March 3, 2006 6:11 AM

Another DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener

Suit: W.Va. Police Chief Denied Gay Man CPR

DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener #363: Welch, WV Police Chief Bobby Bowman

Quick, what are some of the qualities that a truly memorable DUMB@$$ possesses? Surpassing ignorance? Knuckle-dragging, knee-jerk reaction? Abject fear of anything he/she cannot understand? Willingness to to indulge his/her prejudices regardless of the danger if might pose to others? Yep, these are all qualities that any self-respecting DUMB@$$ possesses in abundance, and it would appear that Chief DUMB@$$ Bowman is no exception.

You’d think that 20+ years after AIDS was first discovered that even knuckle-dragging troglodytes wearing police uniforms would understand what the disease is about. You’d think that they would know by now that people with HIV/AIDS aren’t the modern equivalent of Typhoid Mary. These are simply people with a horrific disease that deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion- not as if they’re somehow unclean, unworthy, and a menace to good, God-fearing White folks.

The truth of what Chief Bowman did or didn’t do remains to be determined. What seems to have already been established is Bowman’s callous disregard for the life of a taxpaying citizen who just happened to be HIV-positive. Claude Green deserved better.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A small-town police chief was accused in a federal lawsuit Thursday of stopping a would-be rescuer from performing CPR on a gay heart attack victim because he assumed the ailing man had HIV and posed a health risk.

Claude Green, 43, died June 21 after being stricken yards from City Hall in Welch, a community of about 2,400.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of his mother….

The lawsuit accuses Bowman of pulling off Green’s friend Billy Snead as Snead was performing chest compressions on the man. Snead was a passenger in Green’s pickup truck when Green collapsed; Snead had managed to pull over the vehicle.

Green was pronounced dead at the hospital after about 30 minutes of attempts to revive him.

Rose Saxe, a lawyer with the ACLU’s AIDS Project, said Bowman’s alleged actions contributed to Green’s death and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, equal protection laws and due process rights.

Saxe said Green’s death was “tragically senseless” because he did not have the AIDS virus, but added that he should have received lifesaving care even if he was HIV-positive.

“He was simply a gay man in Welch, West Virginia. And because of that we can only assume that Chief Bowman assumed he had HIV and it was unsafe to even touch him,” Saxe said.

And now Green’s dead, and it sounds as if he has our latest DUMB@$$ to thank for it. I wonder if the good, God-fearing taxpayers of Welch, WV have any idea how their tax dollars are being put to work (or not)?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 3, 2006 6:11 AM.

Truth is relative was the previous entry in this blog.

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