“No excessive news coverage to uncover missed
signals that could have prevented the deaths of his victims. No Anderson Cooper
or CNN delving deep into his life for clues. He is simply a useless member of
society. Toss his ass in jail and throw away the key. Thug No. 999,999,999 is
how society thinks of him.”
In the United Kingdom’s Mental
Health Act 1959, the legislation says a "Mentally
ill person means a person who owing to mental illness requires care, treatment
or control for his own good or in the public interest, and is for the time
being incapable of managing himself or his affairs . . ."
In the U.S. mental
illness is used loosely to describe just about any act of violence by our
citizens. It has become synonymous with people acting like a natural fool,
lunatic, imbecile, idiot, and incompetent, demented. Our first response to mass
shootings is that he’s a crazy lunatic.
We loosely label a mass killer as mentally ill even though he was not medically
diagnosed that he required protection from himself or the public, and he was capable
of managing his affairs. Yet, he is labeled mentally ill to explain his violent
behavior, which in effect is saying that he was not responsible for his
actions. But there’s a double standard.
