I knew a man once that was clearly mentally ill. He was prescribed medication that he wouldn't take, his family had given up on him. He was crazy. One day I saw him walking down the street tugging something on a dog leash - it was the guts of an old tube radio! He was walking it like a dog.
He started breaking windows of businesses, harassing people on the street and the police would come get him - the judge would order him to the psyche ward to straighten him out and get his medications lined back out - and then they would release him again....and again....and again. We were at the mercy of him and everytime they released him, he would crank up his mis-behaviours. He would pee on people from the top of buildings, he set his house on fire - he was screaming for help!
Always, the judge would just send him to the psyche ward and always they would release him. The psyche ward was really the only place he felt safe.
One day, he went into a local business - a hair salon - and he grabbed a pair of scissors and held it to the hair stylist's throat while threatening to kill her.
Finally, the judge said he could charge him with terrorist threatening and they were able to put him away for a good long time. I think it was what he wanted all along.
This Holmes guy finally got what he wanted too. When are we going to start taking mental illness seriously instead of just loading people up with a bunch of medications? Some people just need to be taken out of society before they really hurt someone.
