The Least of These

While we break our arms patting ourselves on the back for being the decent and tolerant people we think ourselves to be, this is how we treat those we deem to be lesser or inferior:

The head of the Yukon RCMP says five members of his force will be investigated for their role in an in-custody death. Raymond Silverfox died at the Whitehorse RCMP detachment in December 2008, where officers laughed at him as he vomited 26 times during his 13 hours in custody. When staff finally called an ambulance for Mr. Silverfox, he no longer had a pulse.

He was, after all, only a drunk, only a native, only a poor, middle-aged man. Obviously a loser. We reduce our fellows -- our brothers and sisters in Christ -- to objects or things or categories, and then we are shocked when this leads to oppression, abuse and even death. Thus:

A coroner's inquest last month revealed gruesome details of Mr. Silverfox's final hours.

The inquest heard that Mr. Silverfox couldn't find a hotel room after arriving in Whitehorse from his hometown of Carmacks, Yukon, and opted to stay at a Salvation Army shelter. It's there that he first began throwing up.

Mr. Silverfox refused to go to the hospital when Salvation Army staff called an ambulance, and decided to instead spend the night inside the drunk tank. That's where he would die, lying in his own feces.

The inquest heard that Mr. Silverfox was left in a cell while an infection, likely caused by the repeated vomiting, raged through his body.

Mr. Silverfox was described as a hard-working and respected member of his community, but the inquest heard that for some reason the 43-year-old began binge drinking in the months before his death.

While it is gratifying to know of Mr. Silverfox's qualities, they are irrelevant in this case. He was entitled to our care simply by the fact of his humanity.