Something very traumatic has happened to me, and I’m not sure what I need to do to take action for it. I worked for a company called West Corporation. I spoke to people on the phone concerning their homes going into foreclosure. I worked as a third party vendor with Bank of America. A situation arose where I had to go to human resources to rise up against someone that was causing me problems at work. This girl turned my friends against me at work, and had them to tell human resources that I was crazy. She actually threatened their job if they did not rise up against me. I eventually was fired from West Corporation, even though I was setting at my desk taking calls just because no one would take my side, and was afraid of losing their job if they didn’t rise up against me. They even had people go to human resources saying that I was sexually harassing them just for acting professional and polite. It got to the point where I couldn’t even look at anyone for fear of getting fired. After losing my job, I soon realized that this girl from West Corporation had one of her friends go up to the police department and advise them that I was crazy and going to harm other people. After getting a job working in a Daycare, I began to notice that the other workers were constantly talking about my rights being taken away, and how the Tulsa Police really won’t protect me over it. I advised them that I was a Criminal Justice student, and will finish my education when my finances will allow me to. Keisha was talking about me every day at work just because I did not want to move in with her. She even said that I was sexually harassing Ame, just because of jealousy, and spite. Ame even said that she liked me; Keisha became upset and created the problem from the very beginning. Keisha came to work saying that she made sex tapes of me while I was in the shower while thinking of Ame. This is how she convinced the police and half the world that I really sexually harassed Ame. Susan, my boss did fire Keisha soon after she confessed to making pornographic material of me. I remember saying that it is at least 10 years in the Penitentiary-and the police are not going after her. Keisha even told parents at the daycare I worked with that I was a pedophile, and should never be working around children. Keisha told one of the workers-Ms. Monica that if she hung out with me, then her child could be harmed over it. Tammie still had the police believing that I am a volatile person, and the daycare should just fire me because there is no hope for me anyway. Teresa, who is a friend of Keisha and Tammie from West Corporation, did go to a few churches that I have attended to let them know that I am Wiccan and not going to follow Christianity because of it. However, I know that Teresa lost her son due to drowning in a swimming pool. Because of it, Christians turned their back on her, and now she does not believe in God. Therefore, Teresa was upset when she found out Tammie and Keisha was going to get some Christian friends of mine to have me locked me up in a mental institution, and she became angry over it. It is Teresa’s issues that caused her to go up to churches I have attended and tell them personal information about me because of her own personal hate toward other Christians. I do have information on my computer about other religions, including Wiccan, Shaman, and the Muslim faith. Teresa knew that information because she was at my house stalking me, and she does not think I should believe in God because of how other Christians have also treated me over this situation. Tammie actually has convinced many Christians that because of my sexuality, I should be locked up for the rest of my life, and they wouldn’t want to pray for me because of my lifestyle, while Teresa is saying that she is stalking me because she really wants to be with me herself, while making the police believe that she can really read my mind. Tammie still would not let it go, and convinced the Tulsa Police that I am a crazy person who has no future in Criminal Justice, and that they really need to arrest me. Because Tammie’s friends are stalking me, this is how Tammie has been able to let the Police know what I am wearing every day, and where I am going every moment of the day. Tammie believes there are police censors in my house, and the police really want to poison me through the police censors. Tammie is making sure that I cannot find a job, and has even told other employers not to hire me right before I even walk through the door. My boss from the Daycare told one of the workers that a Tulsa Police Officer contacted her stating that there really isn’t a future and hope for me, even though I have 3 years going toward a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. Because the daycare was draining me, and I heard this being said about me every day, and the Tulsa Police Department not wanting to protect me, they cut my hours, and made up reasons why they wanted to fire me. Tammie even wanted the co-workers to starve me, and treat me like an ex-con, to cause me to be a violent person. I did not show up to work knowing that they could find a reason to have me locked up because I do work with children; they even made it look like I am abusing the children over it, all because the police has believed Tammie because she convinced them that I am going to become a serial killer, and that I have even tried to harm my mother. I would never do anything to harm anyone-especially my mother. Tammie has made me look like a person who would be considered crazy, so the Police would escort me to a mental institution or prison. If Tammie can make the whole world believe I am crazy, then the Police will have to lock me up and throw away the key. I don’t even have any charges against me, or warrants. Because no one would take my side at West, and Tammie calling the police on me every day for it, The Police have not taken action, even though I have submitted many previous police reports. I feel like hope has lost its meaning because my friends, family, and coworkers have turned against me over it, and many employers do not want to hire me because Tammie is having the Tulsa Police Department to call every potential employer to make them believe that there really is no future and hope for my life, and not to hire me. If I am homeless, with my family against me, then the police can arrest me. The crazy thing about this is situation is that I still have no criminal record, or charges against me. The police really cannot arrest me without probable cause. Because they are trying to make me go without a job, my life has been completely ruined. I have a background in Criminal Justice, and the police would rather listen to someone who does not know the laws, or the Constitution, including the amendments we live by. The first amendment is the freedom of religion, and the freedom of speech. Tammie
even tried to get my paycheck confiscated, so the police can escort me to a mental institution. I said that the 4th amendment rights are that you need a warrant before you can confiscate someone’s belonging in search and seizure-which means that Tammie does not have the right to contact my car lot to have my car confiscated if I don’t make a payment, or to contact my job to make sure that my boss will confiscate my paycheck by making my employer think I am running from the law. . This also means that Tammie cannot escort me to a mental institution legally without providing some kind of warrant. Tammie still had the daycare believe that because no one would fight for me at west, the police are going to allow her to have me shipped off to a mental institution, and told the daycare not to let me eat anything or drink anything while I am working there. Perhaps if they starve me, treat me like a fugitive; I will become violent toward them anyway. The 14th amendment rights is the due process clause that prohibits state and local governments from depriving a person of life, liberty, and fairness, and the Equal Protection Clause which requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people in its jurisdiction. This means that the police have to protect me by law, and no one has the right to intervene in my relationships, family, or personal business. I do have the choice who I want in my life, and these people that have been in the middle of my affairs don’t belong anywhere near my surroundings. Tammie even told the police to keep censors in my house just because I am a lesbian. I believe it is against my civil rights to discriminate against me for my sexuality and is not there business anyway. I do not believe that everyone I come into contact with thinks I am sexually harassing them. However, I do believe that Keisha and Tammie have convinced many people that I will sexually harass them just for being nice, polite, and kind to others. They have polluted kindness, fairness, and generosity to others into something that it is not to convince people that I did this to myself. The truth is that I have nothing to do with their issues, and they need to stay completely out of my business. The Tulsa Police department does not have the right to let them continue to harass me, but only to protect and serve the citizens in the residing area. I am not a fugitive, but a productive citizen that is working toward her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. I want to gain respect from my family and others around me, so I will become educated and well liked within my community. Respectfully,
Oh, thanks for the bigotry the ignorant assumptions that say that we're the cause of all the ugly violence that brings on Jim Crow laws for all that you are
Some of the people in this organization: http://psychrights.org/Education/ModelQuiTam/ModelQuiTam.htm claim that most of the mass shooting murderers were on antidepressants and other psychotropic medication at the time, and that those cause suicidal and murderous behavior. I don't know about that, but I do remember that most of the TV ads for such drugs warn of suicidal thoughts, especially in teenagers. And gun controllers only want to address guns? They don't want to find out and understand why some people are violent?
Every bigot is full of common sense - just ask one.
Guess what? I got a summons to appear for jury duty at the Tulsa County District Court. Or else.
