Saturday, December 28, 2013

Interesting . . .

Judge: NYC Doesn't Protect Disabled in Emergencies

By: Larry Neumeister
Published: November 8, 2013
NEW YORK -- A judge cited disabled Superstorm Sandy victims stranded in high-rise towers to illustrate his conclusion that New York City violated laws designed to protect the disabled - about 11 percent of the city's more than 8 million residents - as it created evacuation plans for emergencies ranging from storms to terrorist attacks.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman issued his written opinion Thursday, saying the city violated the American's with Disabilities Act and the New York City Human Rights Law despite emergency efforts that he sometimes praised. He said the city's emergency preparedness plans fail to ensure that people with disabilities can evacuate before or during an emergency and fail to provide accessible shelters.
Julia Pinover, the senior staff attorney for Disability Rights Advocates who argued the case, said the "ramifications nationwide are huge" if New York City sets the standard for helping the disabled during emergencies and inspires "municipalities country-wide to think through the sufficiency of their own plans."
In a statement, Michael A. Cardozo, who heads the city's law office, said lawyers were "continuing to review this decision and assess our next steps."
He added: "While we are disappointed with the court's conclusions, we are gratified it recognized that the city's extensive planning is impressive, and the efforts and valor of those responding to emergencies have been `extraordinary.' Planning for the needs of people with disabilities has always been and remains a priority for the city."
Furman questioned the city's planning priorities in his 119-page ruling, noting that the Special Needs Coordinator within the city's Office of Emergency Management has no staff and is on the lowest rung of the office's organizational chart. And he said there was no evidence that the police or fire departments employ anyone to ensure the departments' emergency plans and policies accommodate the disabled.
His ruling came in a class-action lawsuit brought by two nonprofit groups - the Center for the Independence of the Disabled and the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled - and two disabled individuals.
He wrote that evacuation plans intended to apply to all residents "plainly - and unlawfully - fail to take into account the special needs of people with disabilities."
"Hurricane Sandy dramatically demonstrated the consequences of this failure. Plaintiffs provided substantial evidence that people with disabilities ... remained trapped in high-rise buildings for days after the storm," he said.
Furman said there was no evidence the city intentionally discriminated against people with disabilities. But he said that laws protecting the disabled "seek to prevent not only intentional discrimination against people with disabilities, but also - indeed, primarily - discrimination that results from `benign neglect.'"
He highlighted several areas of concern, saying the city's evacuation plans do not meet the needs of disabled people in high-rise buildings and its shelters are not required to be sufficiently accessible to the disabled. He also said the city has no plan for canvassing or otherwise ensuring that people with disabilities are able to access emergency city services after a disaster.
However, he also noted that the city took several actions in response to Superstorm Sandy that are not included in its emergency plans, including canvassing buildings after a prolonged power outage and providing a sign language interpreter at the mayor's news conferences.
Furman's ruling came in a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of a population that the city estimates comprises about 890,000 of its more than 8 million residents. He said his ruling was limited to the question of liability, and he will decide remedies separately unless the parties reach a settlement.
His ruling came after he reviewed 25,000 pages of exhibits, more than 20 city emergency plans, hundreds of pages of legal papers from the U.S. Department of Justice and the testimony of at least 35 witnesses during a six-day bench trial in March.
"This mountain of evidence and argument confirms that planning for, and responding to, emergencies and disasters is a Herculean task, and that, in many - perhaps most - respects, the city has done an outstanding job," Furman said. "But it also reveals that while the city's emergency preparedness program adequately accommodates the needs of people with disabilities in some respects, it fails to do so in others."
Tania Morales, a 26-year-old plaintiff who has used a wheelchair for more than a decade, said the ruling was "such a relief." She said she got to a shelter during Hurricane Irene in 2011 only to find a locked gate surrounding the wheelchair entrance. "I was terrified and forced to return home in the storm."
Plaintiff Gregory Bell, who is blind and has diabetes, said the ruling will help people like himself with chronic health conditions.
"Knowing which shelters provide refrigeration for life-sustaining medications and diabetic meals is the difference between life and death for people with diabetes," he said.
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FEMA and Red Cross volunteers at a shelter in Texas.
Being a Red Cross volunteer, I was appalled when I read this article. How could a major metropolis, where more than eleven percent (11%) of the population has a disability or a handicap which limits their mobility intentionally violate the laws designed to protect these people? Not only did they violated the ADA, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman found they also violated the city's own civil rights law. As I said in the title . . . interesting!

One point I found especially disturbing was the fact that the city's Special Needs Coordinator - a part of the city's Office of Emergency Management - has no staff and is on the lowest rung of the city's organizational chart. In addition, Judge Furman stated that there is no evidence that either the police or fire department employ anyone to ensure that the department's plans and/or policies accommodate the disabled.

In handing down his ruling, Judge Furman said there was no evidence the city intentionally discriminated against people with disabilities. But he said that laws protecting the disabled "seek to prevent not only intentional discrimination against people with disabilities, but also - indeed, primarily - discrimination that results from `benign neglect.'" Thank you Judge Furman!

