The following letter-to-the-editor from Debi Baskins, Hood River appeared in The Oregonian (4/28/19):
I was proud when my daughter became a paramedic, a profession that helps others. I had no idea that I would worry about her safety every time she works her shift. She’s been jumped on, pushed, kicked, cursed at, spit on, had things thrown at her, and ducked out of the way when patients take a swing at her. Several months ago, she told me she doesn’t think about “if” she’ll be attacked by a patient, she thinks about “when.” Her number came up last week, and she was beaten and bitten in the back of an ambulance.
A couple of weeks ago, the courts had an opportunity to send a message that paramedics’ lives matter. But the person who pulled open the door of an ambulance and stabbed a paramedic was given 14 days in jail and three years of probation (“Man guilty of bloody attack on ambulance paramedic at Portland stoplight gets 14 days in jail,” April 9). If a police officer had been stabbed, would the sentence have been tougher?
Paramedics in the courtroom that day told Judge Kathleen Dailey they’re tired of being assaulted on the job. Dailey suggested they walk the streets of downtown Portland to understand the mental health crisis. Dailey should go on a ride-along in an ambulance to better understand what medics deal with. They have first-hand knowledge of the mental health and homeless crisis in Portland.
Sentencing a person to significant jail time for assaulting paramedics will not stop the attacks, but it will send a message to paramedics and all first responders that law enforcement, district attorneys and judges have their backs.
Someday if you call for an ambulance, you might not get a prompt response because there won’t be enough paramedics to fill all the shifts because they are tired of being attacked when trying to help people and save lives.
(Debi Baskins)
If judge Dailey was offering a solution to the mental health crisis, there might be some reason to believe that she was offering something of value. It is not inconsistent with the Left’s point of view, that they would let fester a problem in order to radicalize a population of supporters into choosing the wrong solution to the problem—that is, their solution. But the justice and equity crowd does not view justice and equity for those who are not sufficiently lacking in victim status to be the same as that of those who dwell in the social underworld, such as an angry, mentally ill individual. Underworld dwellers are perceived as victims of the privileged and high-born. Thus, the judge is really saying, go out and solve this social problem, and then you won’t have people you are trying to help attack you.
One part of the Ugly side of left-wing violence against the virtuous is its tendency for elites to justify their aloof lifestyle as a natural privilege. These are lifestyle choices not available to the masses. They live well on the bench with sergeant-at-arms, behind walls, gated communities, secure with bodyguards, cameras, and their own armory, as a justified privilege few. Meanwhile, the masses, such as the unnamed medical technician must clean up the mess on the streets for them. Besides, it is societies fault for not saving the felonious victim-class perpetrator. Those who might be struck, stabbed, or shot are collateral damage in left-wing world. It is the job of people like Judge Dailey to keep the pressure on, and one stabbed EMT won’t make a lot of difference compared to the example the Judge must make of her.
Debi Baskins wonders whether the sentence would have been different if the victim had been a police officer, to which might be added, what if the victim were Judge Dailey’s daughter, sister, or mother. The lack of empathy for the victim is not unusual in left-wing culture. Equity and justice are abstractions and everyone is ranked according to their socio-economic, gender status.
In Chicago, echoes of inequity and injustice were heard when Jussie Smollett alleged a hate crime perpetrated by Make America Great hat wearing bullies who put a noose around the poor man’s neck and doused him with a foul liquid. If you have not heard of this it is all true. That is, the allegation was true, but the alleged facts were not. It was a made-up scenario. The left-wing State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx, might have lowered the boom on Jussie who was charged with 16 felonies counts, but instead she ignored the crime, and the well-to-do Smollett walked away clean, except for a $10,000 loss of bail money and public service which he had completed before the incident occurred. It should be noted that there is an investigation into Foxx’s actions prompted by the email she received from Tina Tchen the former chief of staff to Michelle Obama. Mmmmmmmmm. The fix was in? So, what did Jussie Smollett, a wealthy actor, have that aroused the inside political players in Chicago? Smollett is black and gay! Victim Status! Bingo.
Victim status makes the law flexible to the Progressive Left. It is permissible in Left-world to bend the law in the name of equity and justice. After all, black and gay people have been victims for millennia. The old notion of what is legally acceptable—the idea that what is appropriate for one person under the law ought to be the same for another accused of the same wrong doing—is not sufficient in Progressive America. Victim status is the driving force behind justice. The same may be said for large scale mass violations of United States law. One hundred thousand law violators marched over the U.S. southern border in March of this year. But law violators who are poor and Hispanic need not worry once they are in Left-world. They are victims and that is all you need to know.