Rape, Starvation, Drug Overdoses. And No Accountability: The Walker Way is to Walk Away
MADISON-Scott Walker once more is walking away from any responsibility for his cynical neglect, this time with the vulnerable population at the county’s Mental Health Complex, where new allegations of rape have put $60 million in federal aid in jeopardy – though have garnered hardly a shrug from the failed Milwaukee county executive.
The allegations of assault join past cases of drug and starvation deaths and other abuses within the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division under Walker’s watch.
As of early Monday, Walker had yet to respond to questions about the assaults from Wisconsin Rep. Jon Richards. Press inquiries, meanwhile, have been directed to county lawyers.
“These are stories that shock the conscience. But Scott Walker is not in the business of caring for the vulnerable, or taking responsibility for anything that happens under his watch,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Monday.
“The moment cries for leadership,” Tate said. “But we all know the Walker way is to walk away from responsibility.”
In 2006, the state issued an alert against the county, finding various violations after a patient died of starvation. In 2005, two patients smuggled in contraband narcotics and overdosed fatally.
The recent reports surfaced last month after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “cited the county for practices that led to several reported assaults by patients on other patients at the complex,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported March 24, including the case of a female patient becoming pregnant after “repeated sexual contact with another patient…”
“Those for whom the county cares are left to suffer with the dark reality that the only person for whom Scott Walker cares is himself and a few cronies,” Tate said.
Letter from Rep. Richards to Walker: http://libertycontrol.net/uploads/wisconsin_dems/32410Richards.pdf
