Caution About Food Containers

[crashdive123]

You guys are a tough bunch.
The article claims the woman is mentally ill.
IF the claim is true, you guys would punish, incarcerate, and torture a person who needs medical attention.
I guess that's all right - after all, you just you have labeled her as "Demented" and "Sicko"

Maybe one day, when ya'll get old, you may suffer from senile dementia or Alzheimers and shoplift something (that should warrant having your hands chopped off, right?), or endanger another's life by driving a motor vehicle. Maybe some of you will deal with or have lived through a real addiction - which is a medical condition.
So - apply your own brand of justice, and go string yourself up from a tree. Maybe you should be beaten publicly.

Yes - that lady's actions are disturbing. The judge is doing the right thing by keeping her locked up. Mental illness is not an excuse, and I would never advocate just letting her walk away.
You guys have already executed her.

So let me ask...There were two posts in this thread that, as you say "convicted" her. You may want to read your post again to see whom it is that is jumping to conclusions. Just my .03.

[Ken]

You guys are a tough bunch.
The article claims the woman is mentally ill.
IF the claim is true, you guys would punish, incarcerate, and torture a person who needs medical attention.
I guess that's all right - after all, you just you have labeled her as "Demented" and "Sicko"

Maybe one day, when ya'll get old, you may suffer from senile dementia or Alzheimers and shoplift something (that should warrant having your hands chopped off, right?), or endanger another's life by driving a motor vehicle. Maybe some of you will deal with or have lived through a real addiction - which is a medical condition.
So - apply your own brand of justice, and go string yourself up from a tree. Maybe you should be beaten publicly.

Yes - that lady's actions are disturbing. The judge is doing the right thing by keeping her locked up. Mental illness is not an excuse, and I would never advocate just letting her walk away.
You guys have already executed her.

Mental Illness does NOT mean an individual may not be held criminally responsible. In lay terms, the issue is whether or not the person knows right from wrong and has the ability to conform their actions to what is right. This field of law is extensive. Criminal responsibility, Competency, Diminished Capacity - all of these factors come into play.

[Dennis K.]

Mental Illness does NOT mean an individual may not be held criminally responsible.

Never said it did. My exact words:

The judge is doing the right thing by keeping her locked up. Mental illness is not an excuse, and I would never advocate just letting her walk away.

So let me ask...There were two posts in this thread that, as you say "convicted" her. You may want to read your post again to see whom it is that is jumping to conclusions. Just my .03.

I didn't single anyone out - I'm sick of the flame wars.
but, since you asked:

I see wackos on a daily basis. IMO, the judicial system should enforce more population control on people like her!

I've always thought that the best punishment for sickos like this is to make them eat or drink what they have contaminated.

There are some DEMENTED, SICK A** people in this world.

So, Let's de-humanize them the mentally ill. Name calling is very effective for that. Some of you have experienced - gooks. krauts. towel heads. Makes it more palatable for population control and systematic torture.
The last group that did that was the Nazis - they just executed the mentally ill in the name of keeping the race pure. So, please forgive me if I find those posts to be poorly though out and morally repulsive.

[Ken]

Dennis, I didn't mean to suggest that you were off track. I was only trying to clarify the legal issues. Maybe I've just been practicing and teaching this stuff for too long.

[Dennis K.]

Dennis, I didn't mean to suggest that you were off track. I was only trying to clarify the legal issues. Maybe I've just been practicing and teaching this stuff for too long.

Fair enough. No Harm, No Foul. Thanks for clarifying.

[trax]

I always appreciate that Dennis K. is often the "voice of reason". I don't have any answers for the mentally ill or the kinds of havoc that might be wreaked by someone such as that woman, but it made me think. I'm going to share a quick anecdote that might appear off topic but really, I hope, will drive home my point.

A friend of mine is a martial arts instructor and teaches a woman's self-defense class. He told me one night he was out driving and he saw his teenage daughter walking along the edge of a road. She had a hoody pulled up over her face and her MP3 player plugged into her ears. He cruised right up beside her, reached out the window and just touched her elbow. Of course she about jumped out of her skin. He told her, "that's how close you just came to being attacked". My point, people too often don't bother paying attention to their surroundings, period. It is unfortunate that something causes people like that woman to do what she did, but let's all ask ourselves, if we see someone behaving suspiciously in a retail outlet or any public place, do we pay attention and report the behavior? How many shoppers wandered right past her, intent on finding the Special K, or intent on the tunes on their Ipod? We certainly want to make sure our senses are as honed as we can have them when we're out in the wilderness, isn't it even more important in an urban setting? Eternal vigilance is our lot.

[bulrush]

There are varying degrees of "mental illness". There are also varying types of "severely mentally ill".

Case #1: homeless woman stands on the corner and yells at invisible people to leave her alone. She talks about "Jeebus" and the "coming pocky-clypse". Weird, but harmless.

Case #2: The woman in this article. She is clearly trying to poison somebody, and is clearly a danger to someone.

The judge did the right thing about putting this woman in jail until more information could be found about what's going on and how sick is she.

[Rick]

Right you are, Trax. Awareness is the best defense we can employ and, perhaps, one of the cheapest. If we are forced to defend ourselves with any means then we have probably failed in awareness.

As for mental illness, I see it no different than physical illness in the sense that everyone deserves the right to quality medical care and treatment.