Guest post by Joe Hoft at JoeHoft.com – republished with permission.
Hochul’s Psychiatric Gulag: Liberty Sacrificed, Drug Side Effects Ignored
Republished with permission from AbleChild.
Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, believes that making involuntary commitment laws stronger in the empire state will make a difference in the increased number of random violent and deadly attacks in New York’s subway system and on its streets. The question that must be answered is this a problem of mental illness or a product of mental health intervention?
Hochul did not provide any specifics about the legislation that will be submitted during the Legislature’s upcoming session but promises to “finally change New York’s involuntary commitment standards.” “Finally?”
This knee-jerk legislative action is in response to the two, now famous, subway attacks where in one case a woman was set on fire and burned to death while another involved a man being pushed onto the train tracks into an on-coming train. In both cases, the alleged perpetrators were both known to law enforcement.
An illegal alien is responsible for setting the sleeping woman on fire and, literally, fanning the flames that consumed her life. Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, was initially deported from the US to Guatemala in June of 2018 and illegally reentered the US sometime later. Zapeta-Calil has been charged with one count of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree arson stemming from the subway attack on a sleeping, homeless woman.
The New Year’s Eve random attack on a 45-year-old man being pushed onto the tracks was carried out by 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins. Hawkins has a history of run-ins with New York police and in 2019 was charged with assault after slamming one officer to the ground, leaving one of New York’s finest with a back injury. Hawkins has been charged with attempted murder in the subway attack.
Were both men mentally ill? Given their violent acts, one might rightly surmise that they were not in their right minds. The problem, though, is that the public is never provided with the mental health records of those committing crimes. Before the Governor takes such radical action to severely restrict a person’s fundamental rights, it seems logical to advise the public of exactly what was the mental state of both men.
In other words, did Hawkins have a history of mental illness? Was he diagnosed with any mental disorders and, if so, what is the illness and how was he treated? Was Hawkins provided psychiatric drugs as treatment and how long has he been taking prescription mind-altering drugs? This is important information as these drugs carry significant adverse events including violence, psychosis, mania, and abnormal behavior. The same questions can be asked about Zapeta-Calil. During his illegal stay in the US and specifically New York (a Sanctuary City) did he receive psychiatric care? Was he prescribed psychiatric drugs and for how long?
For the Governor of New York to jump to involuntary commitment enhancements without providing the public with the mental health history of these men seems desperate. Afterall, psychiatry is the only medical profession that has no proof of abnormality for any of its alleged mental disorders. Yet, despite having no proof of any abnormality that is any psychiatric mental disorder, psychiatrists are the only medical profession that can legally commit someone to a psychiatric facility without their consent.
How, exactly, does this new enhanced involuntary commitment work? Already, a psychiatrist is capable of initiating the process of committing someone without their consent based solely on the psychiatrist’s opinion of that person’s behavior. That’s it. Does anyone really believe that the psychiatrist that prescribed the mind-altering drugs to a patient as “treatment” will seriously consider whether the prescribed drugs may have caused the patient to act abnormally? That the psychiatrist will consider that an adverse reaction to the psychiatric drug caused the violent behavior? No. In fact, more likely, the psychiatrist will push for involuntary confinement and a new drug regimen.
The key to involuntary commitment is “whether a person is considered a significant danger to themselves or others due to their mental state.” Frankly, given this very liberal definition it would appear that a great majority of Americans who are taking prescribed psychiatric drugs would qualify for involuntary commitment by virtue of the known adverse effects associated with most psychiatric drug treatments.
Does it sound like this requested legislative increased involuntary commitment could be abused? Yep. And history shows that it has been abused so the US Supreme Court demands under the Fourteenth Amendment that states must show a higher burden of proof prior to long-term civil commitment of a patient with serious mental illness.
A higher burden of proof? How does this work exactly when the state is attempting to involuntarily take away a person’s right to life, liberty, or property (14th Amend) when the psychiatric profession cannot prove a single mental disorder exists? Where is the medical proof of a mental disorder…an abnormality? There is none. There is no abnormality in the brain that can be detected with any medical tool such as an MRI, Cat Scan, blood work, urine tests. Nothing. So, a judge simply is taking the unsubstantiated and unprovable word of a psychiatrist whose profession depends entirely on fraudulent diagnoses.
What is of interest is that Hochul touted the 2023 $1 billion increase in mental health funding for the state. However, given the increase in violent attacks throughout New York City and the state as a whole, it would appear that despite the increased funding, no one is getting better. And, as if on cue, the New York Civil Liberties Union argued that despite billions being poured into mental health care and given the increase in violent attacks, “the real problem is there are not nearly enough mental health care resources available, especially for those who need them the most including people subject to involuntary commitment.” You can’t make this up.
Notice how no one in a position of power or authority notices that after decades of mental health intervention and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on mental health, the problem just gets worse and now is referred to a “crisis.” More and more people are diagnosed with mental illness and “treated” with mind-altering drugs and violent attacks and crime is rampant and nobody considers that they may be related. Hmmm… Mind-altering drugs and violent behavior. Hmmm… Prescribed mind-altering drugs and increased violence… That’s it! Nobody is getting better. But let’s pour more money into mental health and take away more individual freedoms. That’s the answer!
But it gets worse. Not only does Governor Hochul believe that more mental health intervention is the answer but takes that intervention to new heights to include increased loss of freedom to many who are in a mental health crisis because of mental health intervention. See how this works?
It’s time to consider what is causing the violent behavior, including psychiatric drug “treatments” known to cause violent behavior. Until then, Governor Hochul is a conductor on a mental health gravy train.
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