Today, there was a shooting at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas. The shooter killed Court Officer Stanley Cooper, age 72 and was a former Metro police officer. (http://odmp.org/officer/20207-court-officer-stanley-w.-cooper) The shooter also shot a U.S. Marshal, but he will be ok after undergoing emergency surgery.
The shooter, Johnny Lee Wicks, was shot and killed by responding U.S. Marshals and other court officers.
Video of the shooting scene: http://video.foxnews.com/#/v/3959962/unbelievable/?playlist_id=87249
What Wicks did is wrong- there is no justification for what he did.But could this have been avoided? Wicks has had some problems with the Social Security Administration. Wicks moved from California to Nevada. Apparently, California, even though it is a federal program, has significantly higher Social Security benefits than Nevada. Why, maybe cost of living, but cost of living is not that much more in CA and Nevada. Certainly, not a $317 reduction in benefits out of about $930.But he also was treated like crap by the employees at the SSA. He was told if he didn't like Nevada Social Security, he should move back to California. He was given poor customer service.He believed he was being discriminated against because he is old, black and uneducated. For the copy of his federal lawsuit from the Las Vegas Sun: http://media.lasvegassun.com/media/pdfs/blogs/documents/2010/01/04/wicks010410.pdfWell, I do not know about his contact with personnel at Social Security, I have had 1 opportunity to interact with people at the SSA in Las Vegas. All the visit was about was to change my wife's name on her social security card. No big deal, correct? Well, the "customer service representative" at the SSA was quite rude and when we asked a simple question, he got quite testy. He raised his voice and we when told him it was no big deal, he threatened us with security. Anyways, I have talked to other people who have dealt with SSA in Las Vegas, and almost everyone has had bad things to say about the SSA in Las Vegas.Again, I am not justifying what Wicks did. He had no right to take another man's life. But if, what Hicks said happened and he was treated rudely at the SSA in Las Vegas, could this shooting have been prevented? Further, shouldn't Social Security benefits, a federal benefit, be distributed evenly throughout the country? Shouldn't the people in CA get the same benefits as the people in Nevada as in Wisconsin as in Maine?And one final dig, it may have also come out of frustration that the same federal bureaucrats that dealt with Wicks and told him he was losing benefits and not getting a COLA this year, are getting a 2% pay increase his year? Just wondering.
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Sounds like the guy was on SSI, not regular Social Security. The Federal SSI amount in 2008 was $637 a month, and that is true for every state. Individual states can supplement that amount: in 2008 California added a $317 supplement; our home state of Wisconsin added $84; and Nevada (cheapskates?, ha-ha, of course which of those three states are facing bankruptcy?) added $36.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link for my figures: http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/progdesc/ssi_st_asst/2008/index.html
I think, if it is a case of SSI, it also depends on the type of the disability. I work with kids who have severe disabilities and they get more than that.
ReplyDeleteBut it would have been nice if he would have some decent customer service from the SSA in Las Vegas. It doesn't seem like he was treated in a manner that he should have. From the judge on down to the workers in SSA, didn't anybody just sit down and talk to him, man to man? He obviously didn't think so.
And again, this doesn't justify his actions, what he did was evil.