Monday, June 14, 2010

Spit As A Deadly Weapon

William O'Kelly, an HIV positive Denver man, has been charged with attempted second-degree assault with a deadly weapon by the Denver district attorney’s office.
The deadly weapon of O'Kelly's choice? Spit.
According to the police report, Jason Arb, a technician with the Rocky Mountain Offender Monitoring System, arrived at William O'Kelly's home to install a monitoring system because O'Kelly had been arrested for drunk driving. During the visit, O’Kelly objected to the price of the system and told Arb to leave. When Arb said he would have to report the incident to O’Kelly’s probation officer, an argument ensued, resulting in O'Kelly reportedly spitting in Arb's face.
Later, when Arb learned, through O'Kelly's parole officer, that O'Kelly was HIV-positive, he lodged a formal complaint, even though O’Kelly’s partner, Geoff Guth, was at the scene at the time, and said that it was Arb and not O’Kelly who became angry during discussion at the house.
“Mr. Arb immediately began making threats about complaining to Mr. O’Kelly’s probation officer. He stormed out of the house, slamming the door. Mr. O’Kelly followed to ensure Arb left the premises and to prevent any damage to our property. There was a verbal altercation, with Mr. Arb threatening violence. Mr. Arb left, and Mr. O’Kelly returned to the house,” Guth said.
And now, because of the spit, and because O'Kelly is positive, he has been is charged with Criminal Attempt to Commit Assault in the Second Degree; the “assault” was committed with “infected saliva,” which it describes as a deadly weapon.
Mindy Barton, legal director for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Center’s Legal Initiatives Project, says that cases like the one involving O’Kelly are from a time before medical information about the low transmission rates in saliva were known.
Today, we know that the chances of transmission low to zero.
This just reeks of homophobia and bigotry, where one man, after being spit on, took the ultimate step, when learning that his "attacker" is HIV-positive, to claim that he was assaulted with a deadly weapon. This, as we all know, at least those who pay attention, is next to impossible, and for O'Kelly to be arrested is unconscionable.
Spitting on someone is disgusting, but what Jason Arb did goes beyond even that.

1 comment:

Say anything, but keep it civil .......