Posted on 10/11/2014 7:54:39 PM PDT by richardb72
California has long allowed police who believe that someone represents a danger to themselves or others to take the person in for a psychiatric evaluation with a police psychiatrist. With that evaluation, a person could be held for 72-hours. After the Elliot Rodger’s killings earlier this year, California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Tuesday, September 30th that makes significant changes. The irony is that deputy sheriff officers had gone to Rodger’s home but did not believe that Rodger posed a danger to himself or others.
The law that was thus motivated by Rodger’s case would not have prevented it. Three of the people that Rodger killed were killed with knives. Taking away his guns would thus not have stopped those deaths. In addition, given that Rodger was planning his attack for 2.5 year it seems plausible that he would have obtained his guns in other ways. All this raises the question: If you really believe someone is a threat to themselves or others, why not involuntarily commit the individual.
In John Lott’s discussion on CNN today with the bill’s Assembly co-sponsor Santa Barbara Democrat Das Williams, he claimed that there was no cost to disarming individuals, only a possible benefit. Yet, assuming that the individual did not represent a threat to himself or others, disarming him leaves him unable to defend himself from possible criminal attacks.
The new law is very troublesome on multiple grounds: . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at crimepreventionresearchcenter.org ...
It definitely will. The moment criminals decide to follow the law.
Does the law include police?
It WILL! ...Or we’ll add more laws on top, and THEN it will!
It fixes a problem that really isn’t a problem.
Behind it is the notion that others should be responsible for your personal behavior.
Its a law that turns people into children without doing anything to stop mass killings from happening.
But the law lets lets liberals and hoplophobes feel good about themselves.
And it does not include knife control! Liberals and hoplophobes have yet to explain why guns are inherently more dangerous than knives.
“Behind it is the notion that others should be responsible for your personal behavior.”
If it is very strictly confined to the mentally ill, that idea makes a lot of sense. They are rarely capable of being responsible for their own behavior, so someone needs to step up to the plate.
I know, I know - mentally ill can mean whatever the powers that be wish it to mean, so it is a wedge in the door in that respect, and will no doubt be used as such by the Left.
It’s the usual thing with them - nothing wrong with the idea, but the execution involves yet more nanny statism and big government.
Pretty much the norm in California politics: legislators with an agenda using an incident to pass a law that actually wouldn’t have changed the outcome of that incident.
It’s all about finding an excuse to achieve their agenda.
No it won’t help but it will turn civilians into a snarky secret police trying to damage their neighbors and family. There is real evil amoung us.
The police and the judge together can decide. In the past, you had to have a mental health professional testify that the person was a danger to themselves or others. The standard of proof has also been greatly lowered to just a reasonable belief.
We already have involuntary commitment laws.
No decent society would let them mentally ill take care of themselves. Some people are just not capable of living an independent existence.
We just pretend in the face of all the evidence, that’s possible. Dream on.
ping
I totally agree - unfortunately, society as a whole seems to be becoming less and less decent.
The involuntary committal laws are a maze to navigate, as well. In some states, they are a joke, or at least I’ve been told so by friends who have had to deal with them. Should you manage to get someone committed, well, psych units are pretty damned bad places at the best of times. The whole tendency of the profession to throw pills at the problem until the symptoms go away adds another layer of difficulty.
Got no answers here. I’d ideally like to see an intense, focussed, world wide research campaign on mental illness, but that won’t happen for various reasons.
What, exactly, is a “police psychiatrist”?
NO, but it will make libs feel better.
Polidiots and presstitutes are a bigger threat than any punk on a rampage.....turn THEM in.....
Just my opinion ....
of course. all of the prior laws have stopped it.
/sarc
Its not like 30,000 gun control laws have stopped murder.
Liberals and hoplophobes have yet to point to ONE example where they have saved lives.
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