N.C. Man Allegedly Robs Bank for $1 to Get Health Care in Jail

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

A 59-year-old man has been jailed in Gastonia, N.C., on charges of larceny after allegedly robbing an RBC Bank for $1 so he could get health care in prison. Richard James Verone handed a female teller a note demanding the money and claiming that he had a gun, according to the police report.

He then sat down and waited for police to arrive. "… I say, 'I'll be sitting right over here, on the chair, waiting for the police,'" Verone told reporters, recalling the June 9 robbery in an interview from Gaston County Jail.

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"He's sitting on the sofa as you walk in the front door," the bank teller said in a 911 call.

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Verone said he asked for $1 to show that his motives were medical, not monetary, according to news reports. With a growth in his chest, two ruptured disks and no job, Verone hoped a three-year stint in prison would afford him the health care he needed.




Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/nc-man-allegedly-robs-bank-health-care-jail/story?id=13887040

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And this is what its come to. Sad.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. I DO know what to say about this...but it would just be deleted.

[valerief]

21. +1 gazillion

[MissDeeds]

25. [phone]

[lsewpershad]

2. Are we still living in America?????

[valerief]

22. Yeah, America, the GMO Corn Republic. nt

[leftyohiolib]

3. when the animals running the gop see this they will....

come up with a bill requiring prisoners to pay for medical expenses. not sure how, but they will think of something. perhaps the gop will require them to stay in prison, working, till the debt is paid or out of the one he's in and right into the new debtor's prison.

[liberation]

5. Too late. They already thought about that.

Prisoners in many states already do lots of free/cheap labor.

[Exultant Democracy]

18. Slavery never really ended, it just got temporarily downsized.

The history of Convict Labor since the civil war to today is chilling.

[liberation]

30. It goes further than that

Capitalism at its core, is nothing but an updated version of the patrician citizen/slave tiered system of the Roman empire (and other empires/societies before that)

Hell, even look at some of our forms of entertainment: mechanized chariots going around an oval (NASCAR), or modern day gladiators going at it after a ball (NFL)....

Thinking of slavery as a purely racial-based institution, misses the whole picture. The plantation may be bigger, but most of people still have to wake up in the morning and work a job we don't like, follow arbitrary orders, and face ruin the minute they don't do what they are told.

[Dont call me Shirley]

53. The slave owners and brit royals never gave up the civil war...

they just planned it out to take over in the 1920's, then FDR "betrayed" them. So they've been slowly bringing us back to slavery since FDR died. These slave owning aristocrats must be put back in the genie bottle then throw away the key.

[blank space]

23. in fact they make the gadgetry which goes into

many of your american smart weapons.....how about that hey !?

The US is the largest prisoner state on earth by sheer volume, and outstrips the rest of the developed world combined for per capita,
sheer volume even dwarfs communist china.

A massive state prison system of forced labor........USA, USA, USA.

[liberation]

31. You gotta look at it on the good side: we get personalized license plates

Totally worth it! (sarcasm)

[bikebloke]

51. Obligatory organ donations

Sort of like in Never Let Me Go.

[avebury]

4. That is so sad

If the Republicans get back in total charge of Washington you might someday see people comitting crimes just to be sent to prison so that they will be fed, clothed, housed, and get healthcare. It may look better to some then living on the streets.

[RamboLiberal]

6. Instead of Senior citizen homes we'll need Senior prisons

[dipsydoodle]

7. Something similar had already been suggested for the UK.

Move all of the old folk into prisons where they'll be well cared for at tax payers expense and move all of the prisoners into the "care homes" where they can be neglected and abused.

[xiamiam]

8. one of cheneys business endeavors

wrap your head around this

us represents 5% of the world population yet we have 25% of the worlds prisoners

[Downwinder]

16. Don't knock it. I prison you come up for parole. a nursing home is a life sentence.

And here, jail food is better than the Sr. center. Plus three meals a day rather than one.

[Alcibiades]

9. Good for him!

The money the government might have used to take care of my fellow North Carolinian is instead being spent on these:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTE3roZy35A/Swfo4UkuhyI/AAAAAAAAFGk/OjuNxqSGVp4/s1600/USN+USS+Gerald+R+Ford+CVN-78+Artist+Image.jpg

Meet the Gerald R. Ford, first in a new class of US nuclear aircraft carriers. They will cost only $9 billion each. OK, so the first one cost $14 billion, but we have every assurance that that was just the first one, that subsequent carriers will cost only $9,000,000,000 or thereabouts.

Don't ask why we need ten of these, when no other nation has more than two. Having these things around is a much higher priority to more Americans than removing this man's tumors or growths or whatever they are.

[JJW]

10. Not total cost!

How much does it cost to operate and maintain these carriers?

[MissDeeds]

26. It seems that our government

is far more motivated to kill and destroy than it is to protect and preserve. Just look at where the money goes.

[Bozita]

11. A guy did the same thing in Macomb Co, MI a few years back

Laid off, unemployment comp ran out, home foreclosed, and predictions of a long, cold winter made him do it.

