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SB 459 won't bring back Richard Semo, but locking up criminals would have

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Tyler Thurston speaks briefly with his defense attorney Carl J. Swenson before being led out of the courtroom by a Sheriff's deputy. on Sept. 30 (Rochester Voice file photo) Inset, photo, Richard Semo (Courtesy)

Last month Gov. Chris Sununu signed a bill that is supposed to tackle workplace violence at health care facilities like Frisbie Memorial Hospital, but that won't bring back a Frisbie security guard who died in December of 2020 at the hands of a New Durham man suffering from mental illness.
Let's be straight up about this.
If the Strafford County Attorneys Office had done its job, Richard Semo would probably still be working at Frisbie like he was around 3:20 a.m. on Dec. 13, 2020, when he was sucker punched in the face by Tyler Thurston, 30. Semo then fell to the pavement and cracked his head open.
He was unresponsive when police found him and died five days later at Portsmouth Regional Hospital from a brain bleed.
During an April 2021 explanation of why he had urged no jail time for his client defense counsel Carl J. Swenson said Thurston had been released from a prison hospital just 24 hours before the deadly encounter and had sought mental health services on seven occasions in the four months leading up to the killing.
But what no one talked about during a Sept. 30 sentencing hearing that put Thurston in state prison for just two and a half years (six months suspended on good behavior) is that he was indicted in March of 2021 on a criminal threatening charge from 2019 that carried a three and a half to seven year prison sentence if convicted.
So if prosecutors had put him away for three and a half to seven year, Mr. Semo, a former Marine drill sergeant, would be alive today enjoying his senior years with family and friends.
Thurston's 2019 arrest occurred on Dec. 10, when he "purposely placed (the victim, a Somersworth man) in fear of imminent bodily injury ... when he waved a knife, which in the manner it was threatened to be used is known to be capable of producing death ... during the course of an argument (with the victim)," according to court documents.
In a police affidavit the victim in this case alleged that if he hadn't run back in his house, he would've been stabbed by the onrushing Thurston.
As part of Thurston's sentencing last September, that criminal threatening charge will be served concurrently with the manslaughter charge, so he'll likely be out in December, which is the month when both of his previous violent incidents listed here occurred.
What happened to Mr. Semo could happen to anyone of us, who are just doing our job until someone with mental issues shoots us, or stabs or sucker punches us into oblivion.
But what's so ludicrous is glad handing politicians thinking they can legislate safety in the workplace by what is put in this bill when all that is needed is to put away the criminally insane ... until they are well.
Senate Bill 459 is nothing more than a bunch of tripe. Here's some of the verbiage, which is laughable.

(1) Education on what constitutes workplace violence and hostile words.
(2) Education on the roles and responsibilities of leadership, clinical staff, security personnel, if applicable, and external law enforcement.
(3) Training in de-escalation, nonphysical intervention skills, response to emergency incidents, and at the discretion of the health facility, physical intervention techniques.
(4) The reporting process for workplace violence and hostile words incidents.

The commissioner of health and human services, in consultation with the health care workplace safety commission and the health and human services oversight committee, shall adopt rules pursuant to RSA 541-A deemed necessary for the implementation of this section in coordination with the department of health and human services, including a common reporting form.
Anyways, you get the point. A bunch of hooey.
People at Frisbie and hospitals around the state have been dealing with a rising caseload of folks with mental issues in their emergency rooms for decades, and it just gets worse.
It would be foolhardy for anyone to think each hospital doesn't already have policies, protocols and best practices in place to deal with such patient-staff violence. Of course they do. They also have security personnel on hand, many of whom formerly worked in law enforcement.

But there's little that can protect you from a sucker punch from someone you're trying to help.

The bottom line is:
If someone is crazy they need help.
If they are crazy and committing violence they have to be put away just like sane people are put away ... for the health and welfare of the public.
You can't legislate safety. You have to prosecute those who make it unsafe.
By the way HB 459 would also establish a commission and two personnel to coordinate progress at a cost of $272,000.
More government. Let's all celebrate.
When what we should be doing is incarcerate.

- HT

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