Let me see if I have this right. This is the legal system that locked me up in the local loony bin for 66 days on the word of habitual liars, inside and outside of it. It includes: the Tulsa Police Department, which substituted prejudice for investigation, not bothering to interview my neighbors, to find out that I was being falsely accused by habitual liars; "witnesses" consisting solely of the employees and contractors of a mental health system full of "professionals" who add their own sense of personal drama and advantage to mental health evaluations to obtain captive patients for themselves and their institutions; a Mental Health Court Judge, part of this District Court, who filed false paper alleging that the local loony bin had the only available medical information; the same Judge who accepted what somebody said that somebody said that somebody said that I said as "clear and convincing evidence" and proven fact; the same Judge who refused to allow me to present a defense of my words and actions; Public Defenders who are unwilling or incapable of mounting a defense, neglecting to advise me of all my civil rights, including why I should have demanded a jury trial, and failing to utter a single objection, even to the use of third-hand hearsay as fact; a District Attorney's Office which mounts an offense in court like a Richard M. Nixon dirty tricks campaign; a State Attorney General, along with State licensing Boards, who defend all this as unaccountable "good faith performance of duty", with "absolute immunity" from any suit; and a State Supreme Court which, allegedly supervising the District Courts, wouldn't life a finger to change anything, much less respond to any complaint.
And now they want me to participate in it under penalty of contempt of court. What a hoot. I've named several of them including one of their Judges as Defendants in a Federal lawsuit. Contempt of court doesn't begin to describe my lack of faith and how I feel about it. I don't think anyone, guilty or innocent, could get a fair trial in their system of justice. It's so arbitrary, prejudiced and corrupt that you might as well roll dice.
Recently, I went to the place where I get management for depression and PTSD medications for a review of my "treatment plan". The case manager asks a lot of questions about how things are and what things have happened, and how good or bad do you think it is. At the end of the session, I got a synopsis of it, and a couple of surprises.
When the case manager asked me if I was having any legal troubles, I said that the petition to the Supreme Court of the U.S. that I've been working on for months has been very stressful and depressing. I had also related, as I have before, how Dad over-used Chlordane on the garden vegetables (back in the 1950s), and how everyone else in my family has had either Parkinson's or cancer. He never took precautions and had it in the garage up to at least 2000, about 17-20 years after it had been banned as too dangerous for any human contact. I'm waiting for my turn at cancer, and have had severe problems with irritability, a side-effect of Chlordane exposure, which is a potent neurotoxin and carcinogen, and is implicated in Parkinson's.
So I get the synopsis and I read these things: Legal system/crime (problems) - severe "He used to dose us all with Chloradine."
Wait a minute. I'm pursuing a civil lawsuit, not sitting on death row for a felony offense. And I don't recall saying those words about Dad's use of Chlordane. They sound like he either painted it on us or deliberately put it in the Kool-Aid. I objected and made him change them.
This illustrates a major failing of mental health care. It's practitioners either don't have or don't use any physical measurements; they base it entirely upon verbal descriptions of subjective judgments. And in that process, mental health professionals are inclined to add their own interpretations and drama, using what they often describe as "special insight".
Our lives suck bad enough without mental health professionals adding their own personal dramas. In scientific circles, it's not called "special insight"; it's called bias. Exaggerated statements like these are derogatory, discriminatory, and damaging by false incrimination. They can be used for legal excuses to take advantage of us. Which mental health professionals quite frequently do for their own purposes, to force treatment upon us, whether we need it or not. Especially at places like the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health, the Community Outreach Psychiatric Emergency Services and the Tulsa County Mental Health Court.
One thing stands out about the coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. That's the continued insistence of authorities that no one should jump to any conclusions, and start blaming people who had nothing to do with it. Even President Obama. And while that is the right thing to do, it stands in sharp contrast with the coverage of and reaction to the Sandy Hook shootings, where there is so little doubt in some quarters about blaming people who had nothing to do with it, that guilt by association is the rallying cry for legislation to punish and criminalize the activities of people who had nothing to do with it. If the two events were treated to exactly the same philosophy, there would now be outraged calls for legislation to control pressure cookers, in the name of those who died.
Bring the death penalty back to Mental Health Court!
According to Cornell law professor Sherry Colb, people with mental illnesses commit "violent acts" at a rate of 2 to 1 that of the general population. Blacks commit homicide at a rate of 8 to 1 compared to whites. Men commit homicide at a rate of 10 to 1 compared to women. Obviously any "violent act" by a person with a mental illness is equal to 4 to 5 homicides by anyone else. That must be why we are second-class citizens. It's a wonder that Mental Health Court doesn't have the death penalty.
I love you. Seriously. You are the wind beneath my wings. BUT you have got to stop with this uppity BS. You chose to be a thrift store not an antique store and there IS a difference. I know you think you have some priceless rare pyrex and trendy looking boots with fancy-ish brand names and you're tempted to slap a big price on them. But here's the thing, those items were donated just like all the other stuff. Antique stores get to assign value to their items because they were carefully selected and purchased. Let's remember what the definition of a thrift store really is and leave the price hiking to people paying for booth space over at the trading post.
No one seems to think emotional legislation through, ask what can go wrong, and how it can be prevented. So, suppose you're a woman who has been stalked, brutally raped and put into the hospital. Not only that, you don't know who attacked you and can provide no useful information to the police, because rapist used a mask, date-rape drug and/or blunt instrument to the head. You get out of the hospital, and not only is he still out there, but you are having terrible nightmares about it. You go to a psychiatrist for help, and start taking psychiatric medication to deal with the depression, anxiety and nightmares. And once you have healed physically, you start taking self-defense courses in both judo and firearms.
In the meantime, your stalker has plans for you. He starts phoning in anonymous tips that you have been making threats to any man who walks by. After all, you have been talking about buying a gun and defending yourself from attack. With a firearm, oh my. Which you can't effectively dispute, because you have largely withdrawn from society. The Police visit you asking questions. Or let's say that you tell your psychiatrist that you wish it was just all over with, without any specific plans to kill yourself.
Congratulations, under Oklahoma law you have now become a danger to yourself or others. Which the local thought police, otherwise known as the Community Outreach Psychiatric Emergency Services, are only too happy to certify. The police arrest you and drag you off to the local loony bin, the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health, which is only too happy to certify that you are paranoid and delusional, can't look after yourself, and direly need their services. You decline to voluntarily commit yourself because you are the victim and have done nothing wrong. Which, unknown to you, ensures that you will be involuntarily committed.
Either way, your name will now pop up in a universal background check as "dangerously mentally ill". When you try to buy the firearm you have trained to use, you are denied and the police are alerted. And your stalker-rapist? Well, he has plans for you, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it to stop him. What are you going to do, call the police? After they carted you off to be certified as dangerously delusional? Just imagine how well that's going to work.
May you never find your self in this kind of situation.
Kathy Taylor Makes Our City Work... three jobs to support her expensive, spoiled tastes.
Kathy Taylor Makes Our City Work... so she can have pretty things; that we cannot afford.
Imagine that the property taxes on your home were increased three to four hundred percent... imagine having to pay your new house payment.
Those people who owned buildings downtown -- many of them inherited from their families -- one of the great American dreams has always been to have something to pass on to your children so that their live might be better ...
Not so that Kathy Taylor can raise the taxes so high they cannot afford to keep them and they have to sell ... to support a baseball park.
Speaking of Forefathers... I am not good at history but I remember something about "taxation without representation... " and a "tea party".
Look at the Pearl District -- it is coming along fine -- by people doing business in a Democratic, Capitalistic, Laissez-faire fashion.