IIRC, he was a 50-something engineer with one of the Big3 who was living out of his car at the time of the crime.

Almost forgot, this guy waited for the cops just outside the bank's doors.

[bluedigger]

12. It's a viable survival strategy.

Basically, you're just forcing yourself on to the State. If you're in that gap of unemployable and not old enough to collect your social security, and have no outside responsibilities...:shrug:

I'm entering that window. :-(

[KoKo]

13. K&R...this ..and Sad to have to do it...but it needs to be told!

:kick:

[FailureToCommunicate]

14. "Why do rob banks?" "Cause that where the health care is"

(after Willie Sutton)

Sad. So sad.

[StarsInHerHair]

60. & who would even guess we'd be at this point back in 2000? Before W got

crowned by the supreme caca?

[sarcasmo]

15. Medicare for all and the right wing uses health care as a tool. Worst industrialized nation on the

Planet.

[DeSwiss]

17. K&R

"You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package… And I believe one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market, so that we can force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest." http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-annual-conference-american-medical-association">~President Barack Obama

[dflprincess]

41. "...and keep the insurance companies honest."

With that statement the president admits he knows the industry is crooked yet, in the end, he had no problem selling us to them in the form of his "mandate". I hope whatever they gave him was worth it.

[boppers]

61. They gave him pre-existing conditions changes, exchanges, longer children coverage...

Tier caps, public health centers, profit caps, etc.

Huge bill, lots of things in it.

[janburns96]

19. I have a better idea..

frogmarch the evil repukes to prison and make them pay for this guy's health care. greedy corporate fat bastards getting millions in bonuses while stealing jobs from the poor to send to china.

[harun]

20. Every human being has a right to fight for their survival.

[AlbertCat]

24. Repug Media response:

"Why didn't he just steal enough money to go to France?"

[KillCapitalism]

57. It wouldn't be possible

Most banks do not keep $10,000,000 or more on premises from what I understand.

[Marblehead]

27. hope they don't torture him

[Jefferson23]

28. If this had taken place just prior to the 2008 election, this man would

have been the poster story for single payer...what's going to happen to these people after this next election?

[emilyg]

36. I don't expect change - do you?

[Jefferson23]

59. No, I do not expect change for the better. n/t

[slay]

29. Expect to see a lot more stuff like this as things continue to get worse

i mean - come on - neither the Repubs or the Dems are anywhere close to being serious about fixing the real problems in this country. they care about their wars and their corporate masters. this is bullshit - we deserve better than this - as a species and a society. god damn right wing politics - from both sides of the isle! argh! :banghead:

[area51]

48. +1

My post would probably be yanked if I said what needs to happen in order to get health care as a basic human right in this country and get the parasitic health insurance mafiosi out. We have enough money to repair this country's infrastructure and to have improved Medicare for all here. It's a matter of priorities.

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 preventable deaths per year. This is not only a moral issue, but a national security issue that we're so vulnerable given that our health care delivery system is so fragmented and dysfunctional.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, bankrupts and kills people.

Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

"Employer-based health insurance has always been a bad idea. Your life should not depend on who you work for." -- T. McKeon

"Any proposal that sticks with our current dependence on for-profit private insurers ... will not be sustainable. And the new law will not get us to universal coverage ...." -- T.R. Reid, The Healing of America

"Despite the present hyperbole by its supporters, this latest effort will end up as just another failed reform effort littering the landscape of the last century." --John Geyman, M.D., Hijacked! The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform

[slay]

56. I'll see your +1 and add one to your post as well: +1

yes indeed - health care should be a right! these companies that profit - way excessively no less - off the sick and dying are sickening. this country needs to take a long hard look in the mirror - cause it's not going to like what it sees - and things need to change. REALLY change. not the fake change Obama fooled us with. ugh.

[Hugabear]

32. I predicted this would happen a few years ago

I predicted that some people would commit crimes just so they could get "free" shelter, food, and health care in prison.

What's truly criminal is that we, as a nation, allow this to happen. Health care, shelter, and food should be a RIGHT, not a "privilege" for those with economic means.

[Downwinder]

33. A few years ago a fellow robbed a post office in La. to get cancer treatment.

He called them up before hand.

[cliffordu]

34. I have actually considered this.

Jesus Christ. What are we?

[Downwinder]

39. I figure SS is paying me $30.00 a day to stay out of jail.

If they cut that any it won't be worth it. I'll drop my $2.000 plus per month prescription cost of them. If I could get to a protest or demonstration I would do it then. There is nothing here within walking distance.

