Discriminating against someone who doesn’t seem to have all their faculties is just that – discrimination. Who are we – the “normal” people – to say that someone whose behavior is suspicious and strange is a threat to others?
Of course, I’m not a licensed therapist, physician or psychologist. However, as a reporter, I not only pay attention to stories of brutal murders, I pay attention to who’s carrying out the heinous acts of violence – and they’re usually men with a history of odd behavior and a criminal record which hasn’t landed them in the slammer for too long.
Just a few weeks ago, a woman on the L train suffered serious brain
injury after she was attacked by a psychotic man who allegedly had a
criminal history.
Who let this man out? And who said St. Hubert, who just came out of
prison for attacking his mother, was deemed safe enough to wander our
streets? Does anyone in the state’s “justice system” feel guilty for
giving this heartless maniac another chance to exist in society? Whoever
allowed this beast to be far away from a mental ward should be
punished.
I’ll even take it a step further. While we probably want St. Hubert to suffer and serve a life sentence in prison for carrying out an act that had no rational motive, why should us taxpayers take care of his living expenses until the day he dies – or is killed by a fellow inmate? Unfortunately, New York is too weak to impose the death penalty on murderers like St. Hubert, who might have carried out multiple stabbings. No person in their right mind takes a child’s life.
Why does this man even deserve to breathe?
Men like St. Hubert (because I’ve yet to hear about large populations of women in the city going on stabbing rampages) need to be removed from society sooner rather than later. Authorities need to find out whether or not someone’s mentally stable enough to operate in public SAFELY. If the violent suspect has priors – even “minor” offenses like harassment or assault – someone has to be held accountable for inaccurately judging someone as safe enough to walk the streets. When dealing with a psychotic individual – especially one living in New York City – officials shouldn’t evaluate them based on the time they’ve served in prison. Furthermore, who’s going to say someone like Adam Lanza, who shot 20 innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, didn’t show signs of being a danger to others?
Think about the theory of urban terrorists – the suspects in our community who kill innocent people because they don’t have the mental capacity or normalcy to realize that taking someone’s life isn’t the answer to dealing with their disability.
When I did a story on the increasing number of children currently living with a violent mental disorder, it was apparent these diseases weren’t really recognized decades ago. Today, we’ve got teens with social and psychological disorders shooting up colleges and high schools – and we’re shocked to hear that “there was always something amiss about that young man,” which authorities never paid attention to. Why didn’t authorities put St. Hubert in a psych ward? We’re assuming someone highly skilled evaluated him, right?
Children aren’t asked to be murdered. They could be traveling from
point A to point B, the way 9-yearold Leiby Kletzky intended to do on
July 12, 2011 when he was kidnapped and butchered into literally a dozen
pieces by a quiet maniac. The killer, Aron Levi, pleaded insanity and
the public learned about his family’s long history of mental illness –
which was supposed to justify him taking an innocent life?
Are we going to accept someone being “mentally unstable” as a good reason for them going bonkers enough to kill someone? Perhaps these murderers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, should have received help when they were younger – the way children with special needs are currently handled when it comes to expressing and controlling their outbursts.
I know this sounds extremely insensitive, but no matter how mentally unstable or “abnormal” someone is, their condition shouldn’t alter their ability to feel remorse and acknowledge right from wrong. Unfortunately, as numerous reports are showing, those with mental conditions don’t have the ability to separate right from wrong and they certainly don’t have a perception of consequences.
To be able to stab or shoot a defenseless child over a dozen times means the person has no sense of remorse, compassion or rationality. Something in that person’s brain is NOT functioning, so why should the state chose a “rational” punishment and forgive someone they’ve already put through the system – someone who didn’t change their irrational ways because they’re psychologically incapable of changing?
There are dozens of “suspicious” individuals roaming our community
every day…There are hundreds of “disturbed” people with mental histories
– who also have a record of endangering innocent people - hanging
around our streets.
Since we’re not living in a state that will order the death penalty for child killers, we need to do more to keep dangerous madmen off the street and learn what they’re capable of. We need to have a better system for evaluating potential murderers before they’re released into society (or don’t release them at all if they exhibit signs of psychotic behavior).
Let’s get real! Being officially/legally “insane” doesn’t give you the right to take someone else’s life! Saying someone has a “mental history” is a bad excuse for their lapse in compassion for a mother or father who has to bury their only child.
Toughen up New York! Stop releasing individuals with a dangerous
history into our community – stop giving them the benefit of the doubt –
and provide more mental health services for those who have psychotic
disorders. Too many victims – mentally and emotionally healthy
individuals who could have made a positive impact on society – are being
taken from us. Disturbed murderers won’t change their ways but our
legal system should!
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