From: mrbrklyn@panix.com   
      
   https://nypost.com/2024/12/25/opinion/its-time-to-get-real-help-   
   or-the-seriously-mentally-ill/   
      
   It's way past time to end the left's 'perversion of compassion'   
   and get help for the seriously mentally ill Post Editorial Board   
   6?7 minutes   
      
   Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres got it 100% right this month when he   
   slammed progressives for their ?perversion of compassion? in allowing   
   vagrants to haunt our transit hubs and streets.   
      
   Particularly those who are mentally ill and in need of help.   
      
   They make life miserable ? and dangerous ? for everyone. Including   
   themselves.  Police and city outreach workers from a PATH team roam   
   Herald Square Station to offer the homeless shelter and city   
   services.  Police and city outreach workers from a PATH team roam   
   Herald Square Station to offer the homeless shelter and city   
   services.   
      
   Progressives think they?re being kind, considerate, compassionate   
   to these troubled people.   
      
   Civil libertarians think they?re protecting their freedoms.   
      
   Many of them truly believe they?re doing the moral thing by letting   
   these people fester.   
      
   They?re horribly wrong,   
      
   It?s not compassionate to let to someone sleep on the floor of Penn   
   Station or to permit violent ones to attack innocent people.   
      
   It?s not compassionate to let druggies shoot up and pass out on   
   the streets.   
      
   It?s not compassionate to leave a woman, who appeared to have a   
   walker and is thought to have been homeless, defenseless on an   
   F-train while another psycho fatally lights her on fire, as a   
   suspected illegal, drug-addled, homeless Guatemalan immigrant did   
   Sunday morning.   
      
   That attack shocked the entire nation.   
      
   Need more? How about the shouting maniac who stabbed a straphanger   
   watching Netflix in an unprovoked attack on board a Brooklyn train?   
      
   Just how many of these such incidents will it take for state   
   lawmakers to ditch their perverse ?compassion,? get some real help   
   for these people (whether they want it or not) and keep violent   
   ones away from innocent New Yorkers?   
      
   Do they really want to leave it to the Daniel Pennys to deal with   
   more Jordan Neelys?   
      
   Last week, The Post saw first-hand the uphill battle faced by the   
   city?s late-night outreach teams trying to remove troubled vagrants   
   wandering the 34th Street Herald Square Station?s underground   
   wasteland: Of 96 individuals encountered ? many of them struggling   
   with serious mental-health issues ? only 16 agreed to go to a   
   shelter or be hospitalized.   
      
   Why were 80 allowed to refuse assistance when they obviously needed   
   it?   
      
   The answer in a nutshell: Albany lets them refuse.   
      
   ?We have the tools to stop the problem,? Rep. Torres told The Post?s   
   Kirsten Fleming. ?What is lacking is the political will.?   
      
   Bingo!   
      
   Blame for the city?s inability to take into custody ill-clothed,   
   unhoused, ranting vagrants ? who are clearly dangers to themselves   
   and/or others ? falls squarely on ideologues and bought-off lawmakers   
   in Albany who oppose taking action or fear political backlash from   
   far-left radicals.   
      
   Nor has Gov. Hochul come to the resuce. Her office now says she?s   
   working on a plan that will help make it possible for doctors to   
   keep people in psychiatric care longer, so they don?t end up back   
   on the street.   
      
   And the state Office of Mental Health published new regulations   
   requiring comprehensive outpatient discharge plans so individuals   
   committed for mental-health reasons don?t just cycle through the   
   system.  Unidentified suspect speaking to police at Coney   
   Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station after a tragic incident on   
   an F train Early Sunday morning, NYPD cops found an unidentified   
   woman engulfed in fire while sitting on an idling F train at the   
   Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station. Obtained by the Post   
      
   But how long before that goes into effect?   
      
   And will it be enough to fully address this widespread, horrific   
   problem?   
      
   Let?s be blunt: Albany must radically shift its mindset and give   
   the city greater authority to remove individuals who are unable to   
   meet basic needs for food, clothing and medical care or who otherwise   
   represent threats.   
      
   Once taken off the streets and placed into appropriate care   
   facilities, clinicians can more better assess their needs.   
      
   The criteria for involuntary commitment must be broadened, because   
   sufferers of serious mental illness lack awareness of their mental   
   disease or the ability to do what?s in their own best interest.   
      
   A sign of hope: a promising new bill ? the Supportive Intervention   
   Act, drafted by City Hall aide Brian Stettin, who authored Kendra?s   
   Law ? that calls for commonsense changes to state mental-health   
   laws that prevent the city from helping those who cannot understand   
   they need help.   
      
   The SIA would redefine ?danger to self? to include psychiatric as   
   well as physical risk of harm.   
      
   It would also grant diagnostic authority to licensed mental-health   
   counselors, expanding the number of qualified clinicians to conduct   
   assessments as members of the city?s outreach teams.   
      
   Licensed social workers and other clinicians are opposed out of   
   self-interest, and state Sen. Samra Brouk, chair of the Mental   
   Health Committee, is blocking it.   
      
   They need to stand down.   
      
   To get more at-risk persons into appropriate care, NYPD cops,   
   mental-health outreach workers and judges must be trained in applying   
   the new standard.   
      
   Gov. Hochul can greatly assist the city and Mayor Adams by putting   
   SIA into her FY 2026 state budget plan.   
      
   Brouk and other misguided progressives bleat about criminalizing   
   the mentally ill, but they fail to acknowledge it?s far more criminal   
   to let them go untreated.   
      
   They claim that the mentally ill are 11 times as likely to be   
   victims of violence and five times more likely to be murdered.   
      
   But that?s all the more reason to get them out of harm?s way.   
      
   Elected officials, from Hochul on down, have a primary duty to   
   protect severely mentally ill New Yorkers from themselves and others   
   ? and to protect New Yorkers from them.   
      
   Maybe instead of offering thoughts and prayers for victims like   
   the unfortunate woman immolated on the F train, they?ll act swiftly   
   to pass the Supportive Intervention Act.   
      
   True compassion demands real action to prevent the next tragedy.   
      
   Our political leaders clearly have the tools to care for those who   
   need help and to keep New Yorkers safe. It?s time for them develop   
   the will.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)