The Pearl has been slower coming along than the others spotlight locations but it has done so because people who owned that CHOOSE to hold on to the properties... and now they are CHOOSING to sell or improve...
The Dream is alive on 6th Street today... but it died in the area of the baseball field.. and Kathy Taylor is responsible...
There are plenty of people in this city who are operating on a pay as you go basis -- i.e. this amount is alloted for growth, "If I start now in x number of months I will be able to open this new business...Without being outrageously in debt. We have enough to buy the building, now we have enough to begin demolition... now we have enough to dry it in....
It is a nice baseball park, if you can keep from thinking of the pain and heartache that it cost so many people. It is a horrible sad place when you realize that it was built by strong arming so many good human beings.
I finished reading Tom Rob Smith's "Child 44" yesterday. It shows a lot of parallels between our mental health system and Soviet justice. Once the suspect was denounced as a threat to the Soviet State (dangerous to self or others), guilt (dangerousness) was presumed. The interrogation (mental health examination) was merely the means to expose that guilt (instability, delusion, grandiosity, paranoia, hallucinations, et cetera).
After which, there was no question of self defense. Once the interrogation (mental health examination) had been written on paper, its judgments became fact, which could not be questioned without bringing forbidden disrepute upon the State (of Oklahoma). After all, under Stalin it was better that 10 innocent men suffer (17 to 50 non-dangerous people be committed), than for one spy (dangerous person) to go free. The trial (commitment hearing) merely set the punishment (detention and "treatment"). In both cases, the prosecution provided all the experts that gave witness or testified, which were employees of the State (of Oklahoma). The defense attorney could only question them, if at all; no outside experts (the accused patient's doctors and psychiatrists of long-standing) were allowed.
So here we are in one of the most conservative states in the Union, with a special category of justice, modeled closely upon the Soviet system. Ain't irony grand?
I'm reading "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith, about an MGB State Policeman in the Soviet Union, where and when it was treason to voice doubt of the perfection of the State. On page 39, he kicks himself for forgetting the presumption of guilt, expressed by: "Better to let ten innocent men suffer than one spy escape."
Here in Oklahoma, as in many States, we do better than that with mental illness. We commit 17 to 50 harmless people to institutions for every dangerous person let go.
At best, I have trained as an engineer and scientist, not a lawyer, and am not able to decide which questions are necessary and sufficient for this case. I present the questions as concisely, precisely and comprehensively as my ability allows, but Clarence Earl Gideon’s five pages are considerably more elegant. I only know how to write academic research papers, which this petition resembles more than a legal brief.
In this bastion of freedom, there is one group, who by law and the grace of the Supreme Court of the United States, may be summarily jailed in the democratic equivalent of a communist re-education camp, not just for what we think or say, not just for what we might be thinking, not just for what someone fears we might be thinking, but on the mere false allegation that we have said or might think something that someone claims to make them afraid. For example, OSC 43A-1-103.18.c: “having placed another person or persons in a reasonable fear of violent behavior directed towards such person or persons or serious physical harm to them as manifested by serious and immediate threats”, which in practice requires no comprehensive or diligent investigation, sworn statements from accusers, cross-examination of accusers, or proof beyond second-hand hearsay, the “Third Party Statement” of someone who “swears” that an unsworn accuser said that one of us said something threatening. Besides which, every bigot is reasonable, just ask one.
And if someone should think that no one could or would ever take advantage of this to loot medical insurance, or circumvent an unprovable criminal case, or dispose of someone they don’t like, or merely prove their superiority over an unpopular minority, that lawyers will zealously defend us, or that courts will assiduously protect our civil rights, due process and equal protection under the law, then please give my warmest regards to his invisible friend, the six-foot pink rabbit.
The abused civil rights of a whole minority raise as many questions as previous civil rights issues. Many of the most far-reaching are presented first, in critique of this Court’s previous mental health decisions. This Court has long treated people with mental health issues with a broad and suspicious brush, painting us into a second-class status with a double standard of justice, where we are dangerous until proven otherwise, upon any mere allegation[1]. This, despite decades of previous medical and legal research to the contrary[2], and more current information[3] showing that only political power and correctness keeps other subgroups, who are statistically several times “more dangerous”, from being treated to the same double standard of justice.
Whether it’s killing civilians in Viet Nam, because “they don’t value human life like we do”, or justifying slavery because “they just aren’t capable of caring for themselves like us”, or because black males were considered to be natural sexual predators, or zapping an autistic child into catatonia[4], humans make excuses for all kinds of evil, claiming that “those other people just don’t think like we do”. Almost every culture and religion has some history of sanctimonious violence towards other cultures and religions that they consider(ed) to be threatening, warped, perverted and deserving of subjugation or death. So too, with those of us who have less power to object, and have already been damaged[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] by abuse, assault, traumas, or an unfortunate role of genetic dice.
Ironically, where other groups, from black rappers to white militias[12], may speak violence with impunity, with the full protection of the Courts and the First Amendment, this Court empowers legislatures to hold people with mental illnesses to an extra-legal, special standard of restriction, and to punish any imagined “inappropriate communication”[13] with a “massive curtailment of liberty”[14] under the color of law and medicine, masquerading as “treatment”.
This Court's overly-broad mental health criteria[15] subsequently empowered psychiatric hospitals to initiate a series of insurance scams[16] [17] [18] [19] [20]. In which ordinary, innocent people, without any criminal history or even mental illness, were committed involuntarily under duress, or dragged in off the street by bounty-paid, Gestapo-like, psychiatric goon squads, on any mere suspicion or allegation, so that their mental health insurance benefits could be drained for the hospitals' profits. In the State of Texas alone, these scams and kidnappings damaged the lives of tens of thousands of people, down to babies one year old[21]. In the U.S. Military CHAMPUS health system alone, they drained hundreds of millions of dollars in unjustified medical expenses.
Laden and Schwartz[22] have detailed how, after this Court embraced them, popular myths about psychiatric disabilities subsequently gave rise to a consulting industry for identifying employees with a “potential of violence in the workplace”. Its non-scientific profiling merely identified anyone with psychiatric symptoms, after which the Courts nullified accommodation of disability on the basis of “reasonable fears” of threat. Which neatly deprives such unemployed people of the economic power to afford lawyers and bring suit.
While the Houston Chronicle took over forty articles in its “Profitable Addictions” series of articles to document psychiatric scams in Texas, this Court expects it all to be explained in less than forty pages[23], and thus far refuses to see the overly-broad and horrific consequences of its errors. I will do what I can, but this goes to the bone for me; I am not qualified to write this section the way the Court may expect.
[1] The practical and current application of Oklahoma State Code, Title 43A, Part 1-103. Definitions, mandating “treatment” for anyone who is mentally ill and “having placed another person … in a reasonable fear of violent behavior”, without any further investigation, sworn testimony of those alleging to be threatened, interviews of witnesses to the contrary, or objections even to hearsay from any “public defender”.
