Quote:
Originally Posted by pylon
It's only a false dilemma if it is proven to be.
I would be happy to eat crow, and retract the statement, if someone can show me what is being done to help the victims. And "Help is available if you ask... and book an appointment, and wait 8 weeks to see that specialist." is not the help I am talking about. What immediate, 24 hour, team of specialists, was put in place for the victims, like was put in place for Li?
We likely wouldn't have a dead Mountie if the same attention to Li's rehab, was being spent on the witnesses.
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I was more referring to your claim that the internet psychiatrists were more concerned with Li's well-being than the survivors. I think if you checked the posting history of most of us, you'd probably be able to discern that we'd be in favour of more assistance for these people. The problem mental illness, trauma assistance, etc., always runs up against is a lack of funding and resources. And if you really want to get into it, the political aspects that often cause cuts or a lack of funding in these areas are often exacerbated by those parties in power who claim to be fiscal conservatives. So I guess I would argue that if you're someone who generally supports these parties, then the pissing and moaning about a lack of resources comes off as a bit disingenuous.
As for the rest of yours and polak's arguments regarding public safety, unforgivable acts, etc., I'd ask you to consider the logistics of what you're suggesting. This isn't meant to be a slippery-slope argument, but logistically, if your argument is one of public safety, shouldn't we be putting all schizophrenics who ever have murderous hallucinations away? I mean that way we can be sure that they won't harm the general population. Like you said, there's zero guarantee these people won't stop taking their meds and just go out and commit atrocities. Why wait until they step over those uncrossable lines where someone actually gets hurt in the first place? Hell, we should probably extend that to anyone who ever has violent thoughts in the first place, regardless of mental illness. Look at the number of people without mental illness that commit violence. Clearly we can't guarantee that they'll never act on those thoughts.