Turf battles. You see them all the time. But usually they're not over who's entitled to sleep under a particular off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway. But sometimes they are.
For what it's worth, I thought that Robert Brown had the better of the argument. Brown's living under the underpass and Tommy Lee Jones -- no, not that 0ne -- and some of his buddies pitch a tent on the other side of the underpass and start to live there. At which point Brown tells Jones that the police will roust him if he has a tent. Apparently, there's an informal "no tent" rule re: police enforcement, which is interesting on its own. But Jones doesn't listen. And, sure enough, a couple of days later, the police roust the tent-weilding crew and force them to move.
At which point Jones promptly moves his tent over to Brown's side of the underpass and pitches it again. Which causes Brown to say: "Hey, I've been living here for six months. Don't pitch a tent near me. Because the police will roust everyone in the group, including me, if you do." But, again, Jones doesn't listen. So up goes the tent.
Brown, frustrated, then panhandles a bit on the off-ramp. Jones shows up later, and the two start arguing again about the whole tent situation. At which point Jones tells Brown "I'm not the one who's leaving, you're the one who's leaving." And goes to his tent to get something. And uses that thing -- a shank -- to stab Brown.
So massive injuries, but still. A shanking over a tent and an underpass. Hardly worthwhile, no?
