Cincinnati police use ostomies to scare young criminals

http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/region_west_cincinnati/price_hill/cincinnati-police-hope-to-sway-teens-with-photos-of-colostomy-bags-paralyzed-shooting-victims

UOAA has posted an official response saying that they are looking into it and will be contacting the Cincinnati police.

Made by the ignorant for the ignorant. Their intention was noble but the execution is terrible.

Maybe a big reason for a 200% increase in juvenile crimes is the mentality of the District 3 police representatives. Talk about being unaware of human compassion, understanding, empathy, etc. I'm so disappointed.
Mike

I don't know, I don't see it as bad. I always try to use an impartial view of things. The want to show stomas as a concequence to what could happen because of gun fights. I see no issue.

They show commercials of people being in wheelchairs because of drunk driving or speeding. They show the wheelchairs in a negative light to try to deter people from doing bad things.

By the comments logic on that site, the wheelchairs community should be up in arms. "Hey Hey!, we don't want you guys to show wheelchairs as a negative!!

Man, it is what it is.

"You're not killed, but you're walking around with a colostomy bag and that's just not the way to get a girl's attention by limping down Warsaw Avenue with a colostomy bag,” said Richardson. "

I see this comment more as : Don't be stupid, don't shoot anyone, don't get into trouble and you probably can avoid all this. The comment is crude, though. If I was the chief and I needed to use the colostomy bag as a deterant to doing bad things, I would have used a bit more tact in my commercials. Yeah...

Edit: I actually like this thread and this article. I will discuss this with my coworkers and get their opinions, I love debates like this. Our nation has become very sensitive to delicate issues such as sexism, racism, homosexuality, etc. Anything that can be interpreted in a negative light will be scurtinized. We see this everywhere now. It wasn't always like this.

You had Mel Gibson say something about Jewish people when they caught him drunk one time. Ohhhh man, he never heard the end of it... leave the f...ing guy alone.

Similar story here. They just want to deter people, they showed or talked about something and the UOAA is having a fit and demanding an apology. They probably want to sue them also, cause that is what we do these days.

It wasn't done with malecious intent is all I'm saying.  

Edit 2: I read numerous comments from readers on that site about the article. I see their points, well it's really only one point and it's the same across the board. The point has merit however I would have really like to debate this topic with some of them.

I read the article, and I have to say that as a math teacher, I had another problem with the 200% increase in juvenile homicide statistic they cited, which is not supported by the data they show... in 2008 juveniles accounted for 11% of homicide victims, but in 2012 that figure rose to 34%. Those data say nothing about the actual change in juvenile homicide victims, only the relative proportion.

For example, if there were 100 homicide victims in 2008 and 10 were juveniles, that would be 10%. If there were 6 victims in 2012, and 2 were juveniles, then the rate would be 33%, but the number of juvenile homicides would have gone down (as would the number of adult homicides).

A quick google for real numbers gives 88 homicides in 2006 in Cincinnati and 53 in 2012 (2006 is listed as the highest rate in a long time, so 2008 was probably fewer). If 11% in 2006 were juveniles, that would be 9 and then in 2012 it would be 18, so that's a rise of 100% not 200%.

Not to mention that surely many of the "juvenile" homicide victims are 16 or 17 and many of the "adults" are 18 or 19.

Of course any homicide is awful, but there is a playing w/numbers aspect too.....and it just seems silly that forcing kids to go to a meeting talking about colostomy bags is going to change very much. Adolescents know that bad things can happen when you get shot, they just think they won't happen to them.... I mean, who among us thought years before our surgery that a bag would ever happen to us.....

And I know you didn't post this for a math lesson, but there I go....

I'm also pretty sure that to some of you not in the US, it looks pretty crazy that this is how we try to protect our young people....

Oops, my stats were for homicides, not "gun violence victims," but you get the idea....

Phew. Everything Somedude said.

I did click the link and didn't feel insulted by the article. If I was a healthy person, I wouldn't want to end up in a wheelchair or have a colostomy bag. I wouldn't want to be blind or homeless either. It doesn't mean I'm looking down on people who are in those groups I'd rather not be in; to the contrary, a lot of them achieve things that I'm in awe of.

But I'd still rather not be in that position in the first place. Personally speaking.

Edit: Maybe that article was on the wrong side of tactless, but what annoyed me more was a recent episode in Holby City - a British medical drama/soap opera - about a lad with fulminant UC who had a colectomy. I made a post about it on the Crohn's board at the time, but I think that was more reprehensible than this article in many ways.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 7/31/2013 5:27:01 PM (GMT-6)

I get the reasoning behind what they said, I just think they could have said it better. "Limping down the street with a colostomy bag, not the way to get girls" implies that no one would want someone with a bag, and that is insulting.
However I agree that showing someone the possible physical ramifications of bad actions makes sense. Just like was already mentioned. But those commercials don't say, "drink and drive and end up in a wheelchair, that's not the way to get a bf or gf"
To me that was the main difference. Making it sound like no one would want someone with a bag.

I always thought I could use my bag to stop criminals though! Although I have a different approach. I figure, if someone tries to attack me, I will just reach in and grab my bag and throw it at them. I think most people would run from a bag of poop being thrown in their face :D One of those extra perks, lol.

It's all about perception and confidence.

If you have the confidence, nothing will stand in your own way.

But if you don't have that confidence, everything will stand in your own way.

That's how it's been for me. And if you grow up with every last ounce of your confidence entirely stripped from you thanks to bullying and other things, nothing will recover it. Not really. It's probably more likely that people learn to hide their lack of confidence, rather than truly recover what they have lost.

Rightly or wrongly, in a world which judges relentlessly on appearance, the lack of confidence often manifests itself in dissatisfaction with physical appearance. Women have it worse, as usual, but the situation is almost as bad for men nowadays.

