Cops and Docs in America: After a Bioterrorist Attack or Ebola Outbreak Will They Help Us?

By Dennis J. Stevens

Cops and Docs in America is an account of disaster victims and the quality of care administered by justice and healthcare providers obligated by certification, regulation, and policy. This book represents a dialogue of the decisions made about deserving or undeserving victims. Its a story void of social justice resulting in the preventable death of Americas marginalized underserving populations before a bioterrorist attack or an infectious disease outbreak. Its no longer if an attack or outbreak will happen - its in progress orchestrated by ISIS trained agitators fueling race-hate and suicide disease carriers in American prisons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504923743

Dennis J. Stevens

Dennis J. Stevens is managing director of Justice Writers of America (like it on Facebook), an organization guiding justice personnel to articulate their experiences in a confidential setting. Dr. Stevens has taught criminal psychology in major universities and counseled female and male high-risk prisoners at Chicago, Charlotte, Boston, and New Orleans. (see crimprofessor.com). He has led crisis intervention sessions among Boston and New York City officers after 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing, New Orleans and Houston officers after Hurricane Katrina, and Chicago officers after the execution-style murders of three of their own. Many of his stories come from the mouths of those he has taught, counseled, and guided for the past thirty years.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

WARNING SIGNS OF A BIOTERRORIST ATTACK UPON AMERICA

Introduction

C ops and Docs in America: After a Bioterrorist Attack or Ebola Outbreak Will They Help Us? is an account of disaster victims and the quality of care administered by justice and healthcare providers obligated by certification, regulation, and policy. This book represents a dialogue of the decisions made about ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’ victims. It’s a story void of social justice resulting in the preventable death of America’s marginalized ‘underserving’ population before a bioterrorist attack or an infectious disease outbreak. It’s no longer ‘if’ an attack or outbreak will happen - it’s in progress orchestrated by ISIS trained agitators fueling race-hate and suicide disease carriers in American prisons.

Given that the United States is the primary target of extremists, Ebola is the suicidal terrorists’ perfect bioweapon. This is an account of the official barriers that criminalize protection and treatment regardless of need or constitutional guarantees. It is an account of those prosecuted because some providers rejected official barriers that intersect with emergency responders already providing patch, pray, and love remedies. Utilizing modern tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina as a social laboratory, predictions about the preventable death of victims in poverty paints a disturbing picture of their continual hopelessness, yet it glorifies a renaissance of capitalism. As a nationally known criminologist, I explain many of the issues addressed in this book through scholarly theories which I hope will aid you in a better understanding. Louis Pasteur reminds us that chance favors the prepared mind. Knowledge about bioterrorism can empower us to recognize it early and to protect ourselves, our communities, and our nation.

While finalizing a textbook on Criminal Justice and Public Health: MRSA and Other Deadly Pathogens (2015, Kendall Hunt Publishers), I discovered a version about the safety of professional personnel delivering emergency services inspiring this work.

This work shadows personnel and healthcare systems providing or failing to provide public safety, treatment, and care because of what I call Agents of Compliance. The Agents are discussed later and include:

• Infectious disease exposure threats linked to suspects, patients, and coworkers

• Organizational policy and politics

• Federal and state compliance regulations

The US Gets a ‘C’ Grade in Preparedness

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that as December 10, 2014, the US rates 7.4 out of 10 (a C grade) in preparedness for natural disasters, terrorism, and disease pandemics. A ‘C’ is pretty high, I would argue in light of the fact that officially the US cannot protect church worshipers, school children, or shoppers. And the ‘perfect solution’ for government toward social order is mass incarceration. Going to the root causes of a disorder such as drug addiction or poverty is redundant, the thinking goes because poor people and drug addicts, similar to other criminals, made choices about their lives. They represent an undeserving population of public protection and care because of their choices. Why throw good money after bad, their thinking goes? In this powerful nation, status (our standing or rank in the sociological hierarchy, i.e. who we are: age, gender, race, possessions, power) as opposed to behavior determines whether we are deserving or an undeserving recipient of public amenities and respect which implies a loss of both constitutional and human right protections. Little question that in a democracy, individuals must be in control of their own lives regardless of their individual status. It can argued that status is cored in the social media representations as opposed to reality. For example, drug addicts or junkies come from the lower social class and are usually raised in single women households. If the mother ‘obeyed’ her husband, the child would have a father and the child would never resort to crime or drugs as often as a child without a father (this reasoning reinforces a patriarchal society). Drug overdose kill 44,000 individuals every year which proves that junkies are incompetent in making appropriate life decisions because of their upbringing and culture, the thinking goes. Overdose deaths exceed motor vehicle-related deaths in most states. Yet, the reality is that over one-half of the drug overdoses in the US are related to prescription drugs, explains a summer 2015 report from the Trust for America’s Health in a study entitled, The Facts Hurt: A State-By-State Injury Prevention Policy Report. Most of those users are neither poor nor black or young as represented in the social media and those profiled in prison. Maybe I should argue that poverty is a natural disaster in and by itself.

