|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
|
 Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:47 pm Post subject: Man Weighs Options, Chooses Jail |
 |
|
Article here.
| Quote: |
Some people who need medical care but can't afford it go to the emergency room. Others just hope they'll get better. James Richard Verone robbed a bank.
Earlier this month, Verone (pictured), a 59-year-old convenience store clerk, walked into a Gaston, N.C., bank and handed the cashier a note demanding $1 and medical attention. Then he waited calmly for police to show up.
He's now in jail and has an appointment with a doctor this week.
Verone's problems started when he lost the job he'd held for 17 years as a Coca Cola deliveryman, amid the economic downturn. He found new work driving a truck, but it didn't last. Eventually, he took a part-time position at the convenience store.
But Verone's body wasn't up to it. The bending and lifting made his back ache. He had problems with his left foot, making him limp. He also suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis.
Then he noticed a protrusion on his chest. "The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept," Verone told the Gaston Gazette. "I kind of hit a brick wall with everything."
Verone knew he needed help--and he didn't want to be a burden on his sister and brothers. He applied for food stamps, but they weren't enough either.
So he hatched a plan. On June 9, he woke up, showered, ironed his shirt. He mailed a letter to the Gazette, listing the return address as the Gaston County Jail.
"When you receive this a bank robbery will have been committed by me," Verone wrote in the letter. "This robbery is being committed by me for one dollar. I am of sound mind but not so much sound body."
Then Verone hailed a cab to take him to the RBC Bank. Inside, he handed the teller his $1 robbery demand.
"I didn't have any fears," said Verone. "I told the teller that I would sit over here and wait for police."
The teller was so frightened that she had to be taken to the hospital to be checked out. Verone, meanwhile, was taken to jail, just as he'd planned it.
Because he only asked for $1, Verone was charged with larceny, not bank robbery. But he said that if his punishment isn't severe enough, he plans to tell the judge that he'll do it again. His $100,000 bond has been reduced to $2,000, but he says he doesn't plan to pay it.
In jail, Verone said he skips dinner to avoid too much contact with the other inmates. He's already seen some nurses and is scheduled to see a doctor on Friday. He said he's hoping to receive back and foot surgery, and get the protrusion on his chest treated. Then he plans to spend a few years in jail, before getting out in time to collect Social Security and move to the beach.
Verone also presented the view that if the United States had a health-care system which offered people more government support, he wouldn't have had to make the choice he did.
"If you don't have your health you don't have anything," Verone said.
The Affordable Care Act, President Obama's health-care overhaul passed by Congress last year, was designed to make it easier for Americans in situations like Verone's to get health insurance. But most of its provisions don't go into effect until 2014.
As it is, Verone said he thinks he chose the best of a bunch of bad options. "I picked jail." |
Clearly medical care to prisoners needs to be cut. There is no other lesson we can draw from this. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Friend Lee Ghost
Joined: 06 Jun 2011
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 7:56 am Post subject: Re: Man Weighs Options, Chooses Jail |
|
|
| Fox wrote: |
Article here.
Clearly medical care to prisoners needs to be cut. There is no other lesson we can draw from this. |
You are joking, right? Or are you going to lock people up and then let them get sick and suffer without medical care? That is a gof way to make all punishment cruel and unusual.
There is another lesson: something needs to change so that medical care is available to the average unincarcerated citizen. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
johnnyenglishteacher2
Joined: 03 Dec 2010
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:01 am Post subject: Re: Man Weighs Options, Chooses Jail |
|
|
| Friend Lee Ghost wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
Clearly medical care to prisoners needs to be cut. There is no other lesson we can draw from this. |
You are joking, right? |
I would hazard a guess that Fox most certainly is joking. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Friend Lee Ghost
Joined: 06 Jun 2011
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:32 am Post subject: Re: Man Weighs Options, Chooses Jail |
|
|
| johnnyenglishteacher2 wrote: |
| Friend Lee Ghost wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
Clearly medical care to prisoners needs to be cut. There is no other lesson we can draw from this. |
You are joking, right? |
I would hazard a guess that Fox most certainly is joking. |
On another thread he was in favor of mass incarcerations because it lowers the crime rate. Imagine massive numbers of untreated sick inmates. Fox, are you a genocidal maniac?  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
recessiontime
Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Location: Got avatar privileges nyahahaha
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:38 am Post subject: Re: Man Weighs Options, Chooses Jail |
|
|
| Friend Lee Ghost wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
Article here.
