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Yawn
Most likely an out of towner, possibly from the South. Sheriffs down there put homeless, mentally ill people on busses and send them north.
As long as Fast Eddie Rendell keeps slashing DPW, they'll be more and more on the streets.
Now with computers they can make all kinds of matches. Did they cross-check the birthdate the man gave when arrested in 2006?-Sept. 22, 1949. He may be more likely to remember a fake name than a fake birthday and may have given his own birthdate-this would help identify him if the looked at a national database. Also, the fact that we have such a large population of homeless shows how extensive this problem is and that we have not really done that well managing it. The fact that some places ship their homeless out is really low. These people need humane help and services. How we treat our vulnreable says alot about us as a country and society.
Sadly, we do follow the inadequate practices, although well intentioned, quoted in this article: "Hynicka knew this much about the homeless, especially those with mental illness: You don't force them to get help. You don't pressure. You wait patiently for them to act."
Our outdated Mental Health Procedures Act of 1976 allows this type of non-treatment to exist. However, if State Senator Greenleaf's proposed Senate Bill 251 were passed, then the homeless people and those who may have some type of shelter in Philadelphia and other areas of our state who have a severe mental illness and lack insight to seek and remain in treatment would be court ordered into treatment. In addition, a mental health provider would also be held responsible by the same court order to provide treatment.
We have approximately ten Community Treatment Teams in Philadelphia that should be used for these most severely ill citizens. Pennsylvania was ranked the second highest in funding for mental health services in our country by a National Alliance on Mental Illness Grading the States Report of 2006.
Perhaps it's time we take a good look at our state's mental health budget and find out which programs and services are being funded. If we are not interested in providing adequate funds to help those who are most vulnerable, which would certainly be those with a severe mental illness who are homeless, then enacting SB 251 would help by requiring our state OMHSAS to apply their funds to those who most desperately need the support of mental health services and programs.
Or, we can continue to “wait patiently” and read stories like this about our homeless citizens who die from gunshot or, as reported last winter in this paper, by freezing to death on our streets.
can you find me and id of proper usage
so what's the current news all about?
Any time we seek “help” from the state’s armed enforcers, we’re effectively inviting them to use lethal force.
Police shoot tasered drunk driver:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/41750.html#more-41750
He tripped an emergency call box 40 times and it took the police two and a half hours to investigate?
We need to close "Sherwood Forest." The role of public transit or public space is not to be a homeless crash pad for people avoiding the shelter system. It makes it impossible to go down there to use the subway. We need to expend the hours of use of the subway, but it's going to require resetting the expectation of a whole army of people that this is not their bedroom and bathroom. Groups that feed the homeless by drawing them on to the Ben Franklin Parkway are exacerbating the problem. The outreach centers need to be where these people have their resources, their families, their communities. That place is not Center City.
What WON'T boggert yawn at?
As sad as the plight of the homeless is, I don't want to see a law passed forcing these people into "treatment." The reason why involuntary commitment laws were made so stringent is because, back in the bad old days when it was easy to have someone declared insane and forced into "treatment," people used involuntary commitment laws as weapons against people who had NO mental illness at all. Parents who didn't like their kids' lifestyles had their kids committed (this was a common tactic used against gays and lesbians), people who wanted a divorce/child custody had their spouses declared "insane," and lots of people who wanted control of a relative's money had that relative declared "insane" so they could take all their stuff. These days, we don't hear about things like this happening because it is very difficult to have someone involuntarily committed...and it should be. Sure, some people (like this man) fall through the cracks, but I'd rather 1,000 insane people fall through the cracks than even one sane person have their life destroyed because they are the victim of a relative who wants them out of the way for some reason.
Digitalowl, They also used to "put away" menopausal women for getting on their husbands' nerves. But I truly disagree with you about your last sentence. Nowadays, if you are worried, truly worried, about a mentally ill relative or friend, you can 302 them, which means, I think, that they will be see by professionals and held for observation for 48 hours. Then, they are free to go unless the docs find that they ARE a danger to themselves or others.
Yes, you can still have a relative involuntarily committed, but the process is much more stringent than it was 30+ years ago. I type psych medical reports for a doctor's office in California. Out there, it's called being "5150'ed," and you have to do some *really* crazy things to get 5150'ed. Even telling a shrink you're thinking about suicide isn't enough; they have to prove you have definite intent, and that's hard to do unless you, say, barricade yourself in your house with a weapon, or climb onto a skyscraper or a bridge. Because it's so hard to 5150 people, some people who could use the help fall through the cracks. This is unfortunate; I feel terrible for the man in this article, who was obviously very ill, perhaps to the point where he could never have been expected to live independently. But since we are talking about imprisoning an individual and forcing them to take meds, the process should be rigorous.
As a side note, there's another issue to consider when talking about homeless people: while I'm sure there are some homeless people who have health insurance--some homeless people do have jobs--the overwhelming majority of them are uninsured. Therefore, they are less likely to seek treatment even if they DO want it. Psych meds are not cheap, and I don't even want to know how much a stay in a psych hospital costs. The homeless do not have insurance to pay for all this and--let's be realistic--the majority of Americans do NOT want to pay for someone else's healthcare, be it physical or mental care. The average American would rather people like this just kill themselves; they figure that "it's just someone who doesn't contribute anything," so they don't care, and they certainly don't want to spend the money to treat them.
Who is the homeless man killed by police in July?
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Why is the homeless man killed by police in July not pictured on-line?
Wouldn't it help to identify him if his picture was posted on internet version like it was on front page of Inquirer two days before article published, again with picture?
I'm a former homeless person living with a mental illness (bipolar), pose this question: could the policemen be charged with a hate crime/murder of a person living with a disability? Of course it was not law until signed by President Obama October 27, 2009 and PA's Hate Crime Legislation was reversed in the PA Supreme Court because of homophobic right wing thugs. But say the police killed him after signed into law; couldn't police officers be subject to being charged for a hate crime? I mean a box cutter v. two armed officers? Sounds like a hate crime to me! The legislation finally passed to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity AND disability - the thugs who had it reversed in PA will forever live in shamelessness...and I would add that "mbjogger Yawn" is sleepy and heartless!
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