A typical set up for “Scare Tactics”—the unethical hidden camera cable show that terrifies its victims for laughs  by placing them in fake but real-appearing horror movie or action movie scenarios—would be to stage an armed hostage situation that everyone but the butt of the joke knows is a sham. I keep waiting for one of the hapless innocents in these vicious stunts who think they are about to die to pull out a concealed weapon and blast an actor or five to oblivion. That might teach the producers that creating fake life and death situations for any reason is cruel, irresponsible, and stupid.

In the alternative, a victim could just sue the pants off the producers and the production company; that would work too. If there is any justice, that is what will happen to the Heritage Park Care Center in Carbondale, Colorado for  getting local police to pretend to play armed thugs taking over the facility and threatening the employees…in a drill that none of them knew was a drill.

Former employee Michelle Meeker has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver alleging that  an armed man confronted her last October at the  Center as  Meeker, a registered nurse, was tending to one of her long-term patients.  Another employee told her to investigate  a suspicious man sitting in the Center’s day room. When she did, the man then showed her a handgun he had in his waistband and ordered her into an another room. He told her in hushed tones that he was really a police officer, but Meeker, quite reasonably, was unsure that he was telling her the truth. Hysterical, she pleaded for her life.

At least she didn’t pull out a concealed but licensed Glock and blow him away.

Robert Baker, the executive director of the Center and one of the named defendants, explained that the facility routinely conducts safety, fire, and natural disaster drills for its residents. “Unfortunately, the training exercise alarmed some at our facility,” Baker said.

Yeah, imagine that.

Everything I wrote about the certifiably stupid and irresponsible 2013 stunt by Greer Phillips, the East Harlem High principle who in held an armed gunman drill without telling students or teachers beforehand, applies to Baker and the rest of the fools who terrified Meeker. Is pointlessly terrifying, and by definition endangering, young children (in the East Harlem fiasco, the victims were special needs children) and teachers more irresponsible than frightening elderly patients and nurses? I don’t know; at that level of incompetent and reckless conduct, gradations lose significance. As for the police, they are claiming that they told the Center to let everyone know about the drill in advance, and that if Parker’s crew didn’t, it’s not the police’s fault. Maybe that will stand up in court; I don’t care. The police should not have participated until they were certain everyone knew. They were irresponsible and reckless too.

A jury needs to slam the Center with damages (Meeker has resigned and is suing for economic loss, mental and emotional distress, and medical bills) and put it out of business. Until the consequences of this kind of insanity are devastating enough to get the attention of the Greer Phillipses and Robert Bakers out there–you know, irresponsible fools who have no business being in any kind of a position of responsibility because they make terrible decisions without considering their likely effects on those who trust them?—there will be more incidents like this. Let us all just hope those consequences don’t involve one or more people ending up dead.

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Pointer: Fred

Facts: Yahoo! News

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