Police made multiple attempts to stop the horrific scene before resorting to gunfire whereupon they shot and killed the apparent "Zombie", thus saving his victim who is currently being treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The wounds suffered by the victim of the attack are apparently not superficial either - one source says "the man had virtually no face and was unrecognizable".
One must pause when reading a story like this and wonder, first, whether such a story could be true. (I checked the URL to make sure I wasn't reading The Onion or some other farce.) The next thing that a person must wonder is "What causes this sort of thing?"
In an attempt to explain that latter question, I'll direct you to the fields of mental health and politics. Governor Rick Scott is infamous for, among other things, his budget cuts to the healthcare system in Florida. Cuts to programs such as ADAP (the state/federal cooperative program to subsidize the cost of HIV/AIDS medication) have real life consequences and many patients were left unable to afford life-saving medication. Those cuts were only shocking and frightening to people who know and love someone who has HIV... or at least they should have been. But as we can see now, the beginning effects of life without adequate mental healthcare can have truly disastrous consequences for the general public. Shock and awe, indeed.
Here are just a small few of the $142 Million line-item cuts that Governor Rick Scott personally made to the State budget back in April:
- University of Miami brain and spinal research: -$400,000
- Florida Medical Schools Quality Network: -$3,000,000
- Inpatient hospital reimbursement ceiling exemption for community hospitals: -$2,006,000
- Florida Council Against Sexual Violence to fund rape crisis centers: -$1,500,000
- New Horizons Community Mental Health Center: -$100,000
- Seminole Behavioral Health: -$350,000
- Psychiatric medication assistance: -$500,000
- Recovery House Central Florida: -$1,560,000
- Alzheimer’s Family Care Center of Broward County: -$250,000
- Mt. Sinai Brain Bank: -$100,000
- McKnight Brain Institute Brain Tumor Registry: -$500,000
- Sarasota Fetal Alcohol Clinic: -$100,000
- Autism Center of Miami: -$100,000
- WestCare substance abuse treatment program: -$150,000
Anyone who reads national news headlines can tell you that Florida is NOT the state that one should cut funding for mental health services in... Our headlines are a source of national embarrassment - everything from psychotic moms killing their babies to family Thanksgiving day shoot-outs. We have headless bodies washing ashore in Fort Lauderdale and kids partying on ecstasy with the bodies of their murdered parents in Port Saint Lucie.
Republicans these days are largely all on board with cuts to any program that is funded by taxes. Miami's Republican Mayor, Tomas Regalado, rarely protests the drain that Tallahassee has placed under his city. When questioned about how Republicans view things in the larger scheme, he gives answers that leave little hope for humanity. He says things like: "Miami is what the United States will look like in 25 years from now... and there's nothing we can do about it."
He never SHOT a zombie.
ReplyDeleteRick Scott ~ Scary looking and evil doing! Who voted for this menace to humanity? ~ ~ the braindead/zombied people of Florida.
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