Angels among us


Webster's on-line dictionary defines an angel as "A spiritual being that serves as a messenger from God or as a guardian of human beings". I agree completely, but I think some of them exist here on Earth in human form. Let me explain. Since elementary school I have been friends with a sweet lady by the name of Kathleen Collier (pictured at left with her husband Jeff). After we graduated from high school, we lost track of each other until we were reunited on Facebook. In September of this year, her and Jeff's world was flipped upside down after their daughter was involved in a near-fatal car accident. Thanks to a lot of prayers she survived and is well on her road to recovery. Here's the rub: while Kaitlin was hospitalized, Kat was laid off from her job for what her supervisors called "abandonment" (Don't get me started, I'll blow a gasket.)

Here's why I say Kat (as well as Jeff and Kaitlinn) are angels. As most of my regular readers know, my wife has diabetes and the combination of caring for her AND be a full-time student was taking a toll on me. I had the idea to ask Kat if she would help me care for my beloved wife. She accepted. Fast forward to about three weeks ago when I was prepping for my first ever colonoscopy. Kat said she, Jeff, and Kaitlin would come up that evening and keep us company. Based on what I had heard, I was dreading that night with a passion; thanks to the three of them (and the watch care of a loving Heavenly Father) it wasn't bad at all. The next day, after the colonoscopy was completed, they brought us home and said "We'll be back". When they came back they had bought us a 4' tall Christmas tree, lights and ornaments! I wanted to cry! It didn't end there . . . since they were going to spend the night and take care of MaryLou (who we've nicknamed the Princess) I offered to prepare supper for them. They wouldn't hear of it! They went to the store, bought the groceries, cooked supper, and cleaned up the kitchen.

See what I mean about angels in human form?

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Origin of the biohazard symbol


Have you ever wondered how the bio-hazard symbol so prominent in today's society came into existence? Earlier today, a friend of mine - and retired firefighter - had posted a discussion on Facebook regarding holy books (Holy books: which are real?) and, included in the article he cited was a illustration of numerous holy images . . . one of which bore a striking resemblance to our modern bio-hazard symbol. Being the inquisitive type, he and I struck up a conversation about it and I told him I would search for the answer.

Turns out the bio-hazard symbol came from the mind of Charles Baldwin who, at the time he came up with the idea, worked at Dow Chemical (website: Dow Chemical) developing containment systems for the Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health (website: National Cancer Institute) (Origin of the bio-hazard symbol, 2008). Explains he: "it became obvious to us that there were a lot of so-called warning symbols in the various laboratories that we visited, but there was no standardization." Driven by this lack of standardization, Mr. Baldwin and his colleagues began work on what he termed "something unique and striking enough to be remembered". In addition to being memorable, Baldwin decided it needed to be meaningless so they could educate the public in its meaning. Sample symbols were tested across the country utilizing survey groups who were polled on two separate occasions. The symbol that stood out most - and was the most remembered - was the bio-hazard symbol pictured above right. Baldwin explains the logic behind the color - blaze orange - and why the three-sided figure was chosen: "Blaze orange was chosen because it had been proven under artic exploration to be the most visible under the most conditions. The three-sided figure was chosen if it were on a box containing bio-hazardous material and the box was moved around, transported, it might end up in different positions."

Bio-hazard label on my wife's sharps box
Baldwin said the next challenge was presenting it to the scientific community. To accomplish this, he wrote a paper on the new label that was published in the American Journal of Science (Journal of Science). "The next thing was to get the authorization from the various people who would be using it," he explained. It was soon formally adopted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the National Institute of Health (NIH). "That's pretty good acceptance," he said.


References
[Web log message]. (2008, October 31). Retrieved from http://markapocalypse.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/origin-of-the-biohazard-symbol/ Retrieved: August 28, 2013

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Fetish-driven role-play?




                                                                        
By LARRY NEUMEISTER -- (c) 2013 Associated Press

The government has finished presenting evidence to a jury hearing the case against a New York City police officer accused of conspiring to kidnap, kill and eat women.
Prosecutors rested their case Monday after showing jurors Internet images of torture and abuse of women that a witness said was found on the computer of Officer Gilberto Valle (VAL'-ee). A judge sent the jury home a few minutes early after prosecutors announced they reached the end of their case.
Valle's lawyers have asked the judge to acquit their client before a Manhattan federal court jury gets the case.
Valle is accused of plotting on the Internet to kidnap and kill at least six women he knows, including his wife. Defense lawyers say Valle was merely engaging in fetish-driven Internet role-play.
 
 
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Due to starting back to school - and other life obligations - I haven't been able to blog as much as I would have liked of late, but I had to chime in on this article. What caught my eye was the last line of the article, "Valle was merely engaging in fetish-driven Internet role-play".  I could be wrong, but I would venture to say that you could go to the kinkiest fetish site on the web and not find any mention of cannibalism. Thoughts? Opinions?

(Oh, and just for the record, the comment about fetish-driven role-play was made by his defense team.)