Monday, June 20, 2005

Legal vs. Ethical

The Roger Ailes blog had this article posted from the LA Times:

A U.S. military policeman who was beaten by fellow MPs during a botched training drill at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for detainees has sued the Pentagon for $15 million, alleging that the incident violated his constitutional rights.

Spc. Sean D. Baker, 38, was assaulted in January 2003 after he volunteered to wear an orange jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee. Baker said the MPs, who were told that he was an unruly detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant, inflicted a beating that resulted in a traumatic brain injury.

Baker, a Gulf War veteran who reenlisted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was medically retired in April 2004. He said the assault left him with seizures, blackouts, headaches, insomnia, and psychological problems.

The Pentagon initially said that Baker's hospitalization following the training incident was not related to the beating. Later, officials conceded that he was treated for injuries suffered when a five-man MP "internal reaction force" choked him, slammed his head several times against a concrete floor and sprayed him with pepper gas.

No one has been disciplined or punished for the assault, said Baker's lawyer, T. Bruce Simpson Jr.
Spec. Baker volunteered to pose as one of the inmates. The lawyers will probably argue that volunteering absolves the military from culpability because he was portraying "an unruly detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant." It's completely legal.

That's what happens, & unruly detainees deserve it. They bring it on themselves. Just because the physical security MPs used excessive force means nothing. Unethical doesn't make the act illegal. As long as no one mentions the N-word or the name of a despotic leader of a Third Word regime, Spec. Baker has no case, & the conservative media will hail the other MPs as heroes.

Is this a great country or what?

1 Comments:

At 21 June, 2005 17:50, Blogger K3KVE said...

I can not believe Durbin apologized. He was on the evening news, looking like he was "in tears." I'm going to puke.

 

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