“Mentally troubled” man stabs and kills 4 kids and their mom in New York
Second Amendment advocates will be tempted to start the “we should ban knives” mantra, but that’s not helpful. This is an opportunity for local and national leadership in this country to open a fresh dialogue about the stigma of mental illness, and how just about everyone sweeps this discussion under the rug.
I’ve written about this many times, and back in Dec. 2012 I wrote about our reaction to mental illness and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and how we deal with detectable mental health issues.
… having that discussion with friends, family or co-workers is taboo in the United States and probably around the world. These issues are not spoken of, they are private … not discussed. It’s not our place to judge, but is it not in our heart to help?
Look around and see if you can find anything substantive from politicians concerning the treatment and diagnosis of mental health issues after the Sandy Hook shooting. After the Aurora, Colo. theater shooting. After the Navy Yard shooting. After the Virginia Tech massacre. Little if anything has been discussed since mental health is a private issue between one and his or her doctor. Don’t you know those with mental health issues must not be treated as though they are dangerous criminals? I’ll be the first to tell you this subject would be extremely hard to deal with. I don’t have the answers, but for politicians the issues seems to be off the table.
Yet gun owners are placed into a group that must not be trusted. They are the easy targets, and therefore ridiculous legislation is proposed and implemented to limit their freedoms. Since dealing with mental illness is extremely hard, leadership goes the easy route, blaming guns and gun owners. They are cowards, and our leadership should not be cowards. We put them in office to deal with the hard stuff, not take the easy route.
On to this morning’s breaking news from Brooklyn, New York, with my emphasis.
A crazed man turned a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home into a slaughterhouse late Saturday, leaving a 37-year-old mom and her four young children stabbed to death.
A 25-year-old suspect — preliminarily identified as the children’s mentally troubled* older cousin — was arrested after being subdued at the scene, his feet bare and soaked in blood.
Cops seized a machete and scissors from the home as evidence, a law enforcement source said.
Now the question … will Mayor Michael Bloomberg offer condolences, legislation, or funding for mental health teams? If this was a shooting, we know exactly what he would be doing – pushing for additional gun control. I’m not at all familiar with mental health issues and treatment options and my guess is Bloomberg does not know much either. What will he do?
We know gun-control advocates running for office are worthy of at least $350,000 in Bloomberg dollars. Heck anti-gun Virginia governor candidate Terry McAuliffe received $1.1 million from Bloomberg for his race. Whatcha gonna do Mike the Billionaire?
If history is a guide, this terrible tragedy will be mourned, and forgotten.
* I do want to point out the only indication this man was mentally troubled was from the NY Post article linked above. The New York Times is stating the 25-year-old unemployed suspect was the cousin of the father, and had moved from Chicago about one week ago.
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It seems all of our mass killers are under a doctor’s care. Their new miracle drugs are making the depressed & nervous into psychotic killers who should not be allowed on our streets. The closing of our mental institutions was a major mistake. Group homes aren’t the answer,some must be safely secured to protect the public.
Nothing good comes out of Chicago!
Ricbee has a point. The newer classes of psychiatric drugs are extremely powerful — SSRIs as an example. Many of those drugs are meant to be used in clinical settings. That is sadly not the case. Doctors only have descriptions of what the drugs do — they don’t have first hand experience with the compounds — with reactions differing between individuals. When individuals go off of the medications, the results are bizarre.
Plus, as Steve pointed out, mental problems are private. People will gab at length about their latest operation; those same people could see a mental health professional and never mention it.
My guess is Bloomy will mumble platitudes without addressing the mental health/illness issues.
There is nothing in it for him.
?
My point has nothing to do with going”off”these horrible medications,it’s the going “on”them that destroys the minds-the worst just may be Ritalin which ruins developing minds & condemns the child to be forever on drugs.
Cynical me expects the progressives to be secretly angry that the crazed young man didn’t use a gun to commit his deed.
“Mentally troubled” is the new normal for anything going wrong with our society. Pile it on!
Wouldn’t saying “Democrat” suffice?? 😉
Ya know…just to break away from what previous comments are saying, how about we have a society of GODLESS people ( especially the last generations after us ‘baby-boomers’ ) BECAME the damned ‘establishment’ we railed against in the 60’s/70’s, and BOTH parents went to work ( totally materialism- NOT necessity as the excuse used today )- DROPPED their ( our ) kids off at DAY-freeking-care ( which just ‘entertained’ the children for 8 + hrs until Mom or Pop picked them up- DAYCARE does NOT teach the important things in the ‘formative years’…like RIGHT or WRONG, GOOD or BAD…and …dare I SAY it ‘GOD’…) Then, OUR children were grown, with virtually NO moral compass and gave THEIR kids violent/Godless video games etc… Geese!!
I don’t think you made it very clear,but I’m thinking the same way-the mothers & fathers(when there are there)don’t have a clue about the true values of life…losing God they had nothing to give their kids except material crap & claptrap.
I’m sure this will lead the CBS newsbreaks for weeks, and then they’ll raze the apartment building to vanquish bad memories.