Simply Outrageous
The Sun-Times has great coverage of the beating handed out by Stroger Hospital guards to a 75 year-old recovering stroke victim. This story is simply outrageous:
The FBI is investigating an incident in which a 75-year-old Chicago man who recently recovered from a stroke was dragged from his car by Stroger Hospital security guards.Lost the phone? They better find the phone quickly, or the state's attorney should charge them with conspiracy and interfering with a criminal investigation.
...
They ordered him to move, but also began asking about his ethnicity and citizenship, his wife told the Chicago Sun-Times. When he reached for his wallet, the guards opened the door and ripped him from the car, the wife said.
...
[Commissioner] Maldonado said Sotomayor did not immediately respond to officers' requests for ID because he is slow from a stroke.
"But then he gets pulled out and thrown on the ground? The guy started crying, freaking out," Maldonado said.
Also an issue, Maldonado said, is a camera cell phone that one witness reportedly used to document the incident -- and which hospital guards say is now lost.
Dr. Daniel Winship, who runs the county's hospitals, said: "If true, this is an outrageous incident." He said hospital security officers will undergo sensitivity training.
And how about Dr. Winship's response? "If true"? Sensitivity training?? How about "We do not drag 75 year old stroke victims out of their car and beat them because we do not like the color of their skin" training?
UPDATE: The editors over at the Sun-Times certainly aren't doing Todd Stroger any favors with this headline:
FBI probe alleged beating by Stroger
guards
I wonder who decided to leave out the word "Hospital"?
7 comments:
Imagine Dr. W. wishes now he had stayed in retirment.
I'm amazed these local-cop-brutality stories don't get more play from the local leftists.
As of now, there's nothing on it at Soap Blox Chicago,,, and there wasn't all that much on Burge there either.
I wonder if these guards represented by Local 20 SEIU?
bill - I'm betting that they are represented by AFSCME, which represents sheriff's employees, but I could be wrong. I got the impression these guys were armed. SEIU represents health care workers.
Bill, you know we are a blog without "A blogger" and are dependent upon users like you to post stuff that is of interest to our readers.
That said, I think our focus is on a more macro level than the small level crimes and indignities that we suffer from large institutions, both private and public. So our goal is to change the culture of government. But we are a small band of "leftists" at SB/C. So we must act like a guerilla group and carefully pick and choose our battles. This particular battle would not serve any of our current efforts.
It is similar to the Iranian gays that you champion. Worthy yes, but practical and useful expenditure of energy for a small and powerless group of progressives? No.
This place is the Illinois Leader...too bad, it started out well.
YDD,
Does not matter who represents the guards; an elderly person was roughed up and treated with monstrous disrespect. I hope some gets to the bottom of it and now.
Pat - Agreed.
jef - I confess to not being a regular reader of Soap Box Chicago. I don't know how much more macro level you can get though than the government using its police powers to rough up innocent citizens, and then when they get caught red-handed, covering it up.
Seems like just yesterday the Chicago police were locking up a couple of immigrants for drug running, only to find out the large green bales in the back of their pick-up were in fact hay.
Maybe if it was your grandfather, or a couple of long-haired hippies being yanked out of their car, you would consider it a bigger problem. Dunno.
huh? you love to hear yourself talk, don't you YDD? LOL
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