TheAgitator.com
The New Professionalism
Saturday, March 15th, 2008The Arkansas bailiff who nearly killed a woman after mistakenly locking her in a holding cell over a four-day weekend will get to keep his job.
I particularly like the commenters to the story who say they have no sympathy for the woman “because she’s an illegal alien.” Guess I’ll just never understand the anger and utter lack of humanity coming from the anti-immigration crowd.
It is very sad that the “human condition” has become no more than lip service. Too many people know some one that they can look down on! They are not seen as equals, as the “human condition” should dictate! And I am sure the citizens of Arkansas have a lot to be proud of, being right with the bottom five in most aspects of comparison to the other states. Seems like they would be a little more compassionate? NOT!
Radley, what’s to understand? The anti-immigration crowd are racist scum.
I agree whole-heartedly with Michael about the “lip service” thing. I live in a small Iowa town where you hear a lot of talk about “f’n Mexicans,” but the town was rocked when a Malaysian immigrant was deported. He was a well-liked church-going man who had been here legally on visas and was going through the legal process to gain legal residency status. His wife is fighting to get him back to Iowa.
Meanwhile, the talk of “f’n Mexicans” continues on.
I live north of Josh and i see the pretty much the same thing. It isnt “PC” for people in my area to attack Mexicans so they make it an illegal immigration thing. When a story is about someone black, it becomes about Chicago instead.
Let’s try and think. Are those who’d say bad things about illegal aliens correctly described as “anti-immigration”? Well, no, Radley isn’t “being as correct as he could be”.
Further putting on our thinking caps, why is this story getting so much press? Haven’t there been many other similar cases, just not involving illegal aliens? Could there be something else at work here? Such as this story being pushed in an attempt to support IllegalImmigration? Are there race-based advocacy groups, or foreign governments, or crooked companies involved in pushing it?
Regarding AR, they’re quite “immigrant”-friendly. Let me know when Radley Balko gets around to looking at the very seemy underbelly of that friendliness; see my name’s link for a roundup.
If it was an honest mistake, I don’t think the bailiff should be fired. If he maliciously left her there, then he should be fired with prejudice. From what I’ve read, I haven’t gotten the impression that there was any malicious intent on his part and thus lean in favor of him keeping his job. Mistakes happen, and this was a bad one, but in the end the potential tragedy was averted. Should there be compensation to the victim? Yes. I don’t think, however, that this was a law enforcement officer riding high on the power of his badge.
A hat tip to Kit Smith for (inadvertently?) highlighting the difference between the “real world” where you and I reside, and the sainted world of the government, where Our Natural Betters hold court. You see, in the real world, if my on-the-job negligence deprived a person of food, water, and sanitation for 4 days and resulted in their hospitalization — I’d be fired so fast my head would spin. In the world of our sainted “public servants,” however, such life-threatening irresponsibility merits a wrist-slapping rebuke at worst. That doesn’t sound like any master-servant relationship that I’ve ever heard of.
“Further putting on our thinking caps, why is this story getting so much press? Haven’t there been many other similar cases, just not involving illegal aliens?”
Do you have a link to one of these “many other similar cases”? I mean, if you are going to argue that the media and others are singling this case out from all the other recent, newsworthy stories where non-illegal aliens were locked up for days with no food, water, or bathroom access, then please offer at least one example — rather than just hinting at a conspiracy and calling it a day.
I wonder if I locked someone, even an illegal alien, in a closet for 4 days whether I’d get a week or two’s worth of vacation then get to head back to work?
Oh sorry, “suspended with pay”.
> I haven’t gotten the impression that there was any malicious
> intent on his part and thus lean in favor of him keeping his job.
> Mistakes happen, and this was a bad one….
Excuse me, but is it no longer possible to be fired in this country on the *mere* grounds of inexcusable incompetence?
I think poster Kit’s heart is in the right place but don’t forget prisons are responsible for the welfare of their prisoners. It is a serious job that requires constant alertness. When a prison employee fails to live up to the immense responsibility, whether intentional or not, that employee cannot remain for the safety of the prisoners, the safety of their fellow employees, and the very real cost of legal liability that employee creates.
The judge should be held accountable as the responsible party for administratively assigning the keeping of a defendant to an incompetent.
In another part of the country a mother was jailed for allowing an elderly man to keep her 4 year old, along with the children of several other families not charged, after the youngster burned herself at a gas kitchen stove.
