Help To Straighten Out Kinks In Help Pipeline

Unmet social needs are not always a sign of inadequate resources.

As the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department recognizes, it’s sometimes a question of whether the resources are accessible to the people who need them.

Thus, the Health Care for the Homeless Veterans program has been relocated from the VA Medical Center near Albi Stadium to more convenient quarters in downtown Spokane.

A few years ago, an adult literacy program in Spokane was being underused because, organizers found, adults who can’t read often are apprehensive about navigating more than a few blocks from home.

The program seemed reasonably accessible. It was close to transit and not all that far from prospective participants’ homes. But it still was outside the comfort zone where they could rely on familiar landmarks to get around and not have to decipher street and bus signs.

Once that barrier was understood and allowed for, participation increased.

If you know of situations where location, hours of operation or other conditions create barriers between social services and the populations they are meant for, please share that information, along with any proposed solutions, with “Bagpipes” at one of the numbers listed below.

Concrete example

On Monday evening, a Spokane police officer responded to a call about a domestic disturbance at a home in northeast Spokane.

When he arrived, a 45-year-old man charged up to his car and, although the officer had drawn his gun, slammed a chunk of concrete into the squad car window.

Had the suspect been armed with a more maneuverable weapon, such as a knife, the officer would have had a split-second decision to make about whether to shoot. If he had shot the assailant, experience tells us, critics would have blamed the policeman for overreacting. Why didn’t he use, say, pepper spray? they would ask.

In this case, the officer did use pepper spray. It had no more effect than did the armed officer’s earlier command to stop. A bystander helped subdue the suspect so the officer could handcuff him.

Officer and bystander both are lucky that this suspect was armed only with a concrete block.

Do this and other incidents in which heavy doses of pepper spray have failed to faze assailants affect your opinion about the use of firearms by police officers?

, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone, or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.