Justice versus mental health
Bloody Vancouver attacks shine light on dilemma
“Crime is an individual moral forfeit on an epidemic scale.”
— James Ellroy, LAPD '53
The broken windows theory was supposed to be about the little things.
It's the junkie barfing on the storefront, the mental-health case menacing kids on the subway, boosting booze from the LCBO, the stolen lawn chair, not paying your TTC fare and scores of other so-called lifestyle crimes.
Cops in New York and elsewhere discovered that when you take care of the little things, the big stuff gets cleaned up too.
It's a lesson no one in this country has heeded, particularly not politicians, activists and the judiciary.
In Vancouver on Wednesday at 7:38 a.m., a 34-year-old lunatic from suburban White Rock attacked two strangers.
The attacker severed the hand of a man in his 50s and then stabbed him in the head.
Eight minutes later, a second man was murdered by the same man.
Cops didn't release the killer's name or details on the homicide, only saying they believe the victim was in his 70s.
The bizarre bloodshed was called “horrific,” “disturbing” and “completely random” by the police chief and mayor.
But here's the catch: The “very troubled” man has had more than 60 interactions with cops and was on probation at the time. He was still screaming at people when officers caught up to him.
For a chaser, toss in previous convictions for assault and assault causing bodily harm.
Noted Toronto criminal lawyer Monte Macgregor told the Toronto Sun that by the time action is taken to deal with the lost souls wandering the streets, the guys from the morgue are on the scene.
“The reality is our justice system has virtually no meaningful answer for mentally ill or drug offending transients that continue to commit small menial crimes — even if they include low-level threatening or violent offences,” Macgregor said. “The likelihood is this accused has a lengthy track record of minor offences that don't warrant any lengthy periods of detention and then boom, they snap and someone ends up dead.”
An old cop once told me that every solution to runaway crime is always political. The blues can only do so much but without any kind of backing.
Macgregor agrees with that assessment. He also said authorities are handcuffed when it comes to detaining people with crippling mental-health issues.
These folks should be in a longterm treatment centre for our safety — and theirs.
“Until the government empowers mental-health authorities to detain individuals that pose a threat to society, these random, unexplainable attacks will continue,” Macgregor said. “The justice system is designed to respond to occurrences, with little to no means to actively prevent them in these circumstances.”
Most people don't want a Minority Report scenario (see the online harms act) where cops pounce on citizens for crimes they might commit.
Macgregor told the Sun that unless the mentally ill commit a heinous crime or check themselves into a mental-health centre, the status quo stays.
“There's an active debate about whether you should be permitted to detain individuals under the Mental Health Act in Ontario,” he said, adding that that's usually only after a crime has been committed.
“Otherwise, they're typically on the street until something happens … then they detain and seek to punish or determine if it was a mental-health issue.
“It's the vast chasm between justice and mental health — there's no answer but to have regrets and try to respond in the aftermath.”
That's after the meat wagon leaves the blood-soaked sidewalk bound for the morgue.
Jennifer Winkler and her father, Dale.