Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Bell Riots
2. It's Not My Fault And Nothing Ever Changes
Lee, played by Tina Lifford, was a Public Health Official in Sanctuary District A. She is the one who processes Sisko and Bashir on their arrival and becomes one of the hostages when BC takes over the centre.
Lee was designed to be a brow-beaten official, constantly underpaid and overworked, trapped in a job that was sapping her life. The script called for her desk to be littered with paper, something that was already deemed somewhat obsolete in the rest of San Francisco of 2024, as a visual clue to her situation. She is also given one of the starkest lines in both episodes.
When Bashir helps her, she gives him a little of her story, recounting the time she allowed a woman to enter the District, despite having a warrant for her arrest. The woman, she explained, had abandoned her baby with people who could care for him, knowing that she could not. Lee took pity and almost lost her job for it, settling then into a life of 'just doing the work.' Bashir kindly tells her that it isn't her fault, the way that things are.
Everybody tells themselves that. And nothing ever changes.
Lee's reply succinctly delivers the message of the episodes.