Alaska Man Monday - Harpoons, Homeless, and Hometown Heroes

Alaska is one of those places where we take the unusual for granted, but this week was remarkable even for us. Harpoons, yeah, I can see that – but runaway homeless encampments in our subarctic climate? That seems a bit out of control. This week’s Alaska Man news has a couple of sad and depressing things to start with; I usually try to keep this column a little more light-hearted, but these things are important. Out of respect, I won’t assign an Alaska Man score to these first two stories.

So let’s dive in:

Holy crap! Granted, thinking about harpoons with a connection to Alaska isn’t that much of a stretch, but threatening cops with a harpoon, that’s another story – although it’s sure as hell an Alaskan one, and this guy did it at the dipnet fishery on the Kenai Peninsula.

When troopers arrived, they found Kirk Medak carrying what appeared to be a 7-foot long metal harpoon with a pointed tip, similar to those used for deep sea halibut fishing, according to Alaska Department of Public Safety spokesman Austin McDaniel.
Troopers say Medak initially moved toward at a patrol car before retreating when when he was told to step back.
Then, according to the officers’ version of events, Medak “he began to charge at them while still brandishing the harpoon and ignoring the Trooper’s commands.”
A trooper shot Medak, who was declared dead at the scene, according to the dispatch.

That’s too bad – there’s certainly more to the story that we see here, certainly something that would drive a man of that age to rush cops with a harpoon – but at least no cops or bystanders were, well, harpooned.

And, yeah, it happens here too – in a thing the local media is calling “Camp LaFrance,” homeless campers have taken over a whole street in Anchorage:

A warning to parents, children, and the elderly: A street just a block east of Cuddy Park has become the new no-man’s-land for street people living in cars, trucks, and tents in Anchorage.
In addition to tarps, tents, and vehicles in the street, the street is lined with trash, debris, and what are probably stolen bicycles. It’s not the kind of place where a person would walk or drive without a sidearm or an officer of the law.
After being abated from public land at 3rd and Ingra Street last year, the encampment took over Cuddy Park as well as the “Archive Property,” eight acres on the south end of the park, in Midtown. Abatement that occurred at that site in May has resulted in the homeless village reconvening a block away, on a stub of Fairbanks Ave. that is between Home Depot and the Brown Jug.
The Supreme Court has ruled that cities can enforce rules about these encampments, but the Anchorage Assembly appears to be unwilling.

Last year Anchorage shattered the record for people dying of exposure on the streets. It’s sad. Come on, Anchorage. Get it together. There has to be a better way to handle this problem than to literally let people die of exposure.

Finally, some brighter news: An Alaska youth from the Homer Spit is on her way to the Olympics!

Olympic cyclist Kristen Faulkner first learned how to balance on a bike in Homer.
“There is this little gravel road below our house, and I remember learning to ride a bike on that road, and there are a lot of potholes on it and I remember, bumpity, bump, bump, bump,” Faulkner recalled.
She left the Homer Spit as a teen, ultimately graduating from Harvard University in 2016 where she was a varsity rower.
But it wasn’t until 2018 while living in California when she fell back in love with the sport of cycling — and it wasn’t until 2021 when she stepped away from her career as a venture capitalist to become a full-time cyclist.
“I decided that if I didn’t pursue my Olympic dream at that point, I might never do it.” Faulkner said.

Miss Faulker is, at the moment, training in Colorado to prepare for the summer Olympics. Good luck, Miss Faulkner – all of us here in the Great Land are rooting for you!

Alaska Man score: 5 moose nuggets. We need good news more than ever in these uncertain times.

Now, my rant on cellular phones.