Occupational Routines of First Responders

This book is also about the at-risk occupational routines of criminal justice professionals (law enforcement and correctional personnel) and their collaborative partners in healthcare (hospitals, physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers at many levels of treatment) who often interact with hosts or carriers of infectious diseases. Hosts include suspects and perpetrators of crime, patients and colleagues, prisoners and priests, victims of crime and accidents, victims of terrorist attacks and terrorists, victims of highway accidents and family violence, and others requiring medical attention, protection, or comfort; hosts can include providers themselves of public safety and treatment to victims of disastrous events.

Warning Signs

There are warning signs that the US is a target of a bioweapon attack that are as clear as the warnings received before Hurricane Katrina set down on the American Gulf Coast. Government apparently was either unable or refused to respond professionally to those warning signs of Katrina’s catastrophic potential, as you will learn. Rather, the US government spent more time, funds, and quality management on erecting a justification about their ineffective response through politically elegant rhetoric including YouTube action that made President Bush and his crew appear to be martyrs more than sinners. It could be that Bush’s administration didn’t know how to report its flaws or didn’t want to. For instance, a study conducted for the US Congress says in part that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina there were concerns that federal readiness for the disaster had been hampered by an overemphasis on planning for terrorism at the expense of planning for natural disaster. Obviously the redundant wars on drugs, immigrants, and poverty have many battlefronts, many survivors, and many entrepreneurs building an incredible powerbase while enhancing their financial interests at the expense of national security. Also, is that to say that America is losing the wars in Afghanistan and Iran because resources are buried in a war on poverty? Is poverty the biggest money maker in the United States?

All the evidence in this book says that bottom line, if you’re poor, you’re going to die before other victims after a bioterrorist attack or infectious pathogen outbreak. And if you’re black or brown and poor - you’ll die first. All the silliness and energy about a South Carolina flag is a diversion for the rise of yet another flag.

In a statement released by the US secretary of defense on November 25, 1997, William S. Cohen says, The United States remains concerned at the threat of proliferation, both of biological warfare expertise and related hardware, from Russia. Russian scientists, many of whom are unemployed or have not been paid for an extended period of time, may be vulnerable to recruitment by states trying to establish biological warfare programs. The availability of worldwide information exchange via the internet or electronic mail facilitates this process. Even beyond such sinister causes, microbial leaks could have occurred if Russian facilities and staff morale were not upgraded, says Laurie Garrett in her book, Betrayal of Trust. Finally in this regard, as of June 3, 2015, Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations’ Ebola chief says that the epidemic, Absolutely isn’t over. … We have cases occurring, not in huge numbers but enough to be very disturbing, in Sierra Leone and in Guinea. He adds that the situation in Guinea is especially troubling because surprise cases have been popping up that are not part of known chains of transmission. He sounds like a politician, doesn’t he? Conversely, Congolese expert Jean-Jacques Muyembe, one of the world’s top Ebola investigators since the first epidemic erupted in central Africa in 1976 says that despite the decline in the African outbreak, Ebola will strike again in the future and that the deadly virus poses a threat to the whole world. The warning signs come from the political but elegant verbiage of the experts themselves usually representing government who imply that It is but it isn’t. Puff, now you see it, now you don’t.

