Depending on whom you ask, Madison ‘s single, transient men — often mentally ill, addicted to drugs and alcohol, or both — are a problem this liberal city has long been reluctant to confront.
Or they ‘re a convenient scapegoat for a pair of unsolved killings and the targets of a general disdain for the poor.
It ‘s hard to know when police admit they have a less-than-ideal handle on their numbers or the problems they cause, although some officers say the problems they cause on State Street and elsewhere in the central city have gotten much worse.