Tag Archive for death

Police and Mental Illness

March 24, 2015 Comments Off on Police and Mental Illness

The Supreme Court should not have to deal with the Frances Sheehan case.  Recall that she’s the woman with schizophrenia shot by police in her room at her group home because she was threatening her social worker with a knife.   The suit before the court is based on the Americans with Disabilities act, saying that police must give “special accommodations” to people with disabilities.

I wasn’t there, so I won’t pass judgment on how the police handled the situation, or on the merits of the case.

What I will pass judgment on, though, is police training.  Apart from the medical profession, what group of people is most likely to have to deal with people with mental disabilities?  Obviously, the police.  In most police departments, officers are instructed to call in for a specially trained officer to diffuse such situations, which, of course, adds time to, therefore, potential escalation of, a dangerous situation.

My question is, if a small number of officers can be trained to work with the mentally ill, why isn’t such training required of all officers?  Wouldn’t that be safer for all concerned, decrease the number of deaths and injuries on both sides, and lessen the need for court cases?

Or am I being too logical?

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In Danger for Sticking by her Conscience

March 10, 2015 2 comments

One woman is receiving threats and has to have security because she refused to cave in.  She was the only one who stuck to her “no” vote on whether to execute Jodi Arias.  It wasn’t a religious decision or that she was opposed to the death penalty.  We have to believe her on that; lawyers put prospective jurors through rigorous questioning to disqualify such people. Rather, there was something nagging at her conscience, making her unsure that death was appropriate in this case.

And she wasn’t the only one.  Four members of the original jury also refused to vote for death for Arias.  And those jurors heard the entire case, not an abridged version of it, as this last jury did.

Putting a human being to death is a very serious decision to make.  That’s why it must be unanimous.  And why we must respect the people who have enough doubt to vote against it.

What would have happened if the original four and this one woman had been replaced with others?  Would they have  interpreted facts differently? Would they have felt that doubt but, nonetheless, been influenced to vote with the majority?  Would that have been any more just than the real outcome?

There are too many uncontrollable factors going into jury selection, and a judge alone should not make the determination.  This, in itself, should be reason enough to eliminate the death penalty in America.

 

 

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The World, Mental Health, & the Death Penalty

October 10, 2014 Comments Off on The World, Mental Health, & the Death Penalty

Today is the 12th annual World Day Against the Death Penalty.  This year the focus is on mental health.  The message the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty hopes to get across is that too many prisoners who are mentally ill or intellectually disabled are being executed rather than receiving treatment to address the condition that is the underlying cause of the crime.  Many of us wish that our country would join other industrialized countries in abolishing the death penalty totally; many others view executing a person who is mentally ill or the mental age of a child as barbaric.

For more information about this day and topic, and for what you can do, go to http://www.worldcoalition.org/worldday.html.

 

 

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Torture that Many Approve Of

April 30, 2014 Comments Off on Torture that Many Approve Of

Granted, Clayton Lockett committed a despicable crime, and he was legally sentenced to death.  Like it or not, however, we must remember that he was a human being, and no humans should be subjected to torture like he was.

If you missed the story, yesterday he was strapped onto the table in the Kansas death chamber and given the first of three shots of a new, unproven “cocktail.”  It didn’t take.  He didn’t lose consciousness as he was supposed to; he began convulsing and talking and tried to get up from the table, obviously in great distress.  Some 43 minutes (yes, 43) later he finally died–of a heart attack.

Botched executions are not uncommon, although this one was particularly bad.  Our country claims to abhor torture, yet there are people who will say he deserved it, and so do all the others being executed.  I disagree.  Even the Old Testament law (supposedly replaced by New Testament mercy) of “an eye for an eye” didn’t include torture.  Plain and simple, it’s against the 8th Amendment, being cruel, and it’s out-and-out barbaric.

 

 

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Vicious Game

December 4, 2013 2 comments

Tag has a new version–The Knock-Out Game. A group–usually of young men–wanders around until they choose, at random, an unsuspecting  “playmate.” Then one of the gang, er, I mean group, runs up to this person and punches him/her as hard as he can, trying to knock him/her out with a single punch, then the gang runs away.  Yes, I mean “him/her,” as well as various ages and ethnicities.  Recent victims have included a 50-year-old English teacher stepping off the porch (hit by a 15-year-old boy), a 78-year-old woman, and a 14-year old youngster in Modesto.  At least two deaths have resulted, plus painful injuries sending victims to the hospital.

It’s group-influence at its worst.  It’s humanity being senselessly vicious.  And they’re so proud of their acts that they brag about them on social media.

It makes me sick.

 

 

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JFK’s Dream: Peace

November 22, 2013 Comments Off on JFK’s Dream: Peace

“He kept the peace.” That’s what JFK said he wanted as his epitaph. And that’s what his short presidency focused on. His promotion of a ban on nuclear weapons helped bring about the 1963 Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. After being President for only three months, he faced the Bay of Pigs—a situation caused by the previous (Eisenhower) administration, who wanted the U.S. involved in Cuba.  He tried to avoid involvement in Laos (also set up by the previous administration) by signing a neutrality agreement.  He negotiated with the Soviet Union and fought his own military and intelligence people, who proposed a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.  Khrushchev came to respect him.  But a year later JFK found himself in the Cuban Missile Crisis.  JFK also fought against our intervention in Viet Nam because he knew it would escalate, and, once we were there, he planned to get us out as soon as possible.

For details about these events and how JFK handled pressure even from within our own government and pushed for peace, read Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s “John F. Kennedy’s Vision of Peace.”

Today, as I think about that senseless death fifty years, and the violence caused in our world by self-centered, power-hungry people and governments, I’m thankful for the short period of time when we had a champion of peace. I don’t enter into debates over what JFK would have done with his Presidency had he lived. I care only that his dream of peace be carried on by future leaders and that the world come to its senses.

 

 

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Protect your Friends & Loved Ones

October 1, 2013 Comments Off on Protect your Friends & Loved Ones

Your lack of action can bring great harm to your friends and loved ones.  It can even contribute to their death if they have COPD or lung infections that reduce their chances of living through the flu (or even a cold).  The CDC says that 200,000 people land up in the hospital annually due to flu-related illness, probably because only 42% of Americans tend to get vaccinated against the flu.

Some people play Russian Roulette.  Knowing that the vaccination is good for only a year, they wait until late in the year to get their shot so it “lasts longer.”  Yet, the virus is already floating around, and it does take two weeks after the shot for the body to develop the necessary protective antibodies.

I got my inoculation, partly to protect myself but also because I feel a responsibility to help protect those around me.  The flu is a potential killer.  It’s up to each of us to stop it and to take care of each other.

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Mark Twain and My Return

August 8, 2013 2 comments

I’m back.  For the last week or so I’ve internalized Mark Twain’s famous quote: “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”   So I’m using it for my Thursday Thought quote.

I had to keep reminding the face in the mirror–and the brave friends who came to my door but were smart enough not to enter—that I only looked like I should have been buried already.  The bug isn’t totally gone, but at least I’m regaining my sense of perspective—somewhat warped as it’s been accused of being.

Meanwhile, thanks to those readers who have stuck with me, and welcome to the 16 new readers who signed on during my self-pitying agony.

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