[2] Monahan, John, circa 1980. The Clinical Prediction of Violent Behavior, 1995 softcover ed., Jason Aronson, Inc., Northvale, NJ & London, 134 p., over 200 references from 1922-1979. {John S. Shannon Distinguished Professor of Law Horace W. Goldsmith Research Professor of Law Professor of Psychology and Psychiatric Medicine, University of Virginia School of Law}
[3] Colb, Sherry F., Aug 10, 2011, Armed and Crazy: Should Mentally Ill People Be Permitted to Own Firearms?, Justia.com {Justia columnist, Professor of Law and Charles Evans Hughes Scholar at Cornell University}
[4] 2002, autistic, 18-year-old Andre McCollins was shocked 31 times over a seven-hour period at the Judge Rotenberg Center for children with developmental difficulties (see http://www.cchrflorida.org/blog/electric-shocks-are-inhumane-and-barbaric/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlJ10qnrfl4&)
[5] McFarlane etal, 2006, Prevalence of vicimization, posttraumatic stress disorder and violent behavior behavior in the seriously mentally ill, Aust N Z J Psychiatry, 2006 Nov-Dec, 40(11-12):1010
[6] Saleptsi, etal, 2004, Negative and positive childhood experiences acress developmental periods in psychiatric patients with different diagnoses – an exploratory study, BMC Psychiatry, 2004 Nov 26, 4:40
[7] Sansone, et al., 2006, Childhood trauma, borderline personality symptomatology, and psychophysiological and pain disorders in adulthood, Psychosomatics 47:2, March-April 2006
[8] Teicher, et al., 2006, Sticks, stones and hurtful words: relative effects of various forms of childhood maltreatment, Am J Psychiatry, 2006 Jun, 163(6):993-1000
[9] Teplin, et al., 2005, Crime victimization in adults with severe mental illness: Comparison with the National Crime Victimization Survey, Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2005 August, 62(8):911-921
[10] Widom, Cathy Spatz, Ph.D., 1999, Posttraumatic stress disorder in abuse and neglected children grown up, Am J Psychiatry 1999, 156:1223-1229
[11] McNally, et al., Does early psychological intervention promote recovery from posttraumatic stress?, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4(2):45-79
[12] Hutaree militia in U.S.A v. Stone, et al., Fed. Dist. Ct. MIED, 2:10-cr-20123-VAR-PJK, 3/27/2012
[13] Licensed Professional Counselor Julie King, ODMHSAS Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health, Aug 2010
[14] Humphrey v. Cady, 405 U.S. 504 (1972)
[15] Including in: O’Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563 (1975), Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418 (1979), Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454 (1981) Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210 (1990), and especially Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880 (1983)
[16] Smith, Mark, staff writer, 1990s“ Profitable Addictions” series, Houston Chronicle; over 40 articles in the 1990s. Copies of these sources have been filed with the Honorable Justice Sotomayor on CD-ROM, and rejected, which the Court should consider changing its Rules to accept.
[17] Kerr, Peter, April 29, 1992, Government review finds 64% of psychiatric hospital stays aren’t needed, New York Times News Service
[18] Boodman, Sandra, May 08, 1992, Ads for Psychiatric Hosptials Come Under Attack, The Washington Post
[19] Sileo, Chi Chi, Jan 24, 1994, Rip-off depress mental health care – fraud in psychiatric hospital practices, Insight on the News
[20] Nadler, Art, Jan 24, 1998, Several claim they’ve been hospitalized against their will, Las Vegas Sun
[21] Smith, Mark, 1993. PROFITABLE ADDICTIONS/Doctor who triggered probe claims he's scapegoat; MARK SMITH Staff; SUN 07/18/1993 HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section State, Page 1, 2 STAR Edition; “Health Department records show that in the most recent fiscal year, the early screening program paid for 3,339 people under age 21 to be treated in private psychiatric hospitals. That included 205 children from ages 1 to 5. … "I can think of almost no circumstances where a 2-year-old should be in a psychiatric hospital. That's been a problem and I think the state recognizes that," said Dr. Mike McKinney”
[22] Laden, Vicki A. & Schwartz, Gregory, 2000, Psychiatric disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the new workplace violence account, Berkeley J. of Empl & Labor Law, 21:246-270
A long time ago, when I was a lot younger and better looking, I used to work at the National Space Technology Laboratory (NSTL) in Mississippi. Old Senator John Stennis had porked it through Congress to provide a place for NASA to test its space shuttle and huge rocket engines. It was so large, it had its own ZIP code; NTSL MS 39529. It had other major laboratories, like the National Atmospheric and Oceanography Administration Data Buoy Office and the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Laboratory, as well as their supporting contractors. About 13,500 acres in all, and around all that, 125,000 acres of "acoustic buffer zone".
I remember someone telling me that when it was built, they moved everyone out of their homes in the buffer zone, and tore down any structure that had walls. It hit the old people the worst. The Government uprooted people who had been living in their homes most or all of their lives. Some of the old people filled with so much sorrow, they died. You might think they could have found a compromise. After all, it is was really going to be so loud that no one could live there, how could anyone have worked at the laboratories?
I had nothing to say in forcing Mom out of her home. No one listens to me, including her. Plenty of old people in the retirement apartments where I once lived had visiting care. Some has oxygen bottles, or power chairs, or had come there for hospice. Dad died at home. Other than my sibling's insistence, there was no real reason why Mom couldn't have lived well to the end of her days in her own home.
Now I wonder about the ultimate effect on her. My sister-in-law tells me that Mom isn't eating and drinking enough. And she used to brag about how many glasses of water a day she drank. Aunt Gladys died in a nursing home with terribly painful arthritis. In spite of the pain, she hung on until Uncle Charlie died, of pneumonia I think. Then she stopped drinking, and went in a few days. Dad went the same way, by prior arrangement, when Parkinson's deprived him of the ability to swallow.
Deciding what is best for someone else, particularly when they don't really agree, doesn't always produce the intended effects. Mom has spoken about how she doesn't want to live to be a hundred. She could easily decide simply to stop trying and slip away.
My Father never lost his temper. No, that was always someone else's responsibility - it was something we just did to ourselves. Recently I reminded Mom about the time that he took me out behind the house, cut a willow switch and horsewhipped me. I was about five, give or take a year. She excused him because that's the way that his god-fearing parents treated him. And, "He just did that because you didn't come when he called." I may have hung up on her. I certainly felt like it.
That's when it started. From then on I only deserved to be whipped, shunned, threatened and cut down. Oh, he provided the necessities of life, food, clothing and shelter. He just couldn't love, the thing I wanted most. Mom has never been able to understand why I tried to kill myself, back when I was 17 and 23. She just can't understand how anyone could think that way. But then, I never saw him whip her or scream in her face. That was just my problem. And she never said boo about it.
Not long ago, she was crying to me about how much it hurts her that her family (children, he's dead now) can't get along. Then she goes and does something that just sticks a knife in and twists. She told me that she can't see me Sunday afternoon because she's going over to my brother's house to celebrate Easter and his daughter-in-law's birthday. She always tells me when she can't see me because of the family affairs where I'm not invited.
I could say how that makes me feel, but you have to be careful. Say that the wrong way in the wrong place, and some jackleg psychiatrist, who is glad to tell you that you're just not "self aware" like she is, will get you committed in the local Kangaroo Kounty Kourt, and keep you until you're ready to thank her for "saving" you. As if that could possibly heal the grief. Which family is always so thoughtful to keep alive and fresh.
No, there's nothing like the love of a Christian family. It's like absolutely, positively,
If anyone thinks that Jim Crow laws, kangaroo courts and sanctimonious behavior modification will keep the tiny minority of people with mental illnesses who kill others from doing harm, especially with firearms, they will be tragically disappointed. You can't solve problems by blaming and punishing anyone and everyone who seems to fit the bill. As Justice Brandies said in Whitney v. California 274 U.S. 357 (1927), “Men feared witches and burned women.” Back when women were as powerless as those with mental illnesses are today.
