Treat the Mentally Ill

The Tucson Tragedy's True Lesson
Now that someone with Mental Illness has shot one of Washington's own, maybe Congress will start to pay attention to its abysmal failure to provide care for the most seriously mentally-ill Americans. We'll see. Lawmakers took a brief lunge in that direction after mentally-ill John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan in 1981, and an even smaller step in 1988 when Russel Weston, another mentally-ill man, entered the Capitol and shot two police officers. But most mentally-ill people are not violent -- and ...

TRENDING: Politically charged e-mail on Arizona shootings draws fundraising scrutiny
Washington (CNN) - Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told political supporters Tuesday that there needs to be a concerted effort by Arizona Republicans to help create a safe environment for people with opposing political ideologies, following the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona. Sanders, an independent who aligns himself with the Democratic Party, went as far as to specifically call on his colleague, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, to lead the effort. “First, this horr...

Arizona's extremism in the spotlight
In his Saturday news briefing, just hours after the shooting, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said: The anger, the hatred, the Bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous.... And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry. While a couple of Arizona Republicans, Rep. Trent Franks and Sen. Jon Kyl, took issue with Dupnik's remarks, a few Arizona Democrats have first hand knowledge to back up the Sheri...

Dr. Harold Koplewicz: Arizona Shooting: Treating Mental Illness Before it Kills
In the Mass Shooting in Arizona Saturday there were heroes who prevented even more bloodshed. We need heroes to intervene before lives are lost. The three people who wrestled Jared Loughner to the ground and disarmed him outside a Supermarket in Tucson are being hailed as heroes, and rightly so. They prevented further loss of life at the hands of the 22-year-old, who had, in little more than an instant, killed six people and wounded more than a dozen others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords....

A Medical Miracle
I believe that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ recovery, so far, is a medical miracle. This conclusion is not based on a single fact or observation, but rather a compilation of unlikely events that needed to come together quickly, in exactly the right way. for her to not only be alive but also responding to her doctor’s commands. First, she was fortunate enough to have an intern who knew the rudiments of the emergency first aid that he learned in High School. But Daniel Hernandez w...

Budget cuts, stigma cause mentally ill to fall through cracks (The Lookout)
State Budget cuts, as well as a widespread stigma attached to Mental Illness, may have made it easier for the suspect in Saturday's deadly Tucson shootings to slip through the cracks despite clear signs of Mental Illness, according to Mental Health advocates in Arizona and nationally. Cuts to Arizona's Mental Health services wiped out funding for the kind of early detection and intervention programs that might have steered the shooting suspect, Jared Loughner, into treatment, they say. But a b...

Lawmaker calls for briefing on mental health danger signs
A leading lawmaker on Mental Health issues is calling for a Bipartisan debate on how to keep lawmakers and their staff and families safe in the wake of Saturday's deadly shooting in Tucson. Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus along with Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Penn.), wants the group to hold a briefing focusing on the behaviors and threats that raise red flags. "Police agencies already do that," Napolitano told The Hill. "I want to make sure some of ...

DID SARAH PALIN MAKE HIM DO IT? (Maggie Gallagher)
Americans reach for a larger meaning in tragedy when possible. We hate the truth that the Attempted Murder of a congresswoman was likely a random act of madness. Because as frightening as some of the proposed explanations are, any explanation is better than no explanation; any explanation suggests a problem that could, potentially, be solved -- a future Murder that we can avoid, rather than a problem that has no solution because it is rooted in insanity and evil, both of which test our capacit...

Dr. Alan Lipman: If Loughner Would Have Received Help This Would Not Have Happened (Video)
New questions arise about the Mental Health of Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner. Some medical experts say that there were signs that Loughner was a danger to himself and the public. Criminal psychologist Dr. Alan Lipman talks to Megyn Kelly on the “warning signs,” and whether someone should have noticed them. “People are now able to see based on the information that we’ve been talking about for the last 24 hours that Loughner was not an individual acting on a politi...

Relatives, friends remember 6 killed in Tucson
A memorial Mass for the Victims of Saturday's shootings that killed six and wounded 14 at a political event in Arizona was held Tuesday evening at the church where one of the slain had her First Communion a year ago. The Mass was held at the Tucson church of 9-year-old Christina Green, the youngest of those who died. The shooting happened outside a Supermarket at an event held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and was in critical condition at a Hospital Tuesday. In t...

Arizonans Rally to Prevent Westboro Church Disruption of Shooting Victims' Funerals
Arizona state lawmakers approved emergency Legislation that would order Protesters to stay 300 feet away from the Funeral foxnews Arizona residents are locking arms to stop the Westboro Baptist Church from disrupting the funerals for Victims of Saturday's shooting in Tucson, with bikers and others organizing a massive counter-protest and state lawmakers fast-tracking a bill to hamstring the group . The Kansas-based Westboro church is notorious for showing up at the funerals of dead Soldiers an...

Relatives, friends remember 6 slain in Tucson
A memorial Mass for the Victims of Saturday's shootings that killed six and wounded 14 at a political event in Arizona was held Tuesday evening at the church where one of the slain had her First Communion a year ago. The Mass was held at the Tucson church of 9-year-old Christina Green, the youngest of those who died. The shooting happened outside a Supermarket at an event held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and was in critical condition at a Hospital Tuesday. In t...

