Years ago (I think in the 1990s) there was a news story about a criminal who was trying to break into a store. He snuck up on the roof after hours and figured he could gain entry through a skylight and plunder the contents. He did gain entry, but not the way he wanted: he fell through the skylight down to the floor and was injured. Later, he sued the building owner for not making the skylight safe.
I don’t remember if he won his case. But the public was righteously outraged. Here’s a wannabe thief, in the act of doing something illegal and morally reprehensible. He gets injured as a result of his own stupid behavior—and then has the audacity to sue for damages!
This was the first incident I can remember in which a criminal tried to get away with this sort of thing, but it was hardly the last. It was, after all, a succession of similar stories that influenced the public to swing further to the right and assert that criminals have no rights, as such, if they’re harmed as a result of their own evil. Such sentiment played a large part in Trump’s political success. And now, we have yet another such story: the family of a drug addict is suing Santa Clara County for the death of their loved one, Brandon Gay, who died of a massive overdose of illegal drugs while in the county jail last year.
With all due respect for Gay’s family, who clearly are grieving, I have to say that the facts of the case, as reported in the media, have not persuaded me that the Gay family is entitled to any payment at all. Brandon, who was 33, admitted to jail staff after he was arrested that “he used fentanyl and Xanax the day before his arrest.” He also tested positive for amphetamines and benzodiazepines. A jail doctor “ordered well-being checks and opiate withdrawal assessments,” after Gay was found “unconscious on the shower room floor [and] medical personnel administered three doses of Narcan.” But Gay “died from complications of mixed drug toxicity.”
The lawyer representing Gay’s family accused jail employees of not “monitoring [Gay] correctly.” We don’t know specifically what the family is asking for, but in similar cases the amount of money can be in the millions of dollars.
It seems to me that the jail officials did everything in their power to help Gay. The one thing that wasn’t in their power was the ability to prevent Gay from eating too many drugs in the first place. That power rested with Brandon Gay himself. He chose to ingest a cocktail of drugs that he had to have known was dangerous and potentially lethal. Apologists for addicts are always telling us that addicts are unable to make rational decisions, that their addiction is too powerful for them to overcome, and that they need treatment, not judgment or arrest. At the same time, human beings have free will. How are we to reconcile the difference between an intentional act of free will and a compelled act over which the actor has no control?
Far be it from me to answer this crucial question, which has played out in countless ways in the history of mankind and will continue to do so. All I know is my opinion, which is that the Gay family is misguided. They’ve endured tragedy, yes. But let them conclude that the tragedy was not Santa Clara County’s fault, but Brandon’s. I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead; it’s just the truth. In their mourning, let them also bless the jail staff for trying to save their son. And let us all once again acknowledge that actions have consequences. If you can’t do the time, then don’t do the crime.
Steve Heimoff