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Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
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Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
Something very traumatic has happened to me, and I’m not sure what I need to do to take action for it. I worked for a company called West Corporation. I spoke to people on the phone concerning their homes going into foreclosure. I worked as a third party vendor with Bank of America. A situation arose where I had to go to human resources to rise up against someone that was causing me problems at work. This girl turned my friends against me at work, and had them to tell human resources that I was crazy. She actually threatened their job if they did not rise up against me. I eventually was fired from West Corporation, even though I was setting at my desk taking calls just because no one would take my side, and was afraid of losing their job if they didn’t rise up against me. They even had people go to human resources saying that I was sexually harassing them just for acting professional and polite. It got to the point where I couldn’t even look at anyone for fear of getting fired. After losing my job, I soon realized that this girl from West Corporation had one of her friends go up to the police department and advise them that I was crazy and going to harm other people. After getting a job working in a Daycare, I began to notice that the other workers were constantly talking about my rights being taken away, and how the Tulsa Police really won’t protect me over it. I advised them that I was a Criminal Justice student, and will finish my education when my finances will allow me to.
Keisha was talking about me every day at work just because I did not want to move in with her. She even said that I was sexually harassing Ame, just because of jealousy, and spite. Ame even said that she liked me; Keisha became upset and created the problem from the very beginning. Keisha came to work saying that she made sex tapes of me while I was in the shower while thinking of Ame. This is how she convinced the police and half the world that I really sexually harassed Ame. Susan, my boss did fire Keisha soon after she confessed to making pornographic material of me. I remember saying that it is at least 10 years in the Penitentiary-and the police are not going after her. Keisha even told parents at the daycare I worked with that I was a pedophile, and should never be working around children. Keisha told one of the workers-Ms. Monica that if she hung out with me, then her child could be harmed over it. Tammie still had the police believing that I am a volatile person, and the daycare should just fire me because there is no hope for me anyway.
Teresa, who is a friend of Keisha and Tammie from West Corporation, did go to a few churches that I have attended to let them know that I am Wiccan and not going to follow Christianity because of it. However, I know that Teresa lost her son due to drowning in a swimming pool. Because of it, Christians turned their back on her, and now she does not believe in God. Therefore, Teresa was upset when she found out Tammie and Keisha was going to get some Christian friends of mine to have me locked me up in a mental institution, and she became angry over it. It is Teresa’s issues that caused her to go up to churches I have attended and tell them personal information about me because of her own personal hate toward other Christians. I do have information on my computer about other religions, including Wiccan, Shaman, and the Muslim faith. Teresa knew that information because she was at my house stalking me, and she does not think I should believe in God because of how other Christians have also treated me over this situation. Tammie actually has convinced many Christians that because of my sexuality, I should be locked up for the rest of my life, and they wouldn’t want to pray for me because of my lifestyle, while Teresa is saying that she is stalking me because she really wants to be with me herself, while making the police believe that she can really read my mind.
Tammie still would not let it go, and convinced the Tulsa Police that I am a crazy person who has no future in Criminal Justice, and that they really need to arrest me. Because Tammie’s friends are stalking me, this is how Tammie has been able to let the Police know what I am wearing every day, and where I am going every moment of the day. Tammie believes there are police censors in my house, and the police really want to poison me through the police censors.
Tammie is making sure that I cannot find a job, and has even told other employers not to hire me right before I even walk through the door. My boss from the Daycare told one of the workers that a Tulsa Police Officer contacted her stating that there really isn’t a future and hope for me, even though I have 3 years going toward a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. Because the daycare was draining me, and I heard this being said about me every day, and the Tulsa Police Department not wanting to protect me, they cut my hours, and made up reasons why they wanted to fire me. Tammie even wanted the co-workers to starve me, and treat me like an ex-con, to cause me to be a violent person. I did not show up to work knowing that they could find a reason to have me locked up because I do work with children; they even made it look like I am abusing the children over it, all because the police has believed Tammie because she convinced them that I am going to become a serial killer, and that I have even tried to harm my mother. I would never do anything to harm anyone-especially my mother.
Tammie has made me look like a person who would be considered crazy, so the Police would escort me to a mental institution or prison. If Tammie can make the whole world believe I am crazy, then the Police will have to lock me up and throw away the key. I don’t even have any charges against me, or warrants. Because no one would take my side at West, and Tammie calling the police on me every day for it, The Police have not taken action, even though I have submitted many previous police reports. I feel like hope has lost its meaning because my friends, family, and coworkers have turned against me over it, and many employers do not want to hire me because Tammie is having the Tulsa Police Department to call every potential employer to make them believe that there really is no future and hope for my life, and not to hire me. If I am homeless, with my family against me, then the police can arrest me. The crazy thing about this is situation is that I still have no criminal record, or charges against me. The police really cannot arrest me without probable cause. Because they are trying to make me go without a job, my life has been completely ruined. I have a background in Criminal Justice, and the police would rather listen to someone who does not know the laws, or the Constitution, including the amendments we live by. The first amendment is the freedom of religion, and the freedom of speech. Tammie
even tried to get my paycheck confiscated, so the police can escort me to a mental institution. I said that the 4th amendment rights are that you need a warrant before you can confiscate someone’s belonging in search and seizure-which means that Tammie does not have the right to contact my car lot to have my car confiscated if I don’t make a payment, or to contact my job to make sure that my boss will confiscate my paycheck by making my employer think I am running from the law. . This also means that Tammie cannot escort me to a mental institution legally without providing some kind of warrant. Tammie still had the daycare believe that because no one would fight for me at west, the police are going to allow her to have me shipped off to a mental institution, and told the daycare not to let me eat anything or drink anything while I am working there. Perhaps if they starve me, treat me like a fugitive; I will become violent toward them anyway.
The 14th amendment rights is the due process clause that prohibits state and local governments from depriving a person of life, liberty, and fairness, and the Equal Protection Clause which requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people in its jurisdiction. This means that the police have to protect me by law, and no one has the right to intervene in my relationships, family, or personal business. I do have the choice who I want in my life, and these people that have been in the middle of my affairs don’t belong anywhere near my surroundings. Tammie even told the police to keep censors in my house just because I am a lesbian. I believe it is against my civil rights to discriminate against me for my sexuality and is not there business anyway.
I do not believe that everyone I come into contact with thinks I am sexually harassing them. However, I do believe that Keisha and Tammie have convinced many people that I will sexually harass them just for being nice, polite, and kind to others. They have polluted kindness, fairness, and generosity to others into something that it is not to convince people that I did this to myself. The truth is that I have nothing to do with their issues, and they need to stay completely out of my business. The Tulsa Police department does not have the right to let them continue to harass me, but only to protect and serve the citizens in the residing area. I am not a fugitive, but a productive citizen that is working toward her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. I want to gain respect from my family and others around me, so I will become educated and well liked within my community.
Respectfully,
Toshia Kenyon
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
the exclusions from employment
from all productive work
to satisfy the fears of
all the hateful jerks
for all that you are
Oh, thanks for the bigotry
the fact of false imprisonment
in the local loony bin
'cause standing up to you
is patently a sin
for all that you are
Oh, thanks for the bigotry
the denials of due process
in your District Courts
in the secret sessions
where lying is a sport
for all that you are
Oh, thanks for the bigotry
the mushy psuedo-science
of psychiatry
where everything we say
is proof of fantasy
for all that you are
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
Oh, thanks for the bigotry
the ignorant assumptions
that say that we're the cause
of all the ugly violence
that brings on Jim Crow laws
for all that you are
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
Some of the people in this organization:
http://psychrights.org/Education/ModelQuiTam/ModelQuiTam.htm
claim that most of the mass shooting murderers were on antidepressants and other psychotropic medication at the time, and that those cause suicidal and murderous behavior. I don't know about that, but I do remember that most of the TV ads for such drugs warn of suicidal thoughts, especially in teenagers. And gun controllers only want to address guns? They don't want to find out and understand why some people are violent?