American Emergency Readiness

The Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies conducted an exercise engaging key personnel in the management of mock chemical, biological, or cyberterrorist attacks at the request of the US Congress. It was called TOPOFF, named for its engagement of top officials of the US government. The TOPOFF exercise illuminates problematic issues of leadership and decision-making; the year was 2000—several months before 9/11 and five years before Hurricane Katrina. What was learned at the time was that difficulties lingered linked to prioritization and distribution of scarce resources. When a contagious epidemic crisis happens, the healthcare facilities such as hospitals, outpatient centers, emergency departments, and clinics would not be prepared. I would add that if the researchers studied the readiness of the justice community, they would derive at a similar conclusion: law enforcement, the courts, and America’s correctional systems are not adequately prepared to deal with catastrophic disaster. That is, cops and docs and their collaborative partners, could not protect and treat every disaster victim. Decisions have to be made—who deserves protection and treatment and who doesn’t deserve protection and treatment. One recommendation by the researchers is that healthcare providers should develop sound principles of disease containment. The issues of a surprise enemy attack were noted by the government officials by this and other studies. Yet, little was done about the recommendations from the study because both 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina caught federal and local government and emergency agencies off guard, a government report clarifies. Furthermore, an attack on American soil employing the use of chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction (WMD) will happen, it’s only a matter of time—unless the attack has already started through suicide infectious disease bombers from American prisons (more details later). If you accept the reality of terrorist suicide bombers, how about terrorist suicide disease carriers? After all, the two perspectives are only a stone’s throw away from each other (more later). For right now, let’s consider ISIS as an enemy of the Christian world and in particular the United States (US)..

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a hugely successful movement with an apocalyptic, nihilistic philosophy … convert (to Sunni Islam), join us, or die is America’s greatest threat, argues Phillips, Florance, and Bucci of the Daily Signal. ISIS represents a militant jihad based on strict Sharia law.

ISIS is more media sophisticated than al-Qaeda and excels in using social media as a tool of terrorism. For instance, while writing this book, ISIS has placed forty-one videos on YouTube. Some of those videos show ISIS members beheading twenty-eight Christians on a beach. Another YouTube shows young men accepting Allah as their god and declaring death to Christians. The group’s twitter and YouTube postings in American-English clarify that the West is their targeted audience. Homegrown ISIS members have come to the attention of law enforcement; for example, in South Carolina, a sixteen-year-old boy who prosecutors say was seduced by the Islamic State plotted to kill American troops coming home from the Mideast.

According to the Heritage Foundation, ISIS has access to a global network of terrorists. Phillips and his colleagues at Heritage go on to say that ISIS has evolved into a proto-state, with its own army, civil administration, judiciary and a sophisticated propaganda operation. Al-Qaeda core leaders are fugitives who are forced to live a clandestine existence under the constant threat of drone strikes or commando assaults. At several university campuses inroads have been made by covert ISIS (American) recruiters who represent ideologies either linked to the NAACP and white supremacist groups such as the Arian Brotherhood and the Assembly of Christian Soldiers.

For example, in Los Angeles, California, twenty American-born university students were approached by individuals whom they thought represented the Assembly of Christian Solders. A subsequent investigation later showed that of the twenty, only two survived the indoctrination resulting in their conversation to Islamic ideals of justice. Once they completed weapons’ training, their targets were two United States Marine Corps families stationed at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California, before Christmas 2014. Both families had military members who left Islam for Christianity and enrolled their children at Catholic elementary schools. The university students never made it onto the military installation but were (one report read that two armed intruders were persuaded to retreat). A few months later the decomposed bodies of two young men were found in the wilderness of Cleveland National Forest, south of Oceanside. Their suicide note read that they failed in their mission to show the world that US Marines were not above Sharia or Islamic law. When a believer (it wasn’t clear if the students were talking about themselves or the Marine families) tarnishes the image of Islam (if talking about themselves it was because they failed in their mission, and if talking about the Marine families it was because they converted to Christianity and their children attended Catholic schools), the death penalty is the only acceptable answer. Reading between the lines suggests that ISIS recruiters utilize psychological assessments to seek vulnerable university students to engage in the destruction of others. In Islam countries it is common knowledge that ISIS seeks out potential suicide bombers and perhaps suicide disease carriers using psychological profiles in a similar fashion.

