Back on Monday I posted that Pima County Sheriff Dupnik was blaming the right for slaughter at Safeway but details had emerged of multiple contacts between Jared Loughner and the Dupnik's office over multiple death threats
Duplicious and deceiving, he libeled decent and fine Americans in order to deflect his guilt. Perhaps he believes eveyone will call for cessation of blame and his gross negligence will be overlooked. How disingenuous and dangeorous for President Obama to have called Dupnik. He “thanked him for his department’s efforts to respond to this incident and coordinate with the FBI and Director Mueller on the investigation.” He should have ripped him a new one. Dupnik should have had this mental patient locked up, instead he lied and helped to polarize the nation.
Here's the take of a cool, professional eye, former prosecutor John Jay:
25 years, a lawyer. about 6 years a prosecutor. how this relates to guns, below.
one of my duties as a p.a. was "involuntary treatment act" commitments. down to the psyche ward at the local hospital, ... , shrinks and mental health professionals would trot them in, prosecutor represented them, and some poor hapless soul would be drug in.
the mental health professional would describe the circumstances as to how they got involved, usually family, friends or arresting cops. the shrinks would recite their review of the case, and then they would issue a professional/expert opinion.
"did the person present a risk of harm either to himself or a member of the public as a result of mental defect or illness, or emotional defect or illness."
if the answer to that opinion were "yes" in the professionals opinion, then the judge had the authority to pop 'em in for 48 hours, whether they wanted to or not. then, the next question would be, ... .
"is it in the best interests of the patient to administer psychotropic drugs during the stay."
if the answer to that opion were "yes" then psychotropics would be administered. the usual powerful shit to make you do a pretty good zombie imitation.
at the end of the 48 hours, another hearing would be held, seeing if they had improved enough to be released, (usually "yes," go forth and sin no more, and see the shrink and the mental health guys, and take your prescribe/ordered meds, cuz if you get goofy again, you're coming back in.)
that hearing was authorized by statute to hold the person involuntarily for another 72.
if the psychotropics and the mental health guys, e.g., shrinks and hospital staff, couldn't help, then the question of commitment to the state mental hospital came up.
sometimes people would be so obviously looney tunes that away they went. sometimes so remarkably improved, that out on the sidewalk they went.
and, sometimes if they were borderline and it was tough, or it was especially cold and they were street people, the hearing might be continued a week or ten days to see if a little food, and a lot less alchol and self administered drugs, didn't settle them down enough to where they could be released under supervision.
how this relates to guns. if a person is adjudicated mentally defective by reason of mental illness or impairment, and they are committed, even to a local psyche ward, or if a person is convicted of a misdemeanor offense involving domestic violence or abuse, then they loose their rights to own or possess weapons. it is something to which the people are advised at the beginning of the process.
any law enforcement person knows this. stone cold. they just do.
a finding along this line is passed up the chain, and eventually it goes to the f.b.i.
when a person comes into a store to buy a gun, a pistol especially, they fill out paper work w/ the gun's vendor. they fill out paperwork for the state, and they fill out paper work for the feds. both forms have a little 8 or 9 question questionnaire, to be answered yes or no.
one of the questions is, "have you ever been adjudicated as being a risk to yourself or others as a result of mental or emotional defect or illness," or something along that general line. if you answer "yes," the store owner will not deliver the weapon to you, no matter how much you rant or rave or carry on.
if you answer all the questions correctly, then you are subject to a check with the f.b.i. the clerk walks over to the phone, and he simply calls up the f.b.i. hello, f/b/i, this fellow, wants to buy a gun. here are the particulars. will you please check out his history."
the f.b.i. guy checks. if the purchaser has a felony, or a misdemeanor involving domestic violence, or if the person has been adjudicated as mentally defective, he is turned down for delivery of the gun even at the end of the waiting period. (and, we mustn't leave out illegal alienage. also a disqualifier.)
the clerk walks over to the guy and says, sorry. they say no. you got a felony, according to them, or, you are fruit loops according to them.
sometimes when things are not clear, the purchaser is advised that his purchase is on "hold" until the f.b.i. and the state authorities get it all cleared up.
so, if you have been adjudicated fruitloops, no legal gun purchase.
why the sheriff of pima county is an impious bastard, and is trying to fob this off on someone else. well, it is obvious. the bastard dropped the ball on this kid.
they have all kinds of complaints on the little threatening bastard, and they know that he is cuckoo for cocoa puffs & getting kicked out of classes, ... , hell, i think some sort of authority, either campus security or the sheriffs had to be called to haul him out of class because he was so disruptive.
and, he should have been a prime candidate to be hauled off to a mental health professional for evaluation.
and, don't let anyone ever tell you that shrinks/docs/mental health guys cannot pop you in. a dear friend of mine, a lawyer, got all goofy over a woman, his secretary and became obsessed over her, and then despondent and depressed because she wouldn't leave her husband and kids for him. he started threatening suicide. i called his family, told them what i was gonna do (didn't ask, just told 'em), and called his shrink, and i told the shrink, he's got a weapon, and he is fruit loops. (a technical term one picks up in law practice.)
the shrink called him. and said, your hear in 1/2 hour, or the mental health guys are coming to get you on my medical directive per the statute. kapish.
he went to see him.
the sheriff of pima county, or any of his deputies, or any mental health professional or any doctor or shrink in pima county could have done the very same thing. they could have hauled him into an "i.t.a." commitment hearing, and had a legal determination whether commitment and medical treatment could have been imposed, on the legal basis discussed above.
simple as that.
sarah palin is not responsible for those deaths. the law enforcement officials and the public health apparatus of pima county is responsible, if anyone is. in not accepting this, the sheriff of pima county is either in denial, or he is a corrupt cynical leftist politician taking advantage of a tragedy to advance his agenda, or both.
no doubt about it.
it is just as simple as that. hell, everybody in the county knew about it, and did nothing. i suspect out of deference to the fact that the kid's mother worked for the county, and was probably a well liked associate.
john jay
p.s. i will tell you one other thing which makes this doubly horrendous. i am not a clinician, but i have been around this kind of bullshit before.
and, i will bet you a bag of dimes, that jared loughner was on some pretty heavy duty medications in the time leading up to this, because of being fruitloops, and i base that upon his sort of giddy attitude during his mug shot, and his physical appearance. the tissues of his head are all swelled up, and his head looks like a melon that has swelled, in comparison to all of his other pictures that i have seen of him, even as little as a year or so ago.
he has undergone some major physiological changes such as are in my experience attributable to heavy doses of heavy duty meds.
even knowing what they knew to ethically prescribe this sort of stuff, somebody did not seek his commitment. and, so, he was able to buy and retain ownership of a weapon, and to purchase the ammunition for it.
this is something i suspect that the sheriff of pima county doesn't want looked into very much, and so, know the best "o"-fence is a good "d"-fence, the bastard went after sarah palin.
