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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Beheading in Long Island |
| 2014-10-30 |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #11 From DB's link: Dr. M. Brewster Smith...said the commission took the direction it did because of ''the sort of overselling that happens in almost every interchange between science and government.'' Ya don't say. The article is well worth reading for the mea culpas, and the unlearned lessons. Molly Ivins always blamed Republicans (of course) for not funding the "community" mental health centers that were supposed to treat the de-institutionalized mentally ill. But I never understood why crazy people who didn't think they were crazy would allow themselves to be treated at local facilities, either. And with no power to force them to get treated, we'd pretty much have the situation we have today, anyway. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2014-10-30 20:11 |
| #10 In an earlier career, I worked in a state mental health department in the early 1970s and the movement away from deinstitutionalization and towards community-based mental health programs was well underway. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2014-10-30 18:26 |
| #9 Thank you for correcting my timing and expanding on it, Procopius2k and Deacon Blues. I'm always glad to know more about something about which I know less. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2014-10-30 15:53 |
| #8 Here is a good explanation of why and when mental institutions were closed. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2014-10-30 12:32 |
| #7 Oh dear TW what a horrible set of options. It's the same in Australia, in the 1980s they shut all the institutions. To be fair there was a lot of abuse, electric shock "therapy", psycho wardens raping helpless inmates. It seems we are incapable of institutionalising the weak without predating/abusing but when we let them out they cannot function so what to do? I think that's interesting too, Skidmark... that beheading has seeped into the national consciousness now the insane do it as a statement. |
| Posted by: anon1 2014-10-30 10:53 |
| #6 The interesting component is about how the media and ISIL have made this action a social statement practice. Cutting through tough neck and spine connective tissue to remove a head is hard work. A splash of gasoline in an elevator is a lot easier and more horrifying for the victim, but apparently not as rewarding to the perp or the media. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2014-10-30 09:30 |
| #5 TW, IIRC the 'deinstitutionalization' was begun well before Reagan when the judiciary established a progressive program to 'force' America to treat the mentally handicapped by recognizing 'rights' of those 'non compos mentis' to be free to wander the communities. The judiciary was trying to address the problems with the state institutional systems as portrayed in Titicut Follies. The progressives thought with the potential threat in their presence the community would fund programs rather than abandon the unfortunates. Didn't work out that way. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-10-30 08:56 |
| #4 The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut is a case study in TW's comment at #3. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-10-30 03:36 |
| #3 Sometimes parents of kids with terrible mental problems truly are better putting them in care of professionals. The insane asylums were closed when Ronald Reagan was president, anon1. Nowadays the choices are living with the troubled offspring until something like this happens, throwing them out and hoping they're together enough to live in a cardboard box under a bridge, or being the one who survived the final incident that put the offspring on the prison psych ward for life. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2014-10-30 03:16 |
| #2 I have to say the name "Patricia Ward" sounds awfully familiar to me - IMO I may had met her a long time ago, but I'm rusty on the specific details or circumstances. Trying to remember ... |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2014-10-30 02:09 |
| #1 that is so sad. Poor lady. Sounds like she really was a valued and productive member of society. Shame her son was a crazy drug addict - shocking when children kill their parents and it happens quite a bit. What an awful, disrespectful thing to do. Glad he's dead. Sometimes parents of kids with terrible mental problems truly are better putting them in care of professionals. |
| Posted by: anon1 2014-10-30 01:31 |