[Taverner]

35. Like I say, you gotta be crazy not to do drugs in this day and age...

Goodonya if you don't, but

You gotta be crazy

[emilyg]

37. Then I'm crazy.

[Taverner]

38. Good be crazy. That way you come off as "sane" in this world

[Taverner]

46. BTW...do not take this as any kind of admonition

I'd rather have you perceived as "sane" than many others

[SaveAmerica]

40. That is beyond sad.

[McCamy Taylor]

42. It works in Texas. Highest uninsured in the countryt, but the TDC prison system is state of the art.

[DollyM]

43. I wondered when someone was going to post this . . .

I saw this several days ago and remembered thinking that the same thought has crossed my mind. My whopping 600.00 in unemployment runs out next month. I am 50 with bad knees and my Dr. wants me to have both replaced. It's a rock and a hard place sitution, I am very limited what I can do job wise because of my knees, not being able to stand or walk for more than a few minutes at a time, but I can't afford the surgery because I don't have health insurance since I don't have a job. I have decided when my unemployment runs out, I will apply for disability. I know that is a long uphill battle but at this point, I don't see what other options I have.

[slay]

47. I'm afraid it's going to take stuff like this - tent cities, etc before people realize socialism

should be for THE PEOPLE - not the corporations, banks, and military - ALL who take our money now! There should be no such thing as billionaires!! This is obscene when people are dying. Anything over a certain amount - say $50 million should be put into the group health care pool for everyone in the country. $50 million is still a shitload - could make it way way way lower and still be justified - but it would be a start. Healthcare MUST become a right. This country is so sick and backwards these days. :(

[Botany]

44. We have a system that benefits Max Baucus .....

..... so he and the others on the take fight health care reform tooth and nail so they
can keep the gravy train running.



In America we spend 17.9% of our GDP on the Health Care Industries but in France and England
it is something like 8 to 10% with much better results and everybody is covered but the difference
between us and them is the money that some people are making on our pain, suffering, and routine
health care .... and that is so much money "they" can buy people like Max Baucus who game the system
so as to make some poor guy in North Carolina rob a bank just so he can see a doctor.

[Initech]

45. My god... this is such a fucked up society we live in.

[me b zola]

49. To make matters worse...

...is the fact that health care in prisons is terrible. People have been lead to believe that prisoners get good health care, but that is nothing but propaganda meant to make us resent prisoners, focusing our anger on them and not the real criminals who are robbing us blind.

This is tragic in so many ways. :(

[Corruption Winz]

50. Thank God we aren't socialists... This is what America is all about..

The man has the freedom to essentially fake a robbery and then live out the American dream in a 4x10 cell.

Only in America.

[Dont call me Shirley]

52. I should have done that when I was dying from Lupus.....

because I didn't have health insurance and couldn't afford doctors and treatments.

[Citizen Worker]

54. Socialized medicine for the military and jail/prison inmates. What have come to in the land of the

free and home of the brave?

[pitohui]

55. a true dumb ass...prisoners are NOT getting all this claimed health care

all this crap abt prisoners getting health care is a huge lie, this guy has a bad back...has he ever spoken to a prisoner who had a bad back in prison? did he listen to what the prisoner said about the health care he got for his bad back? fucking NONE that's what, they got wrote up for goldbricking

jeez, i'm sorry this man is in pain and did something truly stupid but for cryin' out loud

i'm tired of all the lies about how kind we are to prisoners in america, when we treat them worse than fucking dogs

somebody who commits a crime to get health care is going to get a very RUDE awakening, and it's real sorry for me to feel pity for this kind of kool aid drinker because they probably believe all the other wingnut dirtbag propaganda too

[DollyM]

58. It's still a roof over his head and food in his stomach . . .

Things are getting so desperate, those of us in that over 50 group might as well hang it up trying to find a job. My enemployment runs out next month, then what? A roof over my head and three meals a day sounds a lot better than being homeless!

[ieoeja]

62. I believe most prisons only give two meals a day.

And one of those consists of a thin lunch meat sandwich.

You'll probably survive (assuming you don't get murdered). Barely.

[Downwinder]

63. Meals on Wheels just comes once a day here.

From experience; the food in jail is better then the Sr. Center.

[DollyM]

65. yes, meals on wheels is pretty pitiful . . .

I don't know anyone that stays with it very long, the food is rather pitiful. I think most of the seniors that get it just like having some company every day or at least most days.

[coyote]

64. but but but they hate us for our freedoms....

Is this what all these wars are protecting us from? Our freedom to rob banks in order to get healthcare.

[jzodda]

66. I hate to say this but....

I wish there would be 10,000 copy catters

To draw attention to health care (or the lack of it for 50 million people)

[area51]

67. Similarly,

people who visit in first-world countries where health care is a basic human right need to try to stay there based on a claim of medical amnesty. It won't work of course, but the point is to draw international media attention to the horrific sparta-like conditions inside this so-called first-world country.

[cascadiance]

68. Careful about getting everyone to do this. Could be used as a stealth way to disenfranchise voters!

The Republicans might actually LIKE us doing this, as it fattens the prison industrial complex, but more than that, each person that does it suddenly loses their right to vote in states that don't allow felons to vote. And it would likely disenfranchise those that would most likely vote for Democrats.

So either find a way of committing a misdemeanor to get the same health treatment, or let's reconsider championing this too much.