Every bigot is full of common sense - just ask one.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
only in Oklahoma
Guess what? I got a summons to appear for jury duty at the Tulsa County District Court. Or else.
Let me see if I have this right. This is the legal system that locked me up in the local loony bin for 66 days on the word of habitual liars, inside and outside of it. It includes:
the Tulsa Police Department, which substituted prejudice for investigation, not bothering to interview my neighbors, to find out that I was being falsely accused by habitual liars;
"witnesses" consisting solely of the employees and contractors of a mental health system full of "professionals" who add their own sense of personal drama and advantage to mental health evaluations to obtain captive patients for themselves and their institutions;
a Mental Health Court Judge, part of this District Court, who filed false paper alleging that the local loony bin had the only available medical information;
the same Judge who accepted what somebody said that somebody said that somebody said that I said as "clear and convincing evidence" and proven fact;
the same Judge who refused to allow me to present a defense of my words and actions;
Public Defenders who are unwilling or incapable of mounting a defense, neglecting to advise me of all my civil rights, including why I should have demanded a jury trial, and failing to utter a single objection, even to the use of third-hand hearsay as fact;
a District Attorney's Office which mounts an offense in court like a Richard M. Nixon dirty tricks campaign;
a State Attorney General, along with State licensing Boards, who defend all this as unaccountable "good faith performance of duty", with "absolute immunity" from any suit;
and a State Supreme Court which, allegedly supervising the District Courts, wouldn't life a finger to change anything, much less respond to any complaint.
And now they want me to participate in it under penalty of contempt of court. What a hoot. I've named several of them including one of their Judges as Defendants in a Federal lawsuit. Contempt of court doesn't begin to describe my lack of faith and how I feel about it. I don't think anyone, guilty or innocent, could get a fair trial in their system of justice. It's so arbitrary, prejudiced and corrupt that you might as well roll dice.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
That President Obama now sports a new tee shirt that says:
Pressure Cookers
Don't Kill People
People Kill People
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
Recently, I went to the place where I get management for depression and PTSD medications for a review of my "treatment plan". The case manager asks a lot of questions about how things are and what things have happened, and how good or bad do you think it is. At the end of the session, I got a synopsis of it, and a couple of surprises.
When the case manager asked me if I was having any legal troubles, I said that the petition to the Supreme Court of the U.S. that I've been working on for months has been very stressful and depressing. I had also related, as I have before, how Dad over-used Chlordane on the garden vegetables (back in the 1950s), and how everyone else in my family has had either Parkinson's or cancer. He never took precautions and had it in the garage up to at least 2000, about 17-20 years after it had been banned as too dangerous for any human contact. I'm waiting for my turn at cancer, and have had severe problems with irritability, a side-effect of Chlordane exposure, which is a potent neurotoxin and carcinogen, and is implicated in Parkinson's.
So I get the synopsis and I read these things:
Legal system/crime (problems) - severe
"He used to dose us all with Chloradine."
Wait a minute. I'm pursuing a civil lawsuit, not sitting on death row for a felony offense. And I don't recall saying those words about Dad's use of Chlordane. They sound like he either painted it on us or deliberately put it in the Kool-Aid. I objected and made him change them.
This illustrates a major failing of mental health care. It's practitioners either don't have or don't use any physical measurements; they base it entirely upon verbal descriptions of subjective judgments. And in that process, mental health professionals are inclined to add their own interpretations and drama, using what they often describe as "special insight".
Our lives suck bad enough without mental health professionals adding their own personal dramas. In scientific circles, it's not called "special insight"; it's called bias. Exaggerated statements like these are derogatory, discriminatory, and damaging by false incrimination. They can be used for legal excuses to take advantage of us. Which mental health professionals quite frequently do for their own purposes, to force treatment upon us, whether we need it or not. Especially at places like the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health, the Community Outreach Psychiatric Emergency Services and the Tulsa County Mental Health Court.
That's unethical, and it has to stop.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
One thing stands out about the coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. That's the continued insistence of authorities that no one should jump to any conclusions, and start blaming people who had nothing to do with it. Even President Obama. And while that is the right thing to do, it stands in sharp contrast with the coverage of and reaction to the Sandy Hook shootings, where there is so little doubt in some quarters about blaming people who had nothing to do with it, that guilt by association is the rallying cry for legislation to punish and criminalize the activities of people who had nothing to do with it. If the two events were treated to exactly the same philosophy, there would now be outraged calls for legislation to control pressure cookers, in the name of those who died.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
According to Cornell law professor Sherry Colb, people with mental illnesses commit "violent acts" at a rate of 2 to 1 that of the general population. Blacks commit homicide at a rate of 8 to 1 compared to whites. Men commit homicide at a rate of 10 to 1 compared to women. Obviously any "violent act" by a person with a mental illness is equal to 4 to 5 homicides by anyone else. That must be why we are second-class citizens. It's a wonder that Mental Health Court doesn't have the death penalty.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
Dear thrift stores,
I love you. Seriously. You are the wind beneath my wings. BUT you have got to stop with this uppity BS. You chose to be a thrift store not an antique store and there IS a difference. I know you think you have some priceless rare pyrex and trendy looking boots with fancy-ish brand names and you're tempted to slap a big price on them. But here's the thing, those items were donated just like all the other stuff. Antique stores get to assign value to their items because they were carefully selected and purchased. Let's remember what the definition of a thrift store really is and leave the price hiking to people paying for booth space over at the trading post.
Sincerely and passionately yours,
KRJ
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
No one seems to think emotional legislation through, ask what can go wrong, and how it can be prevented. So, suppose you're a woman who has been stalked, brutally raped and put into the hospital. Not only that, you don't know who attacked you and can provide no useful information to the police, because rapist used a mask, date-rape drug and/or blunt instrument to the head. You get out of the hospital, and not only is he still out there, but you are having terrible nightmares about it. You go to a psychiatrist for help, and start taking psychiatric medication to deal with the depression, anxiety and nightmares. And once you have healed physically, you start taking self-defense courses in both judo and firearms.
In the meantime, your stalker has plans for you. He starts phoning in anonymous tips that you have been making threats to any man who walks by. After all, you have been talking about buying a gun and defending yourself from attack. With a firearm, oh my. Which you can't effectively dispute, because you have largely withdrawn from society. The Police visit you asking questions. Or let's say that you tell your psychiatrist that you wish it was just all over with, without any specific plans to kill yourself.
Congratulations, under Oklahoma law you have now become a danger to yourself or others. Which the local thought police, otherwise known as the Community Outreach Psychiatric Emergency Services, are only too happy to certify. The police arrest you and drag you off to the local loony bin, the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health, which is only too happy to certify that you are paranoid and delusional, can't look after yourself, and direly need their services. You decline to voluntarily commit yourself because you are the victim and have done nothing wrong. Which, unknown to you, ensures that you will be involuntarily committed.
Either way, your name will now pop up in a universal background check as "dangerously mentally ill". When you try to buy the firearm you have trained to use, you are denied and the police are alerted. And your stalker-rapist? Well, he has plans for you, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it to stop him. What are you going to do, call the police? After they carted you off to be certified as dangerously delusional? Just imagine how well that's going to work.
May you never find your self in this kind of situation.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
Kathy Taylor Makes Our City Work... so she can have pretty things; that we cannot afford.
Imagine that the property taxes on your home were increased three to four hundred percent... imagine having to pay your new house payment.
Those people who owned buildings downtown -- many of them inherited from their families -- one of the great American dreams has always been to have something to pass on to your children so that their live might be better ...
