What will we conclude from the Santa Barbara shootings?

[waltky]

Another failure of mental health law...

California rampage shows gaps in mental health law
29 May`14 — Elliot Rodger's murderous rampage near Santa Barbara has tragically exposed the limitations of involuntary-commitment laws that allow authorities to temporarily confine people who are deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Three weeks before he stabbed and shot six people to death and then apparently took his own life, the 22-year-old sometime college student was questioned by sheriff's deputies outside his apartment and was able to convince them he was calm, courteous and no threat to anyone. The officers had been sent by local health officials after Rodger's family expressed concern about him. "He just didn't meet the criteria for any further intervention," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "He was able to make a very convincing story that there was no problem, that he wasn't going to hurt himself or anyone else."

Like many other states, California has a law intended to identify and confine dangerously unstable people before they can do harm. It allows authorities to hold people in a mental hospital for up to 72 hours for observation. To trigger it, there must be evidence a person is suicidal, intent on hurting others or so "gravely disabled" as to be unable to care for himself. Police and medical personnel make tens of thousands of such welfare checks in California annually. In the year that ended June 2012, nearly 126,000 people were placed on temporary mental health holds in California.

In Rodger's case, it's not clear whether the law was too porous, if deputies were inadequately trained or if they simply weren't provided enough information to ferret out how deeply troubled Rodger had become. For example, Rodger's mother knew at the time of the April 30 visit that her son had been posting bizarre videos on YouTube, yet police have said they were unaware of any such footage until after the rampage last Friday. Rodger had also been in therapy for years, and it's not known what, if anything, authorities knew about his psychiatric care.

Ideally, officers making welfare checks should gather as much evidence as possible beforehand, including family statements and videos, said Risdon Slate, a professor of criminology at Florida Southern College who has trained law enforcement personnel to recognize the signs of mental illness. But even if the deputies are well-trained, "a person with mental illness may be able to hold it together long enough" to avoid appearing suspicious, Slate said.

MORE California rampage shows gaps in mental health law

 

[TemplarKormac]

Well I will say one thing, the father was in obvious pain, and during the time I was gone, I watched the whole video. So on my part I was wrong, and even if he used his son to make a political point, it was an outburst of rage and sorrow. [MENTION=41527]Pogo[/MENTION]

What I gleaned from this whole situation is that our mental health system is flawed, overly so. We need people who care about the mental welfare as well as the physical. Hospitals need to have mental wards again. The moment they come in with something, flag them. It isn't hard to do.

 

[blackhawk]

There is one thing we can conclude from this shooting as with all past and future ones partisan hacks will try to exploit it.

 

[GISMYS]

stabbed 10 times WITH A KNIFE or shot with a gun=DEAD!!! BUT KNIVES ARE OK BUT BAN GUNS!!! TYPICAL LIBERAL NON-THINKING!

 

[Katzndogz]

After having been warned by Rodger's mother who knew the nature of these videos, Rodger would have been stopped if the cop who questioned him had been a woman instead of a man. Just that simple. Send an attractive blonde officer and he'd be in a mental institution today.

 

[PaintMyHouse]

stabbed 10 times WITH A KNIFE or shot with a gun=DEAD!!! BUT KNIVES ARE OK BUT BAN GUNS!!! TYPICAL LIBERAL NON-THINKING!

When I take out a knife, it's not to kill. When I take out a gun, it is. I could kill you with a teacup. but chances are, I'll just ask if you'd one of two lumps of sugar with your tea.