Manmade Hazards and Disasters - Case Study Example

Manmade Hazards and Disasters –Workplace Violence, Terrorism and Civil Disorder Question I U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Charts (1992-2008) explains workplace violence as intricate and risky work related hazards that many employees go through every new day. This is a topical debate in the present day where business leaders and researchers struggle to put an end to it insistently. There is definitely a need to come up with critical research and studies which entail conceptual, empirical and analysis of policies of earlier period in order to avert this menace (Borum, Fein, Vossekuil, & Berglund, 323-337). A debate of the purposes of methodological, rigorous intervention programs and joint programs in an effort to reducing violence in work related areas need to be put in place. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (1993), the advancement of workplace violence has developed the understanding of the connection with the persons responsible for the violence to the victims and has led to the creation of theoretical structures of connecting the causes and prevention measures of workplace violence (p56). Despite the fact that workers can be presented to many types of violence in the path of their employment, significant numbers of the workers are intimidation and assaulted in one way or another (Albrecht, 86). In order to understand workplace related violence, it is important to distinguish the various aspects of workplace violence which include pre-vent, event and post event instances. Pre-event aspects that lead to the workplace violence events are in most cases intricate, on the other hand, the words of warning can be apparent to the victim way in advance. At this point in time, it is important to embark on precautionary measures which largely help prevent any form of violence intended on a victim in a workplace (Campbell 96). A workplace violence event is terrible for all the people involved. It is clear that all the victims of workplace violence feel terrible about it and others fail even to talk about it in public. According to U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence in the Workplace (1993), there is much need to employ various strategies at work that help both in managing the workers affected by workplace violence overcome the ordeal at the same as providing training to the workers to help them have better response in case of such incidences of workplace violence events (p.56). Lastly, post event occasions will entail a study that seek to determine or establish exactly what went wrong in a workplace or what exactly happened. This kind of study helps to unveil the steps of violence, showing the perpetrator’s moves and plans as much as providing the best means to overcome this ordeal which includes counseling and psychological guidance depending on the intensity of abuse. Question II The Occupational safety and Health Administration (OSHA) describes workplace violence or the risk of violence hostile to workers. Workplace violence can take place at or outside the workplaces. The kind of violence can vary from risks and verbal abuses to physical abuse and homicides. Homicide is in fact a leading cause of work related deaths (Booth, Vecchi, Finney, Hasselt, & Romano 76-92). OSHA establishes that over 2 million American staff members fall victims of workplace related violence every year. Despite the fact that this violence take place in any place, a number of workers are more in danger (Booth, et al., 76-92). This paper puts emphasis on three occupations which are among the most vulnerable to workplace violence which include: Health care work (targeting nurses), Taxi Drivers and Letter carriers. Workplace violence is one of the highly intricate and risky occupations in the world today where nurses are exposed to lots of work related violence (Rugala & Fitzgerald, 775-789). There are a lot of complex situations that come up in the nursing field which have been intertwined with the stereotypes that nurses have to face it since it is part of their job. These dangers in the health care providers come up when they are exposed to violent patients connected with the absence of powerful preventive initiatives and preventive policies. These factors in connection with shortage of staff members and expanding patient acuteness lead to significant obstacles to getting rid of violence in the health care workplaces in the present day (Rugala, et al., 775-789). For instance, restless patients in the mental wards and emergency departments, elderly and disappointed or depressed clients are the origin of verbal and physical violence against nurses and other health care workers (Rugala, et al., 775-789). Taxi drivers are not an exception in this debate of workplace violence and abuse. This is for the reason that, taxi drivers normally deal with customers in most cases unknown to them (Campbell, 97). They are required to transport passengers from one point to another just as requested. There are a number of instances where these drivers are lured into traps where they are either physically or verbally abused, stolen off their valuable goods like money, the vehicles, and worst of all others have even lost their lives in the fiasco (Rugala, et al., 775-789). It is known that majority of violence associated with taxi drivers, entailed brutal murder, stolen cars and even further surviving with multiple injuries. Letter carriers are also not an exception to the workplace violence. This is a job that entails travelling to homes and town centers delivering mails to recipients. This work is associated with a lot of workplace violence where for instance a letter carrier is verbally abused or physically violated. For instance, some people may not want to be disturbed yet the letter carriers require delivering mails to them. In return the recipients may in one way or another abuse the letter carrier even to a large extent leading to others reported missing or even murdered. Question III The 7th July 2005 London bomb which is usually referred to as 7/7 were a sequence of well planned suicide attacks in London that targeted civilians by use of the public transport structure in the duration of the rushing hour. According to U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fatal Occupational Injuries from Transportation Incidents and Homicides (2008), this event happened when two home based terrorists exploded 4 bombs, 3 in the fast succession aboard London underground