Not so that Kathy Taylor can raise the taxes so high they cannot afford to keep them and they have to sell ... to support a baseball park.
Speaking of Forefathers... I am not good at history but I remember something about "taxation without representation... " and a "tea party".
Look at the Pearl District -- it is coming along fine -- by people doing business in a Democratic, Capitalistic, Laissez-faire fashion.
The Pearl has been slower coming along than the others spotlight locations but it has done so because people who owned that CHOOSE to hold on to the properties... and now they are CHOOSING to sell or improve...
The Dream is alive on 6th Street today... but it died in the area of the baseball field.. and Kathy Taylor is responsible...
There are plenty of people in this city who are operating on a pay as you go basis -- i.e. this amount is alloted for growth, "If I start now in x number of months I will be able to open this new business...Without being outrageously in debt. We have enough to buy the building, now we have enough to begin demolition... now we have enough to dry it in....
It is a nice baseball park, if you can keep from thinking of the pain and heartache that it cost so many people. It is a horrible sad place when you realize that it was built by strong arming so many good human beings.
Kathy needs a Buddah style Epiphany...
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
I finished reading Tom Rob Smith's "Child 44" yesterday. It shows a lot of parallels between our mental health system and Soviet justice. Once the suspect was denounced as a threat to the Soviet State (dangerous to self or others), guilt (dangerousness) was presumed. The interrogation (mental health examination) was merely the means to expose that guilt (instability, delusion, grandiosity, paranoia, hallucinations, et cetera).
After which, there was no question of self defense. Once the interrogation (mental health examination) had been written on paper, its judgments became fact, which could not be questioned without bringing forbidden disrepute upon the State (of Oklahoma). After all, under Stalin it was better that 10 innocent men suffer (17 to 50 non-dangerous people be committed), than for one spy (dangerous person) to go free. The trial (commitment hearing) merely set the punishment (detention and "treatment"). In both cases, the prosecution provided all the experts that gave witness or testified, which were employees of the State (of Oklahoma). The defense attorney could only question them, if at all; no outside experts (the accused patient's doctors and psychiatrists of long-standing) were allowed.
So here we are in one of the most conservative states in the Union, with a special category of justice, modeled closely upon the Soviet system. Ain't irony grand?
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
I'm reading "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith, about an MGB State Policeman in the Soviet Union, where and when it was treason to voice doubt of the perfection of the State. On page 39, he kicks himself for forgetting the presumption of guilt, expressed by:
"Better to let ten innocent men suffer than one spy escape."
Here in Oklahoma, as in many States, we do better than that with mental illness. We commit 17 to 50 harmless people to institutions for every dangerous person let go.
Ain't irony grand?
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
At best, I have trained as an engineer and scientist, not a lawyer, and am not able to decide which questions are necessary and sufficient for this case. I present the questions as concisely, precisely and comprehensively as my ability allows, but Clarence Earl Gideon’s five pages are considerably more elegant. I only know how to write academic research papers, which this petition resembles more than a legal brief.
In this bastion of freedom, there is one group, who by law and the grace of the Supreme Court of the United States, may be summarily jailed in the democratic equivalent of a communist re-education camp, not just for what we think or say, not just for what we might be thinking, not just for what someone fears we might be thinking, but on the mere false allegation that we have said or might think something that someone claims to make them afraid. For example, OSC 43A-1-103.18.c: “having placed another person or persons in a reasonable fear of violent behavior directed towards such person or persons or serious physical harm to them as manifested by serious and immediate threats”, which in practice requires no comprehensive or diligent investigation, sworn statements from accusers, cross-examination of accusers, or proof beyond second-hand hearsay, the “Third Party Statement” of someone who “swears” that an unsworn accuser said that one of us said something threatening. Besides which, every bigot is reasonable, just ask one.
And if someone should think that no one could or would ever take advantage of this to loot medical insurance, or circumvent an unprovable criminal case, or dispose of someone they don’t like, or merely prove their superiority over an unpopular minority, that lawyers will zealously defend us, or that courts will assiduously protect our civil rights, due process and equal protection under the law, then please give my warmest regards to his invisible friend, the six-foot pink rabbit.
The abused civil rights of a whole minority raise as many questions as previous civil rights issues. Many of the most far-reaching are presented first, in critique of this Court’s previous mental health decisions. This Court has long treated people with mental health issues with a broad and suspicious brush, painting us into a second-class status with a double standard of justice, where we are dangerous until proven otherwise, upon any mere allegation[1]. This, despite decades of previous medical and legal research to the contrary[2], and more current information[3] showing that only political power and correctness keeps other subgroups, who are statistically several times “more dangerous”, from being treated to the same double standard of justice.
Whether it’s killing civilians in Viet Nam, because “they don’t value human life like we do”, or justifying slavery because “they just aren’t capable of caring for themselves like us”, or because black males were considered to be natural sexual predators, or zapping an autistic child into catatonia[4], humans make excuses for all kinds of evil, claiming that “those other people just don’t think like we do”. Almost every culture and religion has some history of sanctimonious violence towards other cultures and religions that they consider(ed) to be threatening, warped, perverted and deserving of subjugation or death. So too, with those of us who have less power to object, and have already been damaged[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] by abuse, assault, traumas, or an unfortunate role of genetic dice.
Ironically, where other groups, from black rappers to white militias[12], may speak violence with impunity, with the full protection of the Courts and the First Amendment, this Court empowers legislatures to hold people with mental illnesses to an extra-legal, special standard of restriction, and to punish any imagined “inappropriate communication”[13] with a “massive curtailment of liberty”[14] under the color of law and medicine, masquerading as “treatment”.
This Court's overly-broad mental health criteria[15] subsequently empowered psychiatric hospitals to initiate a series of insurance scams[16] [17] [18] [19] [20]. In which ordinary, innocent people, without any criminal history or even mental illness, were committed involuntarily under duress, or dragged in off the street by bounty-paid, Gestapo-like, psychiatric goon squads, on any mere suspicion or allegation, so that their mental health insurance benefits could be drained for the hospitals' profits. In the State of Texas alone, these scams and kidnappings damaged the lives of tens of thousands of people, down to babies one year old[21]. In the U.S. Military CHAMPUS health system alone, they drained hundreds of millions of dollars in unjustified medical expenses.
Laden and Schwartz[22] have detailed how, after this Court embraced them, popular myths about psychiatric disabilities subsequently gave rise to a consulting industry for identifying employees with a “potential of violence in the workplace”. Its non-scientific profiling merely identified anyone with psychiatric symptoms, after which the Courts nullified accommodation of disability on the basis of “reasonable fears” of threat. Which neatly deprives such unemployed people of the economic power to afford lawyers and bring suit.
While the Houston Chronicle took over forty articles in its “Profitable Addictions” series of articles to document psychiatric scams in Texas, this Court expects it all to be explained in less than forty pages[23], and thus far refuses to see the overly-broad and horrific consequences of its errors. I will do what I can, but this goes to the bone for me; I am not qualified to write this section the way the Court may expect.
[1] The practical and current application of Oklahoma State Code, Title 43A, Part 1-103. Definitions, mandating “treatment” for anyone who is mentally ill and “having placed another person … in a reasonable fear of violent behavior”, without any further investigation, sworn testimony of those alleging to be threatened, interviews of witnesses to the contrary, or objections even to hearsay from any “public defender”.