Former director of the CIA and the National Security Agency warned that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, ISIS, is destined to launch attacks on the US in its race to wage jihad and attract followers in the Arab world. ISIS has global ambitions.

New technologies, desires, and threats from biological research developments in biotechnology, genetics, and genomics have created a variety of environmental, ethical, political, and social challenges for today’s societies. More recently, Texas Governor Rick Perry says that the ISIS version of mission creep is to follow through on their threats by sending recruits to this country. He says that what rational observer thinks such an attack is not part of their plan? Finally in this regard, the former director of the CIA clarifies that war with ISIS will last long into the next decade, in part because of America’s inability to confine ISIS to the Mideast and in part because of ISIS’ determination to enslave, kill, or convert Christians. Consider the cold blooded murder of four US Marines by Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez in Chattanooga, Tennessee on July 17, 2015 as further evidence that America’s invasion is underway. Once you’re able to get your head around those senseless murders, let me add to your thoughts. I saw an article by the Associated Press in the Charlotte Observer (July 27, 2015) entitled:

Youths Learn to Behead at ISIS Training Camp

The articled focused on the Islamic State extremists who overran Yazidi towns in northern Iraq. They butchered men and enslaved the women. Young Yazidi boys had a different fate: The IS sought to re-educate them. They were forced to convert to Islam and turned them into jihadi fighters or more specifically killers and suicide bombers. They represent a new generation of militants. One boy (was) beheading a Syrian soldier under an adult militant’s supervision. Another scenario explained that 25 boys were shooting captured Syrian soldiers. These new fighters are pushed into the streets of cities jihadi will invade to befriend children with toys. Behead the infidels is their slogan. I got the impression that the article implies that the U.S. will receive these child fighters, suicide bombers, and suicide disease carriers for the glory of the caliphate and their adult militant supervisors. Evidence suggests that some of them already live in America. (See Chapter 17 for more details).

Chaos Before A Bioweapon Attack

Distractions and diversions are required to create chaos and confusion before bioweapons are employed against America. For example, if another nation orchestrates America’s destruction from within first as some war experts suggest by intensifying chaos and confusion before a bioweapon attack, first-responder performance would be compromised. Identifying and manipulating weaknesses of America similar to tinkering with the center of gravity, might be one method. America’s weakness and powder keg—race (whites, blacks, yellows, and browns). For instance, a Columbine strike at the heart of each racial groups’ sacred institutions: church, schools, and shopping centers across the country months before the actual bioweapon attack; the blame of the strike needs to be placed on the other American racial group (i.e., white shopping center, the evidence would show that blacks did it; black school attacked the evidence would show that it was in retaliation of the white shopping center). We don’t need to look far, consider the issues at Ferguson, West Charleston, and Baltimore between police, death, and blacks. In my 2nd edition of Introduction of American Policing (Boston: Jones & Bartlett, 2016), I researched Ferguson and Baltimore’s experiences after the tragic deaths of two individuals in those cities. I learned that most often, the destruction, arson, looting, and attacks upon police were not initially produced by locals but outsiders. Yes, the police organizations were at fault. Yes, it is unforgivable that individuals died while engaged with law enforcement. Yes, things must change. Yes, American police are the primary targets of ISIS because American police are the thin blue line that stand between anarchy and order. Yes, most officers do the right thing and work hard at it. It only takes a few to discredit an entire department. ISIS is looking for those few cops who screw up through agitators who think a race-war is ongoing. It is - ISIS versus ‘US.’

