COMPASSIONATE RELEASE FOR VICTIMS

The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated just how muddle-headed our “compassionate” bureaucracy can be. Catastrophic Thinking is about protecting the innocent and not victimizing them for bureaucratic convenience. The muddle-headedness of bureaucrats is a systemic vulnerability. They fail to anticipate unintended consequences of the policies they define and implement. A couple of examples will suffice to show all bureaucrats need to be trained in Catastrophic Thinking.

FIRST EXAMPLE: In the first months of Covid-19, New York was afraid that jailed inmates would be infected so they announced a compassionate release of jailed non-violent offenders. They were not tested so they could already have been infected and contributed to spreading the disease. Further, they were generally not at high risk. The inmates tended to be younger, not so fat, not afflicted with immune disorders. No thought was given that a number of these released inmates would offend again, creating more victims. The presumption of innocence is for past offenses, not the potential for future crimes. Where was the compassion for future victims?

SECOND EXAMPLE: Also in the early months of Covid-19, several northeastern states decided to house Covid-19 patients in nursing homes. Of course nursing homes are full of highly vulnerable residents, being primarily the elderly and suffering from numerous medical complications. This was so obviously wrong that a Pennsylvania bureaucrat without any public disclosure removed her mother from a nursing home. Needless to say, many nursing home residents died as a result of this misbegotten policy. They were the victims; administrative convenience was their real cause of death. The officials did not want to overcrowd the hospitals. They later blamed the CDC for guidance, which the CDC strenuously denied. Someone is lying. No one was charged with negligent homicide.

So in a catastrophe, innocent people will be victimized by public officials. I suppose I could point out that no public officials were charged with even negligent homicide in the deaths of about 1,500 people on the Titanic because there weren’t enough life boats. Same principle.