OPB's Colan Fogarty reports this afternoon on Oregon Considered about the issues I blogged about this morning concerning the recent attack on an Oregon homeless man:

Police describe 43-year-old Andrew Gonzalez as a transient. He told investigators that on July 31st, he met 19-year-old Samuel Morton, 16-year-old Shawn Glancy, and 17-year-old Rauno Helmik. When police were called out on reports of an assault early the next morning, they found a badly beaten man in a rocky area by the Willamette River.

Gonzales was taken to OHSU with serious head and hand injuries. He underwent surgery and was released a few days later. The crime remains unexplained.

Chuck Currie: "The first thing I thought when I heard that story is that it's a familiar story. It's an increasingly familiar story across our country."

Reverend Chuck Currie is pastor at the Parkrose Community United Church of Christ in Portland. For several years, he served on the board of the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Last year, the group documented 142 violent attacks nationwide against homeless people,  including murders, rapes, and six people being set on fire. Those figures do not include homeless-on-homeless violence.

Currie says nationally, attacks on transients by non-homeless people is on the rise.

Chuck Currie: "And these crimes are more often than not done by young kids, young teen agers who are sometimes saying that they're doing it out of boredom, sometimes saying it because they see it on television and think it will be fun."

Currie cites programs like so-called "Bum Fights," videos -- which are sold in video stores -- that show fights between homeless people.

Click here to read the full transcript or to listen to the audio.