Feds Gone Wild!
A Story of Injustice and Bigotry
This is the tragic tale of a friend and his family, the story of injustice and bigotry. At the same time, this is also a chronicle of courage, love, and resilience. This is the life story of our family friend Dr. M Kaleem Arshad, and his wife, Dr. Jameela Yasmeen Arshad, who was like my sister.
Murder of a Good Samaritan Doctor
The couple made New Orleans their home in 1988 and lived in the City of Kenner, Louisiana. On January 10, 2005, Dr. Jameela Arshad tragically lost her life at the hands of Kenner City Police when she was engaged in the act of being a Good Samaritan. https://youtu.be/CLk4txt9HUM
She was a Jamaican American physician, a graduate of George Washington University School of Medicine, and a trained neurologist with experience in surgery and urgent care. On her way to a store at 9 pm on that fateful day, she witnessed a bicyclist hit by a car. She stopped to render care to the accident victim. Shortly after, a police officer approached her and asked her for ID to prove that she was a physician. He had trouble believing or didn’t care that a woman of color could be a doctor. When she couldn’t produce the ID instantaneously because the ID was in her car, the police officer swept her off her feet, sat on her back, handcuffed her, threw her in the back of his police car, and left her unattended. She sustained a cardiopulmonary arrest and died while still in handcuffs on the back seat of the police car https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1319720/posts
The family tried to seek justice through the court system but to no avail. They filed lawsuits for violation of civil rights and wrongful death. Ten long years of legal battle only led to a landmark decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court written by the first black Chief Justice, Bernadette Johnson. https://law.justia.com/cases/louisiana/supreme-court/2012/2011-cc-1579.html
The family and friends are still seeking answers and waiting for real justice. We continue to anguish and grieve on the senseless loss of a friend and a great physician. Jameela’s husband, Dr. Kaleem Arshad, wrote the following newspaper article: http://www.louisianaweekly.com/grief-relieved-police-killing-of-a-good-samaritan-doctor/
Dr. Kaleem Arshad said in this article:
“We were living in a nice subdivision in a supposedly ‘safe’ neighborhood. Jameela had an MD attached to her name. All of these factors didn’t save her from being stereotyped as a black woman. The officer apparently couldn’t conceive of a black woman in private clothes being a doctor. I question whether her fate would have been the same if she were not black. I even question my decision to move to America 40 years ago. What America am I living in, where a black physician can’t even be a Good Samaritan without putting her own life at risk?”
“I am reliving my grief and am filled with anger, guilt, frustration, and tears. My son has suffered immensely as a result of his mother’s death. As a biracial American, he has personally experienced unfair and unjust treatment by police. I live in constant fear for my son’s safety, where any law enforcement encounter could cost him his life.”
But the inequality doesn’t end there. Dr. Kaleem Arshad was also attacked as an independent, minority physician. We have not moved into the attacks on doctors for Medicare fraud because we have enough to do fighting the Controlled Substances Act. But for Dr. Zahid and Dr. Arshad, we will make an exception here. Medicare fraud is the next big window for attacking physicians at will by the rogue justice department.
Injustice for All. Dr. M. Kaleem Arshad becomes the government target.
Dr. M Kaleem Arshad practiced psychiatry in the New Orleans area. Board-certified in Adult, Geriatric, Addiction, and Forensic Psychiatry, Dr. Arshad founded and operated Physician Care. This successful private psychiatric practice group provided medical direction to several local psychiatric hospitals. Dr. Arshad played a pivotal role in rebuilding mental health services devastated by Hurricane Katrina just a few months after his wife‘s death in 2005. He served as President of the Louisiana Psychiatric Medical Association, and became a staunch advocate to improve the access and delivery of mental health services at a crucial time in the city‘s history. He testified in the Louisiana State House and Senate to promote the causes of mental health in Louisiana.
All these contributions and accomplishments didn’t stop corrupt and overzealous prosecutors from targeting this exceptional and caring physician. Based on a $1.5 K per month contract with a home healthcare company for just over a year in 2011, he was charged in 2018 using the anti-kickback law. Without Dr. Arshad‘s knowledge, in order to avoid paying employee payroll taxes, the owner of the home healthcare company had made arrangements to pay one marketing individual $250 for every patient Dr. Arshad and another psychiatrist, Dr. Nagaraj referred to the company. The home healthcare company owner and the marketing individual were charged under the anti-kickback law. To get a better deal, as part of his plea, the owner agreed to testify against Dr. Arshad and Dr. Nagaraj. He promised to testify that doctors were part of his illegal arrangement. Dr. Arshad had a contract to serve as psychiatric medical director of the company for the fixed stipend, whether he referred any patients to the company or not. He performed his contractual responsibilities regardless of any referrals and had left the company five years previously in 2013. The corrupt and out-of-control prosecutors in the Eastern District of Louisiana jumped on the chance to go after two foreign-born psychiatrists. They conveniently left another local psychiatrist alone who had referred almost five times more patients to the same agency over five years from 2008 to 2013. Prosecutors threatened and intimidated staff to be potential witnesses against doctors. Dr. Arshad had to enter into a plea to keep his freedom and keep his life-long savings.
Dr. Arshad’s case is not unlike countless other instances in which corrupt and unjust prosecutors have targeted disproportionately individual practitioners and minority physicians under the cover of the so-called Medicare fraud strike force. Over the last several years, several minority physicians have been charged with healthcare crimes in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Consequently, thousands in poor black neighborhoods have been deprived of proper medical care. New Orleans and Louisiana have faced catastrophic shortage of psychiatrists in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the recent pandemic. The government and the medical board have managed to deprive citizens of much-needed psychiatric care. This is the typical case of out-of-control, overzealous prosecutors and an unjust judicial system, and irrational licensing boards with no consideration for public welfare. The racism and injustice are well, alive, and thriving when it comes to dealing with doctors. The so-called slogan of “innocent until proven guilty” is one big facade. The big boys always win. The powerful corporations and hospitals have free reign to abuse the system, rip billions of taxpayer dollars and drive up the cost of care. This is the big secret of the health care system, where medicine is criminalized, and drug dealers get better treatment than doctors.
Unfortunately, the story of Dr. Arshad is not unusual or unique. This story is repeated, and this show is replayed all over the country daily.
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