Tulsans following the news, this week will hear the horrible story of a life cut short at the Tulsa County jail. Treatment lacks ‘human decency’ from the Tulsa Frontier Williams, a 37-year-old veteran with no criminal record, died Oct. 27, 2011, after suffering a mental breakdown at an Owasso hotel and ending up in Tulsa’s jail. At some point over the next six days, records show he broke his neck, possibly when he rammed his head into his cell door or when detention officers dumped him from a gurney onto a shower floor. The jail’s medical and detention staff thought Williams was “faking paralysis” but he wasn’t seen by a physician — who just happened to be in the jail that day — until shortly before he died, records indicate. More than 50 hours of videotape show that jail medical staff did not perform a simple test to determine whether Williams was paralyzed. Read the full story at the Tulsa frontier. |
In reflection, it seems quite wise that the Cockroft Committee completed their work prior to the first day of regular session. With all the predictable budget drama, and the hallways packed with various interest groups, lobby groups, school tours, pages, and standing committees; holding sensitive and closed-door hearings during the quiet days of January were well chosen.
The leadership team of McCall's is younger and more energetic than most. The personalities in leadership are vastly more engaging and determined to find consensus, as opposed to many past decades. Democrats generally hold out hope that McCall will seek solutions that garner vast bipartisan majorities, rather than straight party-line divisions.
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Sooner Politics
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