[2] Monahan, John, circa 1980. The Clinical Prediction of Violent Behavior, 1995 softcover ed., Jason Aronson, Inc., Northvale, NJ & London, 134 p., over 200 references from 1922-1979. {John S. Shannon Distinguished Professor of Law Horace W. Goldsmith Research Professor of Law Professor of Psychology and Psychiatric Medicine, University of Virginia School of Law}
[3] Colb, Sherry F., Aug 10, 2011, Armed and Crazy: Should Mentally Ill People Be Permitted to Own Firearms?, Justia.com {Justia columnist, Professor of Law and Charles Evans Hughes Scholar at Cornell University}
[4] 2002, autistic, 18-year-old Andre McCollins was shocked 31 times over a seven-hour period at the Judge Rotenberg Center for children with developmental difficulties (see http://www.cchrflorida.org/blog/electric-shocks-are-inhumane-and-barbaric/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlJ10qnrfl4&)
[5] McFarlane etal, 2006, Prevalence of vicimization, posttraumatic stress disorder and violent behavior behavior in the seriously mentally ill, Aust N Z J Psychiatry, 2006 Nov-Dec, 40(11-12):1010
[6] Saleptsi, etal, 2004, Negative and positive childhood experiences acress developmental periods in psychiatric patients with different diagnoses – an exploratory study, BMC Psychiatry, 2004 Nov 26, 4:40
[7] Sansone, et al., 2006, Childhood trauma, borderline personality symptomatology, and psychophysiological and pain disorders in adulthood, Psychosomatics 47:2, March-April 2006
[8] Teicher, et al., 2006, Sticks, stones and hurtful words: relative effects of various forms of childhood maltreatment, Am J Psychiatry, 2006 Jun, 163(6):993-1000
[9] Teplin, et al., 2005, Crime victimization in adults with severe mental illness: Comparison with the National Crime Victimization Survey, Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2005 August, 62(8):911-921
[10] Widom, Cathy Spatz, Ph.D., 1999, Posttraumatic stress disorder in abuse and neglected children grown up, Am J Psychiatry 1999, 156:1223-1229
[11] McNally, et al., Does early psychological intervention promote recovery from posttraumatic stress?, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4(2):45-79
[12] Hutaree militia in U.S.A v. Stone, et al., Fed. Dist. Ct. MIED, 2:10-cr-20123-VAR-PJK, 3/27/2012
[13] Licensed Professional Counselor Julie King, ODMHSAS Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health, Aug 2010
[14] Humphrey v. Cady, 405 U.S. 504 (1972)
[15] Including in: O’Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563 (1975), Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418 (1979), Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454 (1981) Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210 (1990), and especially Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880 (1983)
[16] Smith, Mark, staff writer, 1990s“ Profitable Addictions” series, Houston Chronicle; over 40 articles in the 1990s. Copies of these sources have been filed with the Honorable Justice Sotomayor on CD-ROM, and rejected, which the Court should consider changing its Rules to accept.
[17] Kerr, Peter, April 29, 1992, Government review finds 64% of psychiatric hospital stays aren’t needed, New York Times News Service
[18] Boodman, Sandra, May 08, 1992, Ads for Psychiatric Hosptials Come Under Attack, The Washington Post
[19] Sileo, Chi Chi, Jan 24, 1994, Rip-off depress mental health care – fraud in psychiatric hospital practices, Insight on the News
[20] Nadler, Art, Jan 24, 1998, Several claim they’ve been hospitalized against their will, Las Vegas Sun
[21] Smith, Mark, 1993. PROFITABLE ADDICTIONS/Doctor who triggered probe claims he's scapegoat; MARK SMITH Staff; SUN 07/18/1993 HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section State, Page 1, 2 STAR Edition; “Health Department records show that in the most recent fiscal year, the early screening program paid for 3,339 people under age 21 to be treated in private psychiatric hospitals. That included 205 children from ages 1 to 5. … "I can think of almost no circumstances where a 2-year-old should be in a psychiatric hospital. That's been a problem and I think the state recognizes that," said Dr. Mike McKinney”
[22] Laden, Vicki A. & Schwartz, Gregory, 2000, Psychiatric disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the new workplace violence account, Berkeley J. of Empl & Labor Law, 21:246-270
[23] One hears just 35 pages for one Justice.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
A long time ago, when I was a lot younger and better looking, I used to work at the National Space Technology Laboratory (NSTL) in Mississippi. Old Senator John Stennis had porked it through Congress to provide a place for NASA to test its space shuttle and huge rocket engines. It was so large, it had its own ZIP code; NTSL MS 39529. It had other major laboratories, like the National Atmospheric and Oceanography Administration Data Buoy Office and the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Laboratory, as well as their supporting contractors. About 13,500 acres in all, and around all that, 125,000 acres of "acoustic buffer zone".
I remember someone telling me that when it was built, they moved everyone out of their homes in the buffer zone, and tore down any structure that had walls. It hit the old people the worst. The Government uprooted people who had been living in their homes most or all of their lives. Some of the old people filled with so much sorrow, they died. You might think they could have found a compromise. After all, it is was really going to be so loud that no one could live there, how could anyone have worked at the laboratories?
I had nothing to say in forcing Mom out of her home. No one listens to me, including her. Plenty of old people in the retirement apartments where I once lived had visiting care. Some has oxygen bottles, or power chairs, or had come there for hospice. Dad died at home. Other than my sibling's insistence, there was no real reason why Mom couldn't have lived well to the end of her days in her own home.
Now I wonder about the ultimate effect on her. My sister-in-law tells me that Mom isn't eating and drinking enough. And she used to brag about how many glasses of water a day she drank. Aunt Gladys died in a nursing home with terribly painful arthritis. In spite of the pain, she hung on until Uncle Charlie died, of pneumonia I think. Then she stopped drinking, and went in a few days. Dad went the same way, by prior arrangement, when Parkinson's deprived him of the ability to swallow.
Deciding what is best for someone else, particularly when they don't really agree, doesn't always produce the intended effects. Mom has spoken about how she doesn't want to live to be a hundred. She could easily decide simply to stop trying and slip away.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
My Father never lost his temper. No, that was always someone else's responsibility - it was something we just did to ourselves. Recently I reminded Mom about the time that he took me out behind the house, cut a willow switch and horsewhipped me. I was about five, give or take a year. She excused him because that's the way that his god-fearing parents treated him. And, "He just did that because you didn't come when he called." I may have hung up on her. I certainly felt like it.
That's when it started. From then on I only deserved to be whipped, shunned, threatened and cut down. Oh, he provided the necessities of life, food, clothing and shelter. He just couldn't love, the thing I wanted most. Mom has never been able to understand why I tried to kill myself, back when I was 17 and 23. She just can't understand how anyone could think that way. But then, I never saw him whip her or scream in her face. That was just my problem. And she never said boo about it.
Not long ago, she was crying to me about how much it hurts her that her family (children, he's dead now) can't get along. Then she goes and does something that just sticks a knife in and twists. She told me that she can't see me Sunday afternoon because she's going over to my brother's house to celebrate Easter and his daughter-in-law's birthday. She always tells me when she can't see me because of the family affairs where I'm not invited.
I could say how that makes me feel, but you have to be careful. Say that the wrong way in the wrong place, and some jackleg psychiatrist, who is glad to tell you that you're just not "self aware" like she is, will get you committed in the local Kangaroo Kounty Kourt, and keep you until you're ready to thank her for "saving" you. As if that could possibly heal the grief. Which family is always so thoughtful to keep alive and fresh.
No, there's nothing like the love of a Christian family. It's like absolutely, positively,
nothing.
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.
-- from the cartoon series "Shoe" By Gary Brookins and Susie MacNelly
Re: Are You Pissed Off? Tell us about it.