From the windows of our offices Thursday morning, we watched as St. Louis Park Rangers and a bright orange city garbage truck destroyed a makeshift homeless camp across Dr. Martin Luther King Drive from the Post-Dispatch building. People from our offices and from the St. Patrick Center for the homeless on the other side of the desolate park known as Interco Plaza poured out to intervene.

The city workers would not be stopped. "Just following orders," one of the rangers told us.

In short order, the handful of tents and cardboard dwellings, as well as everything inside them, including sleeping bags and medicine, was stuffed into the garbage truck and crushed.

The occupants were not — you should pardon the expression — at home. When they returned, everything they owned was gone.

Homelessness is a difficult problem for cities, including St. Louis. The city has made great strides in recent years, but problems remain. But this scene, however atypical, was brutal.

We'd watched the little encampment grow over the past few weeks, knowing that sooner or later the city would intervene. Tent cities are considered an eyesore, even in an eyesore park. Parks have curfews, even parks that look like rubble in Baghdad. There are uncertainties for visitors and campers alike.

There's supposed to be a protocol for this kind of thing. First comes an order to vacate from Park Rangers. Then comes intervention from the Department of Human Services, which offers to relocate people and tag and store belongings. Then the garbage trucks roll.

It didn't happen this time.

"There's no question we screwed up," said Bill Siedhoff, director of the Department of Human Services. He said his department never got a call. "We will make every effort to contact the individuals who were affected. We blew it and we're going to do what we can to make it up."