LAT columnist Lopez's son attacked; incident 'ignored' by cops, hospital

Not sure where to put this -- it's not breaking news because the incident itself happened in April -- but it's a compelling read nonetheless.

http://www.philly.com/philly/health_and_science/20090528_Dave_Davies__Another_random_attack_goes_ignored.html

Bottom line is, the son of LAT columnist Steve Lopez was attacked on the streets of Philly, seemingly for no reason. He had recently earned a master's degree but didn't have a job -- thus, no insurance. One hospital refused to schedule his surgery, but another one took him in.

Lot of angles to this one. Anyway, take a look.

 

Thank God for Mr. Lopez that he didn't end up as a soloist.

 

I'm sorry, but I'd be furious with a group of young kids who beat the crap out of me for giggles. I'd want them in jail for 20 years. The victim here seems to reserve more anger for the hospital than for the people who sent him there. That's messed up.

 

I see your point, but a hospital should be above the lowest common denominator in society.

 

Yeah, what an asshole.

 

Who are you saying is the asshole here, the victim or the hospital? This guy was beaten within an inch of his life and a hospital refused to treat him because he didn't have insurance. Now THAT is fucked up.

 

If the sarcasm was not apparent, I apologize.

 

Guess a degree in library science holds no more promise for financial security and medical insurance safety nets than a journalism degree.

Looks like what goes around comes around: Make money from a book and movie rights about a street person, then spend some of that money on hospital bills when your kid gets mugged in the street.

How the victim can't be pissed off at the thugs who did this to him -- and quite possibly to others less capable of paying their surgical bills -- shows you what a focus on "social justice" leads to.

 

That's a pretty sick comment. Just so you know, Joe, Steve Lopez did indeed make money from the book and movie but a good part of it went into a trust fund for Nathaniel Ayers.

 

Impressive, by the way, that Dave Davies can still perform with The Kinks and churn out a column.
But as to the topic at hand, the victim is to be applauded for his approach: He doesn't want public sympathy for the attack; he wants to direct attention to the evils of the health care/insurance industrial complex.

 

The hospital that didn't take Lopez's son in did the wrong thing.

But count me among the people who hope that Andrew Lopez's noted sense of social justice and compassion does not extend to his attackers. I'm with others who are even more upset with the seeming lack of anger, disgust and outrage over the attack's occurrence in the first place than I am Lopez's difficulties in getting surgery.

This random crap -- violence for the sake of entertainment, and just, because -- has just got to stop.

I mean, really...what is with these kids? It's like nobody knows, or gets taught, right from wrong, anymore -- except you know that they do. Otherwise, they wouldn't come up with doing something like this just for the heck of it in the first place.

Sheesh, is it any wonder our society is so screwed up?

 

I wanna know what the hell happened immediately after the attack. If you pop open your cell phone and dial 9-1-1, won't a police car and ambulance show up? And I've never seen an ambulance full of EMTs say to a patient, "What? You have no insurance? Not even an HMO? Shit, sorry. We can't take you anywhere. And you can't just lay here either 'cause that's loitering."

I've been blind-sided in the face twice (I'm sure many of you are shocked). Both times I had insurance and went to the closest hospital to be checked out. The first time I had to have my nose reset and had two broken bones. The second one looked ugly but caused no real damage.

Neither time did I call police. Why? I knew their chances were slim in catching the person and I knew that had more real crimes to worry about and weren't going to bust their ass looking for some thug that punched a guy leaving a bar. I'm assuming Lopez thought the same thing and didn't bother. There are how many hundred murders in Philadelphia a year, and they're gonna' work round the clock look for someone who went Kermit Washington on some guy?