re: #161 jvic

Here is a description of the law that allows a CA “qualified officer” to have someone held for psychiatric observation. According to the article, there is also a judicial mechanism to do this.

He had watched a coworker and friend be decapitated; he nearly lost his legs, and became permanently impaired, in the same accident; had a personality change after the accident; had screaming matches with his wife; and was in a rancorous custody dispute after divorce. In hindsight, there appears to have been plausible cause for intervention.

This is not to extenuate the perpetrator. If guilt means anything, he appears guilty. He chose every step he took. The question remains whether he might have been pointed in a different direction earlier on.

Are the systems in place to actually carry out the law? Would he get adequate help —are there beds available—who pays? Will he have a Court Appointed Advocate to make sure his rights are not violated?

The Mental Health system in this country sucks. The answer today is to wait untnil they commit a crime and then institutionalize them in prison. Frankly, if he had been treated at the time of the original accident —transferred to the mental health ward as part of of his rehab—this probably could have been dealt with from the beginning… . .