Baltimore Riots

Allow ignorance and hatred among a few violent prone individuals to manifest itself into what it truly represents—wickedness, they will ride aboard the patriotic train as their last refuge and plunge America into disgrace and darkness. Separate the races because some white individuals similar to some black individuals assume that a pure white or pure black nation is the only way a country can survive the political lunatics of the world. As the wick above artificial nationalism swells with juices of ignorance, pure selfishness, and elegant righteous rhetoric, a strike from a single match can ignite a hundred fireballs of no return. Outsiders embrace locals calling out their poverty, discrimination, and misery. They suggest attacks of law enforcement, businesses, and violations of different colored women and children who support the entrepreneurial or bourgeoisie families are righteous targets. They call for sexual violence against wives and children of law enforcement officers and military personnel. Outsiders turn things inside out. For instance, those who broke the law in Ferguson and Baltimore were called victims and law and order were called oppressors or victimizers. Many forget that those alleged victims may or may not be on the end of white discrimination and hopelessness but are, indeed, street thugs using an incident as their opportunity to violate others and take what they want. Some of them were pushed by outside (ISIS backed) forces that simply let it be known that there are no consequences for their reckless behavior but praise and glory. But they’re no Robin Hood, what they steal is for themselves. Then, too, as protestors take to the streets against government many are unaware that local and federal government (including police officers) personnel are not necessarily representatives of one race, but that’s another story, too isn’t it? Yet here’s one statistic from BlackDemographics.com: More than 20 percent of the Black working population over 16 years old are employees of the federal, state, or local government which is just over 5 percent higher than the national average. Another relevant thought that should be acknowledged is that there are more black university students (and often, excellent students my experience tells me) than there are black prisoners in the American prisons.

That being said, compromise the safety of those families who own a good chunk of the American economy and their lackeys (the middle class and their cops) will be fired up by the sensationalized press. Also, we could say that the shameless sensationalized press are outsiders of middle class communities who hide behind the US Constitution and the Amendments (in particular, freedom of speech) similar to many criminals on Wall Street and in political office to peddle their wares. The media will reinforce and embellish events calling the attention of masses toward certain facts, the process of justice, and necessities toward life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Lest we forget that even the media’s personnel love to embellish or out and out lie about his or her experiences. The reincarnated problem with American purity (how absurd) will be discussed openly—no more color codes, no more chatter about equality which is lost in the media’s reports of violence allowing those discussions to take center stage. The idea of ask not what you can do for you but ask what you can do for your country will be turned upside down. Reading between the lines it will reshape the question: what’s your country done for you lately? Answer—absolutely nothing!

Deliberations will chip away at the guilt of slavery blaming slavery on the slaves (slavery without submission – slaves could have left plantations, similar to what many think about battered women who could have left their abusers or she got the abuser she deserved) resulting in legal action justifying police zero tolerance strategies until Marshal Law is sanctioned (because cops are out of control) as America’s only ‘final solution’ to social order. The American Military occupation of US cities, despite it unlawful (Posse Comitatus Act) intrusion into the local police action will be coordinated by a group of top commanders who await the opportunity to take the job from its legal elected guardian, the President. This perspective laid out above has been historically proven by its architect who was at the time an Austrian prisoner. His book is entitled Mein Kampf—Sieg Heil MF. When old plantations become death camps, will it be too late to understand the concept of divided we fall. As a side note, my colleagues tell me that individuals with my experience could easily identify the Pentagon and West Point commanders who will assume command of the military when the opportunity arises.

First Bioweapon Assault

As scientists learn how to prolong Sarin’s chemical longevity, it will be part of the first bioweapon assault once the death camps begin to populate. Yet, smallpox has a high mortality rate and can be spread by aerosols or in the dust. Although an initial release of smallpox could infect a large number of people, secondary spread would be slow because of the long incubation period and the close contact required for transmission. Justice professionals, especially federal and local law enforcement officers and their partners including hospital personnel, physicians, and nurses, are at the greatest risk of becoming infected resulting in their inability to protect and treat the American public. Of course, those providers who can protect and treat will make decisions about whom they will comfort and who they won’t comfort.

It may take some time, but eventually it will be realized that bioweapons will be used long after an epidemic of deadly pathogens have invaded the US through the American Prison Industrial Complex. Suicide disease bombers will be arrested, convicted or not, sent to prison, expose those populations to a variety of diseases including Ebola and MRSA. Prisons are covert and involuntary partners of ISIS because of their lack of healthcare among prisoners. With seven million prisoners (jails and prisons, local, municipal, and federal) released each year, how quickly will Americans be on their knees begging for help? What you need to know right now is that Prison Industrial Complex is the catalyst of the present infectious pathogen epidemic and violence so my thoughts are not that far out there. To further your thoughts on this concept, feel free to review Criminal Justice and Public Health: MRSA and Other Deadly Pathogens (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendal Hunt, 2015). Or review Failure of the American Prison Complex: Let’s Abolish It, also a Kendal Hunt publication, 2014.

My Objectives in Writing This Book