‘Psycho killer’? The Jared Lee Loughner case brings out the usual abuse
Some excellent points made here on how the stigmatization of the mentally ill following this sort of event goes hand in hand with disingenuous attempts to absolve the purveyors of political hate speech and incitements to violence of responsibility:
It is extremely hard for people with mental illness, particularly mental illnesses popularly considered violent, like borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia, to “come out”, as a result of social attitudes about mental health. Every time a horrific event splashes across the headlines and people start screaming “mental illness”, the mentally ill community is reminded that we are considered unsafe and dangerous, despite stigma-reduction campaigns. This has real impacts, making it harder for us to seek treatment, find work and engage with society.
Second, the attribution of violent crime to mentally ill “outliers” makes it difficult to hold people accountable for inflammatory rhetoric and political activities. Politicians, commentator, and others who issue incitements to violence can fall back on the claim that “only mentally ill people” would take their suggestions seriously, and “no sane person” would commit such acts. This allows them to evade responsibility for their actions; and it is clear that many are well aware of this and exploit attitudes about mental illness to avoid accountability.
Full article : guardian.co.uk