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# Charles Springer: Remembering Bobby Capps, a friend lost to homelessness
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/from-20031124/
- Published: 2003-11-24T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T01:17:00.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*THE STREET Death is the great equalizer, touching every one of us*

*By Charles Springer*

What does death mean to you? How does it affect you in your daily life? Last time I heard, the mortality rate among human beings is 100 percent. So what does this have to do with homelessness you ask?

It has very much to do with homelessness, especially when death happens to someone you are close to.

Last week, a homeless man died. He died at the hands of another homeless man and through the ineptness of the hospital, which put him out on the street with a major head injury.

He was my friend, as is his brother. You might know him. He and his brother used to stand at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Third Street just in front of La Salsa. They used to panhandle with the sign that said “Just a smile.”

Just a smile. Bobby and Albert Capps were my friends. They always had just that for me when I was down — a smile. They always treated me like a little brother. Bobby used to crack jokes sometimes when he saw me in the dumps as he passed by where I work in the morning. Just a Smile.

Some of you might be thinking, “Ah, another homeless person is dead, so what? They’re all dirty, mentally ill, lazy criminal dopers anyway. Who cares?” You might be hoping we would all share his fate to get rid of us so you can have your gentrified community and your quality of life is not threatened by seeing us. Then there are some of you who might have shown up for the vigil we had on Friday, supporting us as we grieve the death of one in our own community. Whichever category you fall under, I hope you see this one point — a human being is dead and his life cannot be replaced.

From what I understand, there was an altercation with the other homeless guy, who I also know, and Bobby’s head hit a pole. Albert took Bobby to the hospital and they stitched him up. He had 14 stitches on top of his head to close up the long gash, which was bleeding profusely. With this kind of injury he should have been kept for the customary 24-hour observation period for a major concussion. But he was released after being stitched up and died two days later at their camp along the Santa Monica Freeway.

I have seen and experienced this time and again. This is how these hospitals treat all of the homeless because we have no means to pay when we get sick or injured out here. You would figure that the doctor’s oath to save lives would mean something to them, but this incident and many others like it prove that money is more important than a human life. This proves to me beyond a shadow of a doubt the old saying “money is the root of all evil,” and many others out here on the streets believe this as well.

Well, you who are so adept at inciting anti-homeless sentiment with your one-dimensional thinking should be happy this happened. You who think that all of us are animals and should, as the hypocrite doper Rush Limbaugh says, be lined up and shot. I would like to see how you would feel if this was a death in your family, a friend’s family or in your own community. I wonder if you would feel anything like I do right now, having lost someone who was good to me no matter what circumstances I was in or how he might have felt at the time. Or would you feel like his brother Albert, a 64-year-old man who cried on my shoulder at Starbuck’s last week and has to live with the loss of his brother and closest friend. How would you feel if you were in this circumstance?

And all they ever asked for was just a smile. (Charles Springer is a freelance writer and artist living and working in Santa Monica. He)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 24, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112403.pdf?ref=smdp.com)