Army Staff Sergeant Joel Usher Wants You To Pretend-Hunt For Veterans

What happens when an active duty Army Staff Sergeant creates a smartphone app built on the idea of killing homeless people?

Late last week, Vice’s Jamie Lee Curtis Taete wrote about a horrid new Android app called HoboHunt. Basically, it’s a simple photo sharing app with the sickening hook of sending pictures of homeless people with weapons superimposed over them. From Taete’s conversation with app mastermind Joel Usher:

The ‘Hobo’ part [of the title] came about as a friend of mine, who commutes through Washington, DC, was constantly sending me camera phone pictures of hobos along his route, and making jokes about ‘hunting’ them as he drove. He also told me that a group of attorneys (at a prestigious firm I won’t name) all do the same, and that really triggered the idea behind the app.

There are in-app purchases available, basically bundles of various weapon overlays. They vary from swords and knives to guns and such. These are really what drive the core concept of the game, as they appear on the screen and it looks as though these weapons are aimed at whatever you are taking a picture of. Thus the ‘hunt’ aspect.

I looked into Joel Usher, and found his LinkedIn page on his company’s website. Here’s a screencap that includes one detail that I wasn’t expecting to find: Mr. Joel Usher is actually Staff Sergeant Joel Usher.

Further down the page, SSG Usher’s service is listed as July 2004 — Present. For some reason, it matters to me whether SSG Usher is currently enlisted or not. For all I know, he hasn’t updated the end date, so I went looking for evidence of current service. In an October 2011 blog post about Steve Jobs’s passing, Usher mentions his military service in the present tense:

In the Army we say that we serve for those who came before us, and for those who follow. In the tech world, and in the modern business world at large, so it is with Mr. Jobs.

I haven’t found anything on his Facebook profile (pretty easily found on the official Synventus and HoboHunt Facebook pages) mentioning being discharged since last October, so it would seem that Joel Usher is actively serving. Maybe I’m a traditionalist, but it’s pretty messed up that an active duty Army Staff Sergeant has created an app that encourages people to go “hunting” for homeless people. But how else does this quote relate to HoboHunt?

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, eight percent of Americans are veterans, but a horribly disproportionate one-third of the U.S. American homeless population are veterans. That means that at least one of the soldiers in this January 2010 group picture taken from SSG Usher’s Facebook page are or will be homeless at some time in his or her life.

Statistically speaking, the homeless one will likely be African American or Hispanic, so Joel's probably safe.

That’s what so disappointing about SSG Usher’s Android App. He offers such an obscene gaming experience without even acknowledging, or understanding, if I’m being charitable, the connection between the military heritage he reveres and the “hobos” he’s making money off of hunting. But maybe we can help SSG Usher and his guffawing supporters understand. Back in 1994, Mandy Patinkin performed the song Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? in one of his and Tony Randall’s “impromptu rehearsal” bits on Late Show with David Letterman. (Sorry about the video quality, but this is the only available recording.)

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OZfoFAs2u4′]

This standard was written less than two years after 1929’s stock market crash. It resonated with audiences because it was written from the perspective of a “hobo” who had served in a war zone, an experience that is still all too common. The song became one of the most popular anthems of the Great Depression, and I fear it rings just as true today.

But that’s not the only reason this song came to mind while I was reading up on HoboHunt. No, that happened when I saw this exchange with user Daniel Williams on the HoboHunt Facebook page.

Don't you remember? I'm your pal.

Staff Sergeant Joel Usher is a member of LinkedIn veteran groups VFW and Veteran CEO’s, with 9,422 and 666 members respectively. I can’t help but wonder what those members would think of how he treats their homeless veteran brothers and sisters.