Damageplan, a Tragic Shooting, and Mental Illness
Whenever a mentally ill person commits a violent crime, the cruel people of the world hold it up as an example of how they should ALL be locked away preemptively, or at least forced to take powerful medications even if it's against their will. Usually this advice is accompanied by dire (and inaccurate) statistics about how dangerous mentally ill people are and how likely it is that they will shoot your family and eat your babies.
But when a non-mentally ill person does something horrible like, say, shooting a band onstage and then firing into the crowd, there are no calls for all disgruntled people to be drugged or locked away.
How many times have you heard people on the news comment on an accused criminal in the following way, "He was nice, quiet, never bothered anyone. Went to work every day. I don't know why he did this." Non-mentally ill people sometimes snap and kill, and we can't really predict it. The same thing happens with mentally ill people. Schizophrenic does not equal killer. "Sane" does not equal kind and gentle.
Sadly, it's nearly impossible to predict what will lead people to violence. It's something we need to accept - as much as we'd like, we cannot keep everyone safe all the time. There are over 2 million people in American prisons, yet murders and muggings and rapes still happen every day. That's reality. Consider this - inside prison, where civil rights like privacy and protection from search and seizure don't exist, there are still murders and rapes every day. No matter how tightly you control people, they will find a way to be violent if that's what they really want.
Of course, don't be surprised if the "Damageplan gunman" starts talking about being mentally ill. It's all part of the horrid mixing of mental illness and legal guilt ... and it's part of what makes people think that all mentally ill people are dangerous. They see all these killers claiming to be ill and assume that there really is a connection. Once in a while it's really true that someone committed a crime because they are mentally ill, but so many guilty people have tried to use illness as an excuse for their crime that there is no compassion left when the real deal shows up in court.
Our deepest sympathy to the families of the victims of these vile shootings. No matter what the mental state of the killer, this is a heinous, heartbreaking crime.
But when a non-mentally ill person does something horrible like, say, shooting a band onstage and then firing into the crowd, there are no calls for all disgruntled people to be drugged or locked away.
How many times have you heard people on the news comment on an accused criminal in the following way, "He was nice, quiet, never bothered anyone. Went to work every day. I don't know why he did this." Non-mentally ill people sometimes snap and kill, and we can't really predict it. The same thing happens with mentally ill people. Schizophrenic does not equal killer. "Sane" does not equal kind and gentle.
Sadly, it's nearly impossible to predict what will lead people to violence. It's something we need to accept - as much as we'd like, we cannot keep everyone safe all the time. There are over 2 million people in American prisons, yet murders and muggings and rapes still happen every day. That's reality. Consider this - inside prison, where civil rights like privacy and protection from search and seizure don't exist, there are still murders and rapes every day. No matter how tightly you control people, they will find a way to be violent if that's what they really want.
Of course, don't be surprised if the "Damageplan gunman" starts talking about being mentally ill. It's all part of the horrid mixing of mental illness and legal guilt ... and it's part of what makes people think that all mentally ill people are dangerous. They see all these killers claiming to be ill and assume that there really is a connection. Once in a while it's really true that someone committed a crime because they are mentally ill, but so many guilty people have tried to use illness as an excuse for their crime that there is no compassion left when the real deal shows up in court.
Our deepest sympathy to the families of the victims of these vile shootings. No matter what the mental state of the killer, this is a heinous, heartbreaking crime.
posted by Christine at Thursday, December 09, 2004
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