That's the thing with the ad; it touches on a perception that hits a raw nerve. Nobody wants to be thought of as unattractive. Me, I already feel so unattractive I suppose I can't be bothered any further in that way - I dunno.

Edit: I hope I didn't offend anybody with my musings. I thought about this quite deeply this morning and found it helped, rather than depressed, me in a strange sort of way.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 8/1/2013 2:43:29 AM (GMT-6)

Summer, I have thought of the poop throwing many times! Although I tend to imagine opening the bag when someone is attacking me (not really throwing it).

The Cincinnati thing still doesn't make sense to me.... I mean, how much control do you have over whether YOU get shot? I don't need a threat of a wheelchair or an ostomy to tell me I don't want to get shot.... and I'm sure a whole lot of kids in neighborhoods w/guns also already know they don't want to get shot without the scary lecture.... but many of them have guns to try to prevent themselves from getting shot, not to shoot themselves and get an ostomy.

If we want fewer people getting shot then either there need to be fewer guns or more responsible gun use or just better conflict resolution or maybe more hopeful futures.... none of which are addressed by the "bad ways your body can get messed up when you're shot" lecture.....

I don't like the limping ostomy getting girls comment either, but honestly, I'm more upset that so many kids die of guns and the responses are so often as stupid as this..... I have students who are from the neighborhoods with a lot of gun use and have sat with them when they were absolutely devastated because a friend or cousin just died..... just should not happen... but it's a complicated issue, without oversimplified solutions.

I think it's very different than drunk driving, which nobody does out of the perception that they are protecting themselves.

NCOT glad your musings helped, and hang in. It is possible for confidence to grow ...

Hey, thanks a lot for that really nice post, Mike. I wasn't expecting anything like that. Appreciated :p

Thanks as well, blueglass.

Summerstorm - Yeah, I never had any looks to get by with, really - even when I lost weight with Crohn's, it made no difference! Yonks ago I stumbled across this blog showing a picture of a size 10 (UK size) supermodel with like the perfect body. For some reason there were nasty comments about her having Crohn's (I can't remember who it was or how I landed up there, too long ago). I remember thinking to myself, 'if only having Crohn's actually gave you that body'.

As an aside, I'm sure you do have personality and intelligence though :-/ Abusive people are like leeches: if anyone lacks personality it's them. I hope before you get 'old and wrinkly' you can find a way to gain some belief in yourself beyond the physical. I have known some women who were not remotely beautiful or slim by current standards, but they just had that confidence that I mentioned earlier, so it didn't hinder them. The ones I'm thinking of were nice people too. It's fantastic if you naturally have that confidence (or, more likely, it was kept intact through childhood and teens); but if you don't, then you have to practice at it, literally like you were practicing a non-familiar tongue. In theory, eventually it should become as familiar as your native tongue...

Briefly: I saw the psychologist today. The good news: I felt it was more helpful than the first time, and I even felt that it helped with my feelings about the stoma a bit. No miracle breakthroughs, but it was only the second appointment with him. The bad news: he's away for practically the whole month, so I won't see him for 4 weeks... >_>

My initial reaction was to be pretty ticked off about it - only because we have become so PC about so many things, and it does bother me from time to time that there is STILL a stigma associated with ostomies.  I feel there is more of a stigma associated with ostomies than masectomies due to breast cancer.  Sometimes I feel as though women who go through that hell are celebrated and put on a pedestal, but, as for those of us with ostomies, it is not the same thing.  I also strongly dislike the whole "feel your boobies" campaign, but that's a whole other story.  A friend of mine who is a colon cancer survivor and I decided a slogan to encourage colonoscopies could be "Up Yours."  We'll even make bracelets to go along with it. 

I have said it many times: I got an ostomy because it was a very practical decision for me.  That being said, I have a lot of compassion for those who are misinformed or afraid due to misinformation about ostomies.  So, IMO, this issue is less about me and those of us who already have an ostomy; it is more about those who may HAVE to get an ostomy down the line and deserve the support and accurate information that is out here.  For many it is an extremely difficult decision to make. 

 

Post Edited (uc_free) : 8/1/2013 7:16:24 PM (GMT-6)

Summer, thanks. I was trying to avoid the specifics of getting into a talk about guns, where I am sure there is much disagreement and for which there are other forums, but mostly just focus on the public health aspect, in that a lot of people said things like, "If this will help kids avoid violence...." and I just don't see how it will even do that.

Regarding comparisons to breast cancer... I have a condition that puts me at a little bit of a higher risk of breast cancer (like 20% instead of 10%) and got diagnosed in the throes of IBD.... and I was kind of surprised by my internal response that if I had breast cancer it would be easier emotionally because i would get so much more understanding/sympathy.

I just found out that a partner of a friend who I don't see much was diagnosed w/breast cancer, and basically in 3 months she had a double mastectomy and reconstruction and she's considered cured, and has moved on....Of course, I was happy it worked out so well, but also conscious of how much more complex my own ordeal has been, yet how easy it is to minimize it and think that anything involving cancer is automatically worse.

In the Boston papers there have been many stories about people who lost legs in the marathon bombing, which is of course horrible, but one day I found myself wondering what it would be like to be an amputee, and then realized that really I am one. What is amputation but removing an original body part and perhaps replacing its function with something artificial?

I guess the upshot is that many people really don't understand what we've been through..... and we need to validate it for each other.

NCOT -- great that you are feeling more connected to the psychologist.... I guess no therapists in August is a more international phenomenon (there's a town on Cape Cod that is known for being full of psychiatrists in August....)

I guess I now know why we always referred to it as "Cincinnasty." Really, could you find a better way to stigmatize a large number of people in one swoop?