Monday, June 16, 2003

---

By Barbara Simpson

If you are tee'd off about the disarming of Americans, with laws making it harder to purchase guns and nearly impossible in some states to get a permit to carry ...

If you are steaming about the moves in the United Nations to restrict, and ultimately eliminate individual gun ownership worldwide ...

If you' re astonished about worldwide news reports about storeowners, property-owners and citizens who are attacked by criminals and then are arrested or sued for protecting themselves ...

If you're astounded at the soaring crime statistics in countries that have eliminated private gun ownership and, in some cases, confiscated weapons ...

If you're stupefied at how mainstream media worldwide ignore those statistics and continue their drumbeat to disarm the innocent ...

If you shake your head as the "peace" movement encourages and demands that "war" never be waged so that peace will prevail (what?) ...

If you watch our children being brainwashed with pacifism and taught to turn one cheek, then the other, then the other and then the last ...

If you see children being taught by the system that "hitting back" is always a no-no ...

If you see that old cartoons are now too violent for kids, and so is Dodge Ball, and Tag is an assault on their psyches, and no one should ever win a game, and everyone wins contests, and grades destroy self-esteem ...

Well, get ready, here's another! And this situation is the natural culmination of all of the above, which involve one central theme: Self-defense is out.

Picture this: For 3-years, Hector Escalante worked at an art studio in Southern California. Then, one day for no reason, a co-worker named Ion Stanei, started screaming at him and swung at him with a piece of wood.

Escalante tried to run away but Stanei kept after him, throwing a box of screws, hitting his back. At some point, Escalante turned and saw the man holding a large metal object. Escalante ran to him and grabbed him in a big hug but that didn't stop Stanei from smashing Escalante in the head causing a deep wound and, his lawyer said later, also causing brain damage.

What did the boss do? He fired both men; Escalante, because he tried to defend himself. The boss, Jim Goetsch, said he should have left the scene. He claimed that if Escalante got away with "defending himself," then no employer could fire anyone for workplace disputes.

Escalante took his job loss to court. The jury found the firing violated his right to defend himself and awarded him $450,000. The trial judge reduced it to $335,000.

The case went to the state appellate court and last week their ruling came down.

Hang on!

The three-judge panel threw out the verdict and the damages, saying it was legal to fire Escalante. They said since Escalante had a chance to "retreat," and didn't, it was OK to fire him.

In other words, running away was his only option.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Judge William Bedsworth was quoted from the decision: "Retreat might not serve the victim's pride, or assuage his anger at being attacked, but it does tend to prevent escalation of the violence, and we cannot see why an employer should not be allowed to opt for that result."

The man is mad! What does he mean that an employer should "opt for that result?" The employer wasn't being attacked.

I told you to hang on! If this ruling stands, it creates precedent. You'll not be able to defend yourself at work and, if you do, you could be fired with no recourse.

The moronic mentality behind such a decision is a natural consequence of all those instances I mentioned earlier: be peaceful, never resort to violence, have no weapons, allow the bad guys to do what they will with you unless you can run faster than he.

Of course, if he had a gun, speed wouldn't matter. But at least you'd have tried. I can imagine an employer suing your family to clean up the blood after you got shot in the back.

Happily, Escalante's lawyer Mark Weidmann say's he'll appeal to the California Supreme Court. Good. But then, it is California. It may not be a slam-dunk.

If Hector Escalante loses, we all lose. It would be a huge slide down the slippery slope to total defenselessness. And the bad guys win.

Barbara Simpson, "The Babe in the Bunker" as she's known to her KSFO 560 radio talk-show audience in San Francisco, has a 20-year radio, television and newspaper career in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. 

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com