Originally published at: Knoxville police release footage of wheelchair-using stroke victim dying in their custody after they abuse and berate her | Boing Boing
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More discussion with the family in this one.
My guess is they assumed she was addicted to drugs and therefore no longer entitled to life.
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Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along.
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All Cops… ALL COPS!
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Same attitude that brought us the notion of “useless eaters” oh, not too long ago. Sieg heil. 
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my read was different. she’s an older, heavy set woman in a wheelchair, saying she’s in pain, and asking for help. that’s it entirely, i don’t think a question of drugs was involved at all
in a horrific detail of horrific details, according to the article they were laughing, and spraying lysol on themselves because they thought she smelled
presumably the hospital didn’t want to help her because she didn’t have insurance, and the cops didn’t want to help her because that’s not why they became cops. she didn’t have any status or power, so they all felt free to treat her like a problem rather than a person
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Any chance they will be held accountable?
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The only way I could see this happening would be to prosecute it as a coroner’s case, with a healthy dose of “elder abuse” on top, with an emphasis on the willing participants that although didn’t engage in the violence, but on their failure as a Mandated Reporter, to report this incident to their higher ups.
Noted in the above linked article is to call 911 when elder abuse is suspected, but how does that cover the scenario when the elder abuse is perpetrated by the cops themselves?
Qualified Immunity could be whittled away by demonstrating that there was:
- Gross negligence in their role as a (medical) first responder, especially in the case of this happening within a care facility (hospital)
- Failure to Train (the officers in dealing with medical incidents)
- Failure to Supervise (the officers in dealing with medical incidents, and allowing it to escalate to this point)
- Failure of the hospital staff to correctly triage this prospective patient
I wouldn’t trust the DA to handle this correctly, but would like to see the state appoint a special prosecutor, especially if their name ends with a MD (in addition to being a lawyer).
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If they have a designated emergency room, this itself would be illegal.
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To me the tell is them saying she is “faking” and they “see this” all the time.
As far as I can tell she did have some kind of insurance or at least the hospital had no way of knowing if she’d be unable to pay.
IMO based on context alone the ER and the cops both simply didn’t believe her in the first place and seeing some one old, disabled, and possibly morally flawed as a sub-human temporarily in the shape of some one’s grandmother, they denied her even the most basic compassion while she died from their abuse and neglect.
Not sure if that’s better or worse… or even that different a take.
I have seen doctors treat literally every elderly woman I know this way fwiw. For example my mother had to find a doctor to treat a previously diagnosed neck injury. My mom simply wanted to see a neck specialist to see if her injury had gotten worse. One of the new doctors was laser focused on “alcoholism causes neuralgia” and refused to allow her to see a specialist. She had to drive several hours to a neighboring city. Her prior diagnosis is in her medical records. My mother really isn’t a drinker. Similarly her own mother was never a smoker but when we told a nurse that while discussing her COPD the nurse laughed in our faces and said “they all say that.” My grandmother was also Deaf, so adding a layer to the insult, my mother had to interpret that callous statement from the people who would be controlling her access to pain medication while in the hospital. The third example who comes to mind is a drug addict who also has chronic pain from illness for which there is no better treatment than pain management, but I’d still make the argument that being a drug addict shouldn’t preclude treatment for other illnesses which currently, at least in this state… it really literally does.
At the intersection of medical care for the elderly and disabled substance use disorder is often the pretext/excuse given for poor treatment because a lot of elderly old women are in terrible pain and take a lot of pain meds to cope and it’s marginally harder to criminalize being a sick old woman than it is to criminalize being a drug addict. We’ve only openly declared war on one of those groups so far.
I’m sure the “all lives matter” party will get us there soon enough though.
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“Greatest Healthcare System in the World”
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In another world, a good one, It would make all citizens shiver in indignation and take the streets claiming for health system reformation.
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@beschizza Please stop using the phrase “wheelchair-bound” unless you’re actually describing a bondage scene. “Wheelchair-using” or “wheelchair user” are more accurate. We’re not tied to them.
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Also, kudos to the linked news article for not using the hackneyed phrase.
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Of course it is, it isn’t run by leftish communist libruls like them pinko limeys?
I hope I live to see these assholes choke to death on their own vomit.
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