Posted on 03/20/2014 8:42:52 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Jerome Murdough was just looking for a warm place to sleep on a chilly night last month when he curled up in an enclosed stairwell on the roof of a Harlem public housing project where he was arrested for trespassing.
A week later, the mentally ill homeless man was found dead in a Rikers Island jail cell that four city officials say had overheated to at least 100 degrees, apparently because of malfunctioning equipment.
The officials told The Associated Press that the 56-year-old former Marine was on anti-psychotic and anti-seizure medication, which may have made him more vulnerable to heat. He also apparently did not open a small vent in his cell, as other inmates did, to let in cool air.
“He basically baked to death,” said one of the officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss specifics of the case. …
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxny.com ...
Insurance is risk mitigation. All insurance schemes, private or public (e.g., unemployment “insurance”) are liable to moral hazard, that is people become careless or take risk because they have insurance. If health insurance did not cover skiing accidents, there would be a whole lot less skiing, even if “ski coverage” was available, because it would be expensive.
And their failure could have been due to simple negligence, or it could have been a conscious decision to let him sleep rather than do the constant cell check because they thought he wasn't a suicide risk.
Either way, they should have done their jobs better.
But he died due to the decisions made by many people - himself preeminently - and also due to a freak accident.
nobody thinks it was temps alone if they read the article. He was supposed to be looked in on. You can bet he showed signs of distress.
Will the family who ignored him in life profit from his deeath?
Ask yourself what would have happened had a Club Gitmo prisoner baked to death in his cell. People would be relieved if not criminally charged.
Just because those jailers would be treated like serial killers if that happened doesn't mean that these guards deserve an equivalent treatment.
I don’t wish to argue or debate. I am taking it as fact he was mentally ill. His family just let him wander off for as long as he wished and he returned as he wished. Assigning blame is a fun game on Freep. This guy was failed by everyone. Thats the story. His family, social services and finally the guard or guards who were responsible for him while he was locked up.
“...He took it upon himself to trespass....”
True enough. He did.
“...”THE STATE” did not set this sequence of events in motion...”
True enough again.
But the moment “the State” forcibly took him into custody, they became responsible for his well-being while under there auspices.
Look up the meaning of custody; The FIRST synonym is “safekeeping”.
And if there is a mental health aspect of it, then they are also under obligation to make sure he’s not a danger to himself, or to others.
The state, by their actions, set an entirely different set of events into motion, which ultimately led to his death.
I’d think a judge and jury would find it fairly clear.
“The jail drugged him and then roasted him.”
Roasted is way too strong a term. Sounds more like negligence/accident combined with alcohol and an existing medical condition. Unfortunate more than malicious.
So then,how much responsibility should a jailer and their supervisory chain have for the health and welfare of a person in their custody? Some? None? Whatever happens to be convenient? This Marine was essentially jailed because he could not, or would not take care of himself. If you assert the authority to become his custodian under those circumstances, you assume certain responsibilities for him.
Spot-on.
He was in jail a few days. Detox was already underway. Surely not the booze.
It appears the guards were medical people and my guess it there were patients there who were NOT quiet and they spent their time on those - why worry/check on a patient who was quiet? One may have walked by, saw the patient was quiet, so he moved on.
If you are in a regular hospital, except for the techs who show up a few times a day to take your vital signs, if you are quiet, they leave you alone. If you need the nurse, you punch the button - and wait - you best not be dying right then, cause those buttons are answered in order unless you are in intensive care where they will charge in if you punch the button.
In the interest of humanity, I'll tell you how to get OUT of a hospital:
You are scheduled to go home that day. Nurses know it and they don't care when you get out of there. (Maybe you got immediately out, that is the exception not the rule). They have a stack of forms they have to complete and get a doctor to sign before you can leave. In their minds, you are already gone so they leave you to rot in your room.
So, husband could get out of hospital, he was in the wheelchair and I had gathered all his things, then we sat, and sat. I had enough and he needed out of there. Told him I was pushing him in from of nurse's counter and he should ask for a coke. Pushed him there and he said he wanted a coke. That made one of them have to do something. I said, “It's almost time for lunch. Do you want him to eat it here or should I take him back to the room?”
Within ten minutes, we were out of there. They knew I wasn't going to shut up so the only option for them was to get him out - and they did the work, took off to get doctor signature and we were gone.
The moral of this story is: IF YOU ARE QUIET, YOU GET NOTHING. CAUSE THEM SOME SLIGHT AGGRIVATION, AND YOU GET SERVICE. If you question my methods, I was in seven different hospitals with him in one year and four of them were one right after another. Houston hospitals and Montgomery County hospitals. I have been in the battlegrounds of hospitals over and over.
I have other methods I used to get what needed to be done in a hospital but I won't go into those. Send me a Freepmail if you want to know. :o)
Semper Fi Marine Murdough and may you rest in peace.
Prayers for the soul of this homeless veteran
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