Evo
Staff Emeritus
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I agree with you, but having read about how our system works, I think it's unlikely that a single call would have accomplished anything, can't risk imposing on someone's rights, can't risk a lawsuit. The law is pretty clear about taking someone in for evaluation against their will. It's just not going to happen. He didn't meet the criteria to be forcibly taken for evaluation.nismaratwork said:I'm not arguing that you could foresee him shooting 20 people, although between what his friend Zane said, it's not impossible either. Or... to quote one of the teachers who had him expelled, one of those, "I was shocked, but I wasn't surprised." Really... I kid you not.
Anyway, you don't need to foresee mass murder, you just need to know that undiagnosed and untreated people with persecutorial delusions are one of the ONLY group of those people usually called "crazy" who really ARE a danger to others and themselves (edit: in the manner depicted in media, i.e. violent outbursts, etc... not that plain-old folk don't kill themselves)
I do know someone that was forcibly taken by police and held against his will for 72 hours, because a woman he pissed off online called the police and said he was about to commit suicide. They had been corresponding for a couple of months so she knew where he lived. He happened to have an antique shotgun from the civil war left to him by his grandfather sitting in his closet, he'd never fired the thing, but the police used that as just cause to assume he might shoot himself. It was the craziest thing. BTW, she knew about the gun and told police. The thing is, he wasn't contemplating suicide, she was just trying to get at him.
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