Sara Palin, Slap that Cunt Bitch
Yeah, that’s right. Sarah Palin is guilty of Hate Speech. She’s a moron. She’s ignorant. She’s got the blood of Arizona on her hands. Also she loves the rich and hates the poor. Don’t believe me? Just ask the Rosie’s-O’Donnell and Barr: What people like Palin need to learn is that we need to be civil in our political discourse. Did I mention Palin’s a moron? Too bad Palin and other Republicans are not as classy, smart and hip as the Democrat...

Jesse Jackson's Bizarre Rant: is Rev ok?
In an oddly rambling, semi-coherent manner, the Reverend Jesse Jackson took to the airwaves yesterday to blame everything including the kitchen sink for Arizona's violent Shooting Spree. He appeared in-studio as a guest on the syndicated Al Sharpton Show. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, and worship. Read more... We invite all Ame...

Joe Arpaio Defends Sarah Palin, Says Sheriff Dupnik Too Political (VIDEO)
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, not exactly known for his Bipartisanship, thinks that fellow Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County is getting too political in his Rhetoric in the wake of the Mass Shooting over the weekend that killed six people and gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). "Sheriffs are elected, like I am, thank God. I'm sure if he was a Police Chief he'd probably be fired tomorrow. I'm not trying to defend him, but he's the one that runs that sheriff's offi...

Tea Party as victim in Arizona
Image by Getty Images via @daylife Guardian: A nine-year-old girl lies in the morgue. A member of Congress faces a lifetime of struggle to recover from a bullet in the brain. A city is bracing itself for a string of funerals as it tries to fathom the carnage. But Trent Humphries says there is another innocent Victim left by Jared Lee Loughner's killing of six people and wounding of 14 others in his Assassination attempt against Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. It is his Tea Party movement and...

Public memorial set for Arizona shooting victims
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The city shaken by a shooting rampage that killed six people and left 14 injured prepared to come together at a church Tuesday to mourn the Victims, including a 9-year-old girl who sang in the choir. Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas will preside over the first official tribute to the victims at St. Odilia Catholic Church. The Diocese called the service a “Mass of healing for our community.” The modern turquoise-and-white church is only blocks from Saturday̵...

Last Call
Sully for the win. The right and the left both have intemperate voices. But here's the key: only the Conservative Movement counts the most vile blowhards as leading lights, embraced by the leadership. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Sarah Palin: these are among the most popular Conservatives in America. Who are the folks on the left with equivalent popularity and influence? Which is the point I made yesterday. When random jagoffs from The Progressive left (and there are plenty of those,...

1 hurt, 3 arrested after Md. bar fight
Frederick police say three men were arrested after a brawl outside a bar that left one of the men injured. It happened early Monday outside the Olde Towne Tavern on North Market Street. Police say one man, 31-year-old Darnell Morris of Frederick, was struck in the face with a drinking glass, leaving him with several lacerations. He was treated at Frederick Memorial Hospital. Police say Morris played an active role in the fight, and charged him with assault. Thirty-seven-year-old Renell Jones of ...

JOE TRIPPI: The Sometimes Tragic Price We Pay to Live In a Free Society
Since the tragic events in Arizona unfolded on Saturday the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the six Victims who were killed and the 14 others who were wounded has quickly become politicized. My own view is that it's a mistake to politicize this attack. One of the problems of a free society is that one crazy person can do something like this. If we took all the steps necessary to prevent this attack we would either not be able to meet with our elected officials or a lot of people we only thi...

The Tragedy of the Arizona Shooting.
This weekend’s tragic shooting at a Safeway district meeting in which United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was seriously hurt and a dozen more injured and a District Court judge John Roll, a nine-year-old girl born on September 11th, and a congressional aide were killed has left us all stunned. Nick Baumann has an interview with a friend of the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner. The friend describes Loughner’s obsession with Gifford as starting when she d...

The "Politicized Mind" Of Gabrielle Giffords
David Brooks is astonished, sickened, appalled that an attempted Assassination of a sitting congresswoman should be immediately regarded as something possibly ... wait for it ... political. In fact, Loughner must be seen in a context in which politics does not exist: The evidence before us suggests that Loughner was locked in a world far removed from politics as we normally understand it. So why, one has to ask, does this person with Mental Illness, carefully select for Assassination an alread...

Nearly 50 Percent Of Mental Health Services Recipients In Giffords' County Were Dropped In 2010
Source: Huffington Post Nearly 50 Percent Of Mental Health Services Recipients In Giffords' County Were Dropped In 2010 WASHINGTON -- In the past year, Pima County, Ariz., where Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others were shot Saturday, has seen more than 45 percent of its mental health services recipients forced off the public rolls, a service advocate told The Huffington Post. The deep cuts in treatment were protested strongly at the time, with opponents warning that they would resul...

GOP Stresses Need For Mental Health Services, Despite Pushing For Repeal Of Aid
GOP Stresses Need For Mental Health Services, Despite Pushing For Repeal Of Aid Following Saturday’s tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona, some Republicans have argued that 22-year old assassin Jared Lee Loughner was more affected by his Mental Illness than the nation’s lax Gun Control laws or Washington’s divisive and often times violent political Rhetoric. “What will solve this problem is removing the politics from it and getting after the crux of this problem and that...

Shootings show need to boost mental health system
Perhaps the saddest thing about last Saturday's Tucson shootings is that they might have been prevented were a more robust Mental Health system in place to deal with suspected shooter Jared Loughner. Loughner certainly displayed plenty of warning signs of serious Mental Illness while a Student at Pima Community College in Tucson.  His strange, disturbed and frightening behavior included disorganized thoughts and Speech, an inability to function in social situations, and signs of paranoia.&#...