Murder of news crew raises questions about workplace safety

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Murder of news crew raises questions about workplace safety

More than 15,000 workplace homicides reported between 1992 and 2013

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ON-AIR MURDER OF TV JOURNALISTS RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT WORKPLACE SAFETY

MICHELLE FIELDS: From 1997 to 2010 there were over 8,000 homicides, and one in ten of those homicides in the workplace were committed by a co-worker or former co-worker of the victim. I think we need to be doing more. The government has also put businesses in a very tricky situation. If you’re a business owner, and you realize that one of your employees is a little crazy and volatile, you can’t just fire the person. So long as they’re doing the job, you can’t fire them, because they can come back and file a lawsuit against you because of the Federal Disabilities Act. That was the problem with this guy, as well. He went ahead and filed a discrimination lawsuit, even though he should have been dismissed and he shouldn’t have ever been allowed to file a lawsuit, because he clearly was crazy.

JONATHAN HOENIG: Employers are loud to ask about an employee or potential employee's criminal record, but ironically, they're not allowed to discriminate based on it. I do think, however, we’ve got to get a little context here. There are about 700 workplace homicides a year. It’s terrible, but it’s also about the same number of people that die from recreational boat accidents per year. There is more I think we can do, however it makes me think of that terrible beheading in Oklahoma a couple of months ago; what saved more employees was the fact that there was a licensed gun owner on the premises. That’s another thing employers should think about in terms of making things safe.
 
JESSICA TARLOV: I’m not against gun ownership. I'm for responsible gun ownership. We have a mental health crisis in this country. To Michelle’s point about why businesses can't discriminate and fire. Why shouldn't businesses be helping? That's really what's going on here. If you notice that someone in the workplace is mentally unstable, we should be getting them help. It’s a failure of ObamaCare that there isn’t enough mental health coverage, and what I want to suggest, also, is that certain benefits are continued so that these people can be helped. Specifically, health insurance.

WAYNE ROGERS: Most of these things that occurred at the workplace start somewhere else. They generally start at home, and it generally starts as a domestic problem, and a guy brings that in to the workplace and it takes off from there. I personally am going to do something wild here and expect to be fired, but I was hoping maybe you all would tease me into it.

JUAN WILLIAMS: In this case this guy said he had lots of trouble with black men. He was gay. He said he didn't like black men. If he was going to be tried, he only wanted black women around. He had trouble with lots of people, Eric, and that's where I don't think it's just racial. I think this was a mental issue.  In the workplace, you have to remember, someone like Steve Jobs at Apple was seen as Napoleonic and difficult to work with and he had to leave for a time. You have to remember, lots of people at work who are very creative, very successful, are oftentimes difficult co-workers and antagonistic.

FATHER OF TRAIN HERO: PC CROWD NEEDS TO RECOGNIZE TERRORISM FOR WHAT IT IS

JONATHAN HOENIG: The White House talks about “violent extremists”; they talk about “terrorists”. Read between the lines here. Who are we talking about? Militant Islamists. Their ideology has been at war with America since the late 1970s. Just look to the recent history. I mean, this attack, the Boston Marathon bombing, the cartoon attack just a couple of months ago, the Little Rock recruiting murder, the Manhattan bomb plots. Militant Islam is at the heart of all of them, but yet our own elected officials can’t seem to get it out of their mouths.

JUAN WILLIAMS: There’s no rational basis for saying “this wouldn’t have happened if the White House had said it’s “radical, militant Islamic terrorism”. The reality is you have got to understand there’s a larger issue here with not wanting the United States to be put in a position with battling everyone in the world who’s a Muslim. It’s important that the President say very clearly that we’re after the extremists.

MICHELLE FIELDS: Well, I think by not saying what it is, you are stifling debate. They have tried so hard to downplay Muslim extremism, that they say it's violent extremism. What I don’t understand is why is it okay to always criticize Christianity, make fun of Christianity? Why is it okay that we have a very crass Broadway show making fun of Mormonism?

JESSICA TARLOV: The President might think we can't say it because it will look like he is painted with a broad brush and saying that all Muslims are extreme. That's not the case.

WAYNE ROGERS: I think this is much ado about nothing. What difference does it make? A guy who is a murderer is a murderer. A guy who is a killer is a killer. A guy that's a radical Muslim is a radical Muslim. What the hell difference does it make what you call them?

MEXICO GETS INVOLED IN CASE AGAINST TEXAS OVER 'BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP'

WAYNE ROGERS: The problem is we don’t have an immigration policy right now. We are talking about always having a comprehensive immigration policy. We've got to get to that sooner or later. Mexico has no business telling us what to do.

JUAN WILLIAMS: Well, I agree with Wayne.  They have no business in this. I guess all the talk about Trump saying “build a wall, have Mexico pay for it”-- I guess the Mexicans have responded. They have no say in terms of our policies or Texas’ policies.

MICHELLE FIELDS: Well, first off, I don't think Mexico has any right to tell us what to do. I think they have a lot of bigger problems to worry about like, I don't know, the drug war taking over their country. What we should do is really talk about this issue. 350,000 are born every year to an undocumented woman. These are not people that are born to wealthy families. Oftentimes, it’s low-income homes, and it’s the taxpayer who has to pay for these childrens’ education, and their health. So this is a really important issue for taxpayers that we need to talk more about.

JESSICA TARLOV: We should also be talking about how much these undocumented workers contribute to our economy. In 2012, 8.1 million undocumented workers in America contributed $11.8 billion to the economy through their taxes.

JONATHAN HOENIG: They cost us because of this massive entitlement state. To Jessica’s point, immigrants, illegal or not, are good. They rent houses, they buy groceries, they go to movies. They participate in the economy. Once again, I just think it's a red herring for the entitlement state. If you hate the fact that immigrants cost us in terms of entitlements, get rid of the entitlements. The immigrants are a value to our country.