train over the city and later the other one on a double decker bus in Tavistock square (p.63). Aside from the 4 bombers 52 people lost their lives and over 700 people were injured in the United Kingdom suicidal attacks (p.87). Workers in the decker bus and the train were affected as they were on duty by these attacks. Another example of bomb attacks is the one of Madrid train which is also referred to the 11-M. This is where approximately well combated bombing moves on a commuter train structure in Madrid in 11th March 2004 and 3 days after the general elections of Spain and 2 and half years after the September 11 attack of USA was experienced (U.S. Department of Labor 99). The explosions led to the death of approximately 191 people and left approximately 1800 people injured (p.101). An official study established that this was an Al-Qaeda led terrorist attack however there was no direct link to this as other studies indicated that tampering of evidence. Over and above, in the two examples of terrorist attacks, it is clear that these terrorist target areas where people are busy and where many people converge like the train or bus stations. Therefore, it is evident that workers at train stations, buses and on board are venerable to terrorist attacks which is a form of risk at their workplace. Question IV The 2008 Mumbai attacks were 12 well planned shooting and bombing attacks that took place in Mumbai India. These were attacks that linked the members of Lashkar-e-Taiba where Ajmal Kasab the only attacker that was captured on camera confessed that the attacks were backed up by the Pakistanis (Magnier, Mark; Sharma, Subhash 1A). These attacks brought about a lot of international blame game since November 26th and were experienced till Saturday 29th November where 164 people lost their lives and 308 people got injured. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai uncovered loopholes in the security systems of India while attempting to combat terrorism attacks. Various reports indicate that a number of intelligent warnings by India and USA sources had preceded these attacks. However, “powers that be” cited these warnings were disregarded intentionally by intelligent groups. Furthermore, there was an unreasonable delay in the operation of India’s top National Security Guards where commandos arrived at the bombed scene several hours subsequent to the attacks (Magnier, Mark; Sharma, Subhash 1A). 8 of the attacks took place in South Mumbai at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palce and Tower, Leopold cafe, Cama Health center, the Nariman Home, the Metro Cinema and a pathway adjacent to the Times of India structure and St. Xavier’s Collage (Magnier, Mark; Sharma, Subhash 1A). Another explosion was experienced in Mazagaon in Mumbai port location and in a taxi at Vile Parle. During the morning hours at 28th November, all locations apart from Taj hotel had been protected by Mumbai police and security guards. On the 29th November National Security Guards (NSG) undertook Mission Black Tornado to gun down the standing terrorists which resulted to loss of lives of the last standing terrorists at the Taj Hotel. In conclusion, Ajmal Kasab revealed that the attackers were part of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, regarding a terrorist group by India, Pakistani, The UK, UN and the USA among many others. The Indian government suggested that the attackers originated from Pakistan and their managers were in Pakistan (Nelson 12). On January 7th 2009 Pakistan’s Information Cabinet secretary Sherry Rehman consented in public that Ajmal Kasab’s citizenship was Pakistan. On February 12th 2009, Pakistani’s Interior cabinet secretary Rehman Malik suggested that sections of the attacks had been laid out in Pakistan. A trial court on the 6th of May 2010 led to the sentencing of Ajmal Kasab to death on all the 86 charges that he was sentenced to. During his appeal against this verdict, Bombay High Court on 21st February 2011 and Supreme Court of India on 29th August 2012 maintained his death sentence. Finally, Kasab was put to death by hanging at Yerwada Jail in Pune on 21st November 2012 (Nelson 12). Works cited B. Booth, G. Vecchi, E. Finney, V. Van Hasselt, and S. Romano, "Captive-Taking Incidents in the Context of Workplace Violence: Descriptive Analysis and Case Examples," Victims and Offenders 4 (2009): 76-92. E.A. Rugala and J.R. Fitzgerald, "Workplace Violence: From Threat to Intervention," Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine 3 (2003): 775-789. J.C. Campbell, ed., Assessing Dangerousness: Violence by Sexual Offenders, Batterers, and Child Abusers (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995); and J.R. Meloy, Violence Risk and Threat Assessment: A Practical Guide for Mental Health and Criminal Justice Professionals (San Diego, CA: Specialized Training Services, 2000). Magnier, Mark; Sharma, Subhash "India terrorist attacks leave at least 101 dead in Mumbai". Los Angeles Times p. A1. (27 November 2008). Retrieved 10 December 2013 Nelson, Dean. Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups. Telegraph. Retrieved on 2013-10-12. (2009-07-08) R. Borum, R. Fein, B. Vossekuil, and J. Berglund, "Threat Assessment: Defining an Approach for Evaluating Risk of Targeted Violence," Behavioral Sciences and the Law 17 (1999)” 323-337; S. Albrecht, Crisis Management for Corporate Self-Defense (New York, NY: Amazon, 1996); R. Denenberg and M. Braverman, The Violence-Prone Workplace: A New Approach to Dealing with Hostile, Threatening and Uncivil Behavior (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999); and G.R. Vanderbos and E.Q. Bulatao, eds., Violence on the Job: Identifying Risks and Developing Solutions (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1996). U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence in the Workplace, 1993-99 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2001). U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fatal Occupational Injuries from Transportation Incidents and Homicides (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2008). U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Charts, 1992-2008 (preliminary data) (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2009). U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violence in the Workplace, 1993-99. American Society for Industrial Security, Workplace Violence Prevention and Response Guideline (Alexandria, VA: ASIS International, 2005). Read More