...Nobody here has ... expertise on his current mental state so its a little presumptuous to assume therapy is the proper place for him or even if it will change his ways.. ...
Hold on there. There have been two articles posted in this thread: one called him a
lunatic, the other a
maniac, and one noted he attacked a hospital social worker. Why do you think he was interacting with a hospital social worker in the first place?
You claimed I was "assuming" things. I am not assuming; I am concluding based on sources and behavior. His repeated violent acts—including starting fires—combined with the nonsensical, random nature of his behavior, are entirely consistent with severe mental illness. If you dislike that conclusion, please argue against it with evidence rather than dismissing it as an assumption.
In the meantime, here is a
3rd article that settles it:
Mr Reed, 50, has a history of mental illness and has been arrested 72 times since he turned 18, according to a Chicago affiliate of the BBC's partner CBS News.
What is your alternative hypothesis? That he is sane? That conclusion is so detached from reality that the conclusion itself needs medication.
Here are
even more details on the attack prior to this one, explaining why he was on an electronic monitor:
At the time of the attack, Reed was on electronic monitoring after a Cook County judge declined to hold him in jail on an aggravated battery charge stemming from accusations that he hit a social worker at MacNeal Hospital Psychiatry and Behavioral Health in west suburban Berwyn.
The inference that he has serious mental health issues is correct. The real question is: Why was he out on the streets?
The answer lies in our broken healthcare infrastructure and the defunding of mental institutions. We are currently forcing the mentally ill through a criminal justice system that is not designed to treat them.
Consider the timeline: He is mentally unstable. He attacks a social worker at a psychiatric ward during treatment. The legal system then asks: should he stand trial for battery? We have a long history of case law regarding mental incompetence, but because we have largely dismantled the state mental institution system, judges are left with no viable options.
Sending a mentally ill person to jail often exacerbates their condition without treating the cause. Putting them on a monitoring program with outpatient therapy is a risk, as we saw here. The judge is forced to choose between two terrible options because the third option—involuntary commitment to a well-funded, secure mental health facility—largely no longer exists.
This situation required a hearing to determine his mental disposition, not just a standard criminal bail hearing. But again, that would require a system where the adjudicator has the power to place Reed in a secure medical facility.
This is a tragedy, but let’s be clear about what it is not. This is not evidence of a "career criminal"—a sane person rationally choosing to commit crimes for personal gain. Nor is it a justification for the fascist pipe dream of using the National Guard to purge the "undesirables."
It is evidence of a broken mental health system, and the direction we choose to fix it is up to us.
