Editorials
Wednesday, November 3, 1999Hawaii stunned by
worst multiple killingWORKPLACE violence is not the epidemic that it has been exaggerated to be, but recent killings have brought increased awareness of factors that have led to incidents such as the stunning shooting that took seven lives at a Xerox office here yesterday.The issue: The worst multiple killing in Hawaii history has focused attention on the potential of violence in the workplace.
A few years ago, incidents of job-site violence were described as "going postal" because of what seemed to be a flurry of incidents involving postal workers. In fact, such incidents were no more common among postal workers than many other occupational groups. The workplace homicide rate has been highest among taxicab drivers/chauffeurs and law-enforcement officers.
While occupational violence may be likened to airline crashes -- horrific but rare -- homicide has become the second leading cause of workplace death, after transportation accidents, and is the leading cause among women.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported that employees killed more than 100 bosses and co-workers in 1997. Multiple homicides are the only killings that attract the level of national attention that has now focused on Hawaii.
Since courts ruled that employers can be held responsible for workplace violence, some trial lawyers have been quick to allege negligent hiring, poor security or lax discipline. Companies have been encouraged to conduct thorough pre-employment screening, adopt clear rules of employee conduct and educate managers about violence awareness.
Experts have sketched a prototype of the potential workplace killer as a male loner who is a disgruntled employee, an angry client, a sexual harasser or an irate or jilted spouse or lover of an employee. However, one survey showed that 60 percent of the incidents were rooted in alcohol or drug abuse following firings or layoffs.
The ease of obtaining firearms adds enormously to the problem. Police say that Byran K. Uyesugi, the 40-year-old Xerox employee accused of the shooting, is the registered owner of 17 guns, including the 9mm handgun believe to have been used in the shooting.
He was turned down for a firearms permit in January 1994 after being arrested for criminal property damage at work following an argument with co-workers.
All these circumstances will undergo extensive examination as the case enters the judicial system and sociologists try to learn how to prevent multiple killings and other types of violence in the workplace. Incidents such as this serve as a reminder to employers that workplace violence cannot be regarded lightly and that their preventive strategies should be periodically reviewed.
Return to Oslo
The Mideast summit meeting in Oslo is an attempt to draw upon the accords reached in the Norwegian capital six years ago as inspiration for the attainment of a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Evoking the memory of the slain Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, whose concessions to Yasser Arafat at Oslo were the key to the advances of the peace process, was a conscious attempt to revive the spirit of that 1993 meeting. But Rabin became a martyr, assassinated by an Israeli zealot opposed to surrendering land to the Palestinians.
It is little more than a year since President Clinton met with then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Arafat at Wye River Plantation in Maryland. The resulting agreement, the product of much arm-twisting, called for withdrawal of Israeli forces from 13 percent of the West Bank in exchange for Palestinian measures to counter terrorism.
But the agreement was highly controversial in Israel. In December Netanyahu canceled further withdrawals, citing Palestinian violations. In the ensuing controversy Netanyahu's government was brought down and he was defeated in the election that followed.
The new prime minister, Ehud Barak, a protege of Rabin, is pledged to complete the peace process. But in Oslo he also vowed to protect the "security interests and vital needs" of Israel -- a warning that further concessions would not be easily achieved.
For his part, Arafat called for resisting "violence, terror, occupation, exile and settlements," a clear reference to Palestinian objections to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There is little likelihood that Israel would accept removal of those settlements.
Such comments are not encouraging, but they are a reminder of the real obstacles ahead.
Clinton himself was hardly brimming with optimism. "We have now a chance, but only a chance, to bring real and lasting peace between Israel and her neighbors," he said. "If we let it slip away, all will bear the consequences."
One encouraging note came from Barak, who raised the idea of a Camp David-style conference next year, possibly in Washington. Arafat indicated he could accept such a plan. It was at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains, where President Carter in 1978 prodded Egyptian and Israeli leaders to reach a peace agreement.
Barak and Arafat have said they intend to conclude an agreement in mid-September 2000, with the outline of an accord by mid-February. At this point, however, there is considerable doubt that this schedule can be maintained.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