Clearly medical care to prisoners needs to be cut. There is no other lesson we can draw from this. |
You are joking, right? Or are you going to lock people up and then let them get sick and suffer without medical care? That is a gof way to make all punishment cruel and unusual.
There is another lesson: something needs to change so that medical care is available to the average unincarcerated citizen. |
you pretty much played into his hand. Fox would love nothing more than for everyone to have socialised health care available at their fingertips regardless of the unintended economic consequences of doing so. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:52 am Post subject: Re: Man Weighs Options, Chooses Jail |
|
|
| recessiontime wrote: |
| Friend Lee Ghost wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
Article here.
Clearly medical care to prisoners needs to be cut. There is no other lesson we can draw from this. |
You are joking, right? Or are you going to lock people up and then let them get sick and suffer without medical care? That is a gof way to make all punishment cruel and unusual.
There is another lesson: something needs to change so that medical care is available to the average unincarcerated citizen. |
you pretty much played into his hand. Fox would love nothing more than for everyone to have socialised health care available at their fingertips regardless of the unintended economic consequences of doing so. |
Unintended economic consequences such as . . . ? (Just don't tell me death panels) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
recessiontime
Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Location: Got avatar privileges nyahahaha
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:05 pm Post subject: Re: Man Weighs Options, Chooses Jail |
|
|
| Kuros wrote: |
| recessiontime wrote: |
| Friend Lee Ghost wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
Article here.
Clearly medical care to prisoners needs to be cut. There is no other lesson we can draw from this. |
You are joking, right? Or are you going to lock people up and then let them get sick and suffer without medical care? That is a gof way to make all punishment cruel and unusual.
There is another lesson: something needs to change so that medical care is available to the average unincarcerated citizen. |
you pretty much played into his hand. Fox would love nothing more than for everyone to have socialised health care available at their fingertips regardless of the unintended economic consequences of doing so. |
Unintended economic consequences such as . . . ? (Just don't tell me death panels) |
higher taxes, increase in the cost of health care |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 1:24 pm Post subject: Re: Man Weighs Options, Chooses Jail |
|
|
| recessiontime wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| recessiontime wrote: |
| Friend Lee Ghost wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
Article here.
Clearly medical care to prisoners needs to be cut. There is no other lesson we can draw from this. |
You are joking, right? Or are you going to lock people up and then let them get sick and suffer without medical care? That is a gof way to make all punishment cruel and unusual.
There is another lesson: something needs to change so that medical care is available to the average unincarcerated citizen. |
you pretty much played into his hand. Fox would love nothing more than for everyone to have socialised health care available at their fingertips regardless of the unintended economic consequences of doing so. |
Unintended economic consequences such as . . . ? (Just don't tell me death panels) |
higher taxes, increase in the cost of health care |
I don't think higher taxes are unintended so much as an implicit condition. But as to an increase in the cost of health care, why would health care costs necessarily increase? Are you suggesting that the incredibly inefficient public/private hybrid we have currently in place is to be favored over a model where the public shoulders more responsibility, private insurers are able to gouge their customers less, and more people are provided with the economic security that a public health care plan would bring? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 3:06 pm Post subject: Re: Man Weighs Options, Chooses Jail |
|
|
| Friend Lee Ghost wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
Article here.
Clearly medical care to prisoners needs to be cut. There is no other lesson we can draw from this. |
You are joking, right? |
Of course I'm joking.
| Friend Lee Ghost wrote: |
| On another thread he was in favor of mass incarcerations because it lowers the crime rate. |
I didn't say I was in favor of it, I said that it helped explain the drop in crime rate. I thought including the words "inhumane" and "unjust" in my description of mass incarceration made it sufficiently clear how I felt about the practice in question, but to be clear: I'm against it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
kingplaya4
Joined: 14 May 2006
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:20 am Post subject: |
|
|
| What the hell is this guy's problem? Didn't he hear 60 is the new 30? He lives in the 21st century for Christsakes. People don't age as fast as they used to due to the positive effects of global warming and pollution. Another lazy liberal looking for handouts. Pathetic. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