My question is why do all the people who say “She’s an illegal alien, fuck her” assume that the bailiff was completely innocent in his neglect? Do only blog posters have prejudice?
I particularly like the commenters to the story who say they have no sympathy for the woman “because she’s an illegal alien.” Guess I’ll just never understand the anger and utter lack of humanity coming from the anti-immigration crowd.
Well, if it wasn’t that, it’d be some variant on “That’s the risk you take when you break the law”.
Well, if it wasn’t that, it’d be some variant on “That’s the risk you take when you break the law”.
Yup. I sound like a hippy saying this, but people have a lot of violence and rage in them, and for many, cops are vicarious agents of that violence. You know, you’d sure fuck up so and so if you could, but you can’t, so you get a little thrill from the cops fucking up somebody else.
I don’t believe in the assertion that all people against illegal immigrants are racists. That is stooping to the level of the people who equated illegals to terrorists.
I was reading somewhere about the rule of law, and it basically said there isn’t a law anywhere that isn’t overreaching. Being able to keep track of who enters this country is a good thing, but can be taken too far. We don’t want people here illegally but the government should get out of the way and make it easier for people to come here, get a job, and perhaps become citizens.
It makes sense. If they don’t fear reprisals from Big Brother then they are more likely to get a good job, pay their taxes, and contribute positively to society.
First off, this was not a nice thing to happen to anybody. Gotta suck and big and especially for the lady in the lock up.
But she lived, and I can only suppose such is a good thing.
A short story; gawd we all hope so.
A young assistant hotel manager made a very bad decision, cost his hotel 50K and everybody knew it.
The guy knew he would be fired because of it. Summoned to the GM office, he was knowing it was to get the axe.
But he did not get fired. Why, he actually asked the GM. The response was that the hotel had a vested in him and contributed another 50k to his training. A lesson that will not be repeated by the young man EVER.
You can bet the jailer will never forget it either. He will also make doubly sure it never again happens, and as he rises, will insure all under him know this lesson will NEVER be repeated under his watch.
Senseless beatings and such, well that history is yet to be written.
If she is an illegal, hopefully she will get a ticket to home and be happy to have it. Oh and she must take all her “anchor babies” with her as well.
Same thing happened in Indianapolis last month.
http://www.wishtv.com/global/story.asp?s=7624971
It happened at jail that is run by a private company, so of course the jailer was fired.
Imagine that someone had treated a lovable golden retriever the same way? The same people who aren’t giving a shit about this woman would be screaming for the head of the guy who could do this to a “poor, defenseless creature”.
“Guess I’ll just never understand the anger and utter lack of humanity coming from the anti-immigration crowd.”
Nice way to lump the “anti-immigration” crowd with the “anti-illegal immigration” crowd, and then tar everyone with being an inhumane monster.
Screw you and your cheap rhetorical tactics, Patterico.
Oh wait, this is The Agitator?!
I expected better here, but I guess the difference between the two has shrunk…
Such as this story being pushed in an attempt to support IllegalImmigration? Are there race-based advocacy groups, or foreign governments, or crooked companies involved in pushing it?
Why, I think you’ve found us out. Drats! I’ll have to talk to others in our vast conspiracy network to find out when you take off the tinfoil, so that we can concentrate our mind-rays on you, so that this leak spreads no further.
Radley,
A word of unsolicited advice:
Don’t self-righteously preach about one topic while writing about another.
Judging by “Question For Anti-Illegal Immigration Activists,” you’ve stirred up a hornets nest among your regular readership.
Insulting people who disagree with you about subject X while writing about subject Y risks alienating the sub-set of your readership you appreciate the work you’re doing on Y but disagree with you on X.
I live in Springdale, where this happened. In the first place, the woman was charged with selling “pirated” [sic--the parasites who rely on copyright monopolies are the real pirates] CDs and DVDs; i.e., she was violating a law that deserves to be treated with utter contempt.
Second, as local columnist John Brummett pointed out in refutation of the idiots who thought she’d “hit the jackpot”: before her second day passed in that miserable cell she’d surely have been willing to forswear any legal settlement whatsoever and leave the country with the clothes on her back, just for the assurance that she wouldn’t die of thirst before being discovered.
Third, she wasn’t tried or convicted of jack shit. Common law warrants as far back as Glanville stated that an arrestee was to be safeguarded, for the duration of his confinement, in the same condition in which he arrived. Anyone who did this to a dog or cat should have the living shit kicked out of them.