Almost always that ends our conversation, and they turn to ask someone else.
Joe was unique in his commitment to working for the money he received. I always hoped he’d be able to turn things around and get some semblance of his former business going again. It seemed to me that that’s what he really wanted.
