The world is full of different kinds of people who view their place as more prominent when compared to others. Some believe in justice and some do not. I've been using this long stemming hypothetical example of hate, corruption and potential elder abuse at its best to help highlight the dangers of not correcting inappropriate behaviors. Let us add some of the incentives for questioned behavior beyond placating ones friends and Good Old Boy networks. What do you think that is? You might have guessed it---money! If you said something similar you would be correct. Money is a common motivator for crime. Financial Exploitation of Older Adults.
Now keep in mind this is a hypothetical example which would never ever happen in modern times because we know that such things would seen as horrendous in society and would stopped immediately! The good news is we know we have perfect system according to some that is 100% accurate and effective. No need to fix anything. Ok maybe not 100% but let us just say 99.9999% accurate just to leave a small amount of random doubt. Its never wise to say 100% even though that rolls off of the tongue and is easy for the mind to process and of course to sell.
First of all let us educated ourselves on how prevalent elder abuse is....
Here are two articles on the prevalence of abuse of elderly people with Dementia. 1.) The study says that abuse of elderly with dementia is between 27.9% and 62%. If true that is horrendous but often happens by people closest to the person that can hide these abuses. Elder Abuse And Dementia: A Review Of The Research And Health Policy. 2.) The second article discusses what that abuse might look like. Protection Services for Adults.
(l) Financial or Property Exploitation means illegal or improper use of an elderly or adult with a disability's money, property, or other resources for monetary or personal benefit, profit or gain. This includes, but is not limited to, theft, misappropriation, concealment, misuse or fraudulent deprivation of money or property belonging to the elderly or adult with a disability.
(Btw...I didn't see 100% in those numbers either. Looks like the scientists might be wrong. 🤔)
Let us go back to our running hypothetical example. Someone with close affiliation/employment with a rogue network of officers and a large group of what some community members have called local bullies, became aware that an elder was sick with dementia and had cancer. They hid this from some people and isolated that person. As the victim become increasing sick they also offloaded that persons wealth. (It's not hard to pull dates, documentation, bank records and interview the perpetrators. Those who would have investigated were close friends of the perpetrators. The dangers of corruption realized. The dangers of protecting corruption also realized.).
Due to close affiliation, long stemming corruption and encourage extremisms among a few officials against multiple minorities and citizens in the area, a complaint led to immediate retaliation and cleansing type overtones (There are many facets to these behaviors we cannot cover here. i.e. officials targeting minorities on religious holidays. Violations of religious freedoms, obvious racism, and silencing freedom of speech. Please keep in mind it is a fictitious story.). Many others have complained of similar targeting/corruption in the area with no recourse because in part of social, religious, and ethnic influences (Its not that hard to trace back the group, actually likely two to three semi-associated groups, that are being destructive.).
Until we start thinking holistically about our duties and the essential reasons why these institutions exist, we will continue to deal with these flare ups of poor behavior that lead to public dissent. Now, I'm not going to go through all of the other behaviors in this article but they are serious allegations by various community members (Remember its hypothetical). As of today's date, there have been no reassurance that we can fix what has been broken and is inherently dangerous not only to the elderly but also the other victims (We forget about them and the risks to future victims. No moral quandary there of course. 100%!)
I'm more practical when it comes to these issues and avoid encouraging bad behaviors just in case they become common and normalized. I would have an outside reviewer of all serious complaints by the community and examine and come to a conclusion (Seems unreasonable!). We cannot use the same people who caused the problem to review the problem because we find they sometimes protect their own through lack of objectivity (Remember the 100%). If we find an issue one would hope to hold account those who participated, correct the damage, and fix the system to protect the public. However, that is not logic used by everyone. One would have to have a commitment to the bigger purposes of these institutions to think along that line.
From a systems and social contract stand point, allowing elder abuse and free pass for long stemming corruption based in part of bigotries is not optimal. Its not optimal for victims, the American public, or even the system itself. Yet its not always about doing the right thing. Extremism and political violence can do a lot of damage to people. We need practical problem solvers who can understand these multifaceted problems from different perspectives. (That does not seem very logical to many. 100% is an absolute!)
*This is just for learning purposes. We are exploring how corruption, hate, and politics can damage communities. Often it is the most vulnerable that are taken advantage of. You will notice the multifaceted self-interest in this fake, made up, and unreal story. Freedom of speech doesn't come free.
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