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I also thought the tone was unhelpful but the BPD patient dying in the Tulsa jail was reprehensible. Although his family just leaving him at a hotel in the mids

by Para2016 9y ago

I also thought the tone was unhelpful but the BPD patient dying in the Tulsa jail was reprehensible. Although his family just leaving him at a hotel in the midst of a manic episode was wildly unresponsible and they deserve some blame for what befell their son. I can't imagine leaving a family member in an emergency mental health crisis alone and surrounded by strangers. At the very least, they should have followed up on their son's location after they abandoned him to his fate. That being said, the police spectacularly failed and are ultimately to blame for his death.

totalZero 9y ago
> I also thought the tone was unhelpful but the BPD patient dying in the Tulsa jail was reprehensible. I totally agree. I do note that the conversation about prisons, and about mental healthcare, is larger than Oklahoma. There have also been incidents in recent years of police officers in Oklahoma killing innocent people of nonwhite descent. That conversation about police brutality is also larger than Oklahoma. I think the best argument in criticism of the Oklahoma state government is to say: Look at the wealth amassed by oil companies like Continental, Devon Energy, and Chesapeake. Devon Energy was building a massive skyscraper during the financial crisis, as the rest of America reeled. Now juxtapose that massive profitability in oil and gas with Oklahoman problems like drug abuse among young people, inadequate funding for schools, and significant amounts of high school pregnancy. Clearly there's a disparity between what the petroleum companies are earning, and what Oklahoma is receiving (as a state) for its part as an enabler of their profits. Further, it's easy to argue that these firms not only benefit from selling Oklahoma's resources and harvesting talent from petroleum engineering programs in the state's public universities, they also have caused geological anomalies with yet-unknown consequences. And I suppose Oklahomans are complicit in this, because ultimately they elect the government and they remain tacit about many things that happen in the state. But if there were a discussion, it would have to start with, "is this how an oil-rich region should function?" Edit: and btw, I would argue that even if DVN, CLR, and CHK are going through a turbulent market moment, the problems we are discussing preceded the selloff in crude oil by at least a decade.

totalZero 9y ago

> I also thought the tone was unhelpful but the BPD patient dying in the Tulsa jail was reprehensible. I totally agree. I do note that the conversation about prisons, and about mental healthcare, is larger than Oklahoma. There have also been incidents in recent years of police officers in Oklahoma killing innocent people of nonwhite descent. That conversation about police brutality is also larger than Oklahoma. I think the best argument in criticism of the Oklahoma state government is to say: Look at the wealth amassed by oil companies like Continental, Devon Energy, and Chesapeake. Devon Energy was building a massive skyscraper during the financial crisis, as the rest of America reeled. Now juxtapose that massive profitability in oil and gas with Oklahoman problems like drug abuse among young people, inadequate funding for schools, and significant amounts of high school pregnancy. Clearly there's a disparity between what the petroleum companies are earning, and what Oklahoma is receiving (as a state) for its part as an enabler of their profits. Further, it's easy to argue that these firms not only benefit from selling Oklahoma's resources and harvesting talent from petroleum engineering programs in the state's public universities, they also have caused geological anomalies with yet-unknown consequences. And I suppose Oklahomans are complicit in this, because ultimately they elect the government and they remain tacit about many things that happen in the state. But if there were a discussion, it would have to start with, "is this how an oil-rich region should function?" Edit: and btw, I would argue that even if DVN, CLR, and CHK are going through a turbulent market moment, the problems we are discussing preceded the selloff in crude oil by at least a decade.