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So this guy at work kinda goes nuts one day...

  
 
Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero
20:33 / 07.12.02
...and walks into work wearing only a pair of shorts. I work in a reasonably pricey Italian restaurant, and half naked men do not go unnoticed by the patrons. We hustle the guy, whom we'll call Joel, into the back to find out what is going on. "Joel, buddy. Where's your clothes?" I ask him. "Don't need any." he tells me, and then adds "Are you the only one who can see me?" Obvisously something is up. His roomate tell us later that Joel burst into his room at four in the morning, accusing the roomate of "pissing on his goddess".

Joel's family puts him in a psych ward. He is released after a few weeks and comes back to work. Now, Joel is a kind person. He tries to give positive reinforcement to those who would otherwise have none. He is quiet and will honestly listen to anyone's problems and will offer his advice if asked. But it is growing more and more clear that he is schizophrenic, or suffering from some sort of mental illeness. He often tells me about the voices he hears, which in and of itself doesn't alarm me because I hear shit that's not there all the time, especially when I'm high. Which is usually when I'm with this cat if we're not working together. He appears to grant them more reality than they possess on their own, and tells me I really need to listen to these voices and reach out to them. I have no plans of doing so, at least not unless I'm in the proper enviroment such as a shamanic trance or whatever. I decide to stop smoking with this guy.

So everyone assumed that Joel was "crazy", or at least in a different place than most of us, but essentially harmless. Until he killed someone. On orders from Satan, apparently.

here's the story: http://www.detnews.com/2002/metro/0212/07/metro-29642.htm

He ran a redlight going a good fifty mph, and slammed into the side of a Ford probe, killing the driver. He told witnesses that he did it intentionally, that Satan had directed him to do it. Drugs were "readily apparent" in the car, according to witnesses. No one said what kind. The deposition that was read in court friday had Joel quoted as saying "My friends were all cheering me on. I didn't want any children to die, or old people, so I was looking for middleage people. I wanted to die so that I could live forever."

He is charged with first degree murder, among other charges. It's obvious to anyone that Joel is not in a healthy state of mind, that he badly needs help. But the guy he killed was 25, going to college, engaged to be married, and the son of a former Fox2 News reporter. The family of the victim is going for old school justice and does not see the point in putting Joel in a psychiatric ward.

This entire case confuses me. Joel is dangerous, but plainly nuts. I'm not sure how I should feel about the whole thing. Joel was a friend. I don't like the idea of him going to a maximum security prison for the rest of his life, especially a prison with the worst of Detroit in it with him. I'm not sure that's justice. But maybe I just don't like the idea of someone I knew and liked going to prison for murder.

What's likely to happen to him? What should happen to him, in your opinion?
 
 
autopilot disengaged
22:02 / 07.12.02
that's horrible.

fuck - you've got to wonder whether the criminal justice system, such as it is, even compares to being locked inside a mind misfiring - whether individuals this far gone ever come out of it enough to get a good grasp on what they've done.

conventional morality presupposes a norm, a consensus reality that we as a society agree upon. when someone loses all but the most slender of threads back to it... my sister may or may not be schizophrenic - it's a vexed question right now, though her symptoms are less pronounced or active than your friend's. i've seen her terrified almost to the edge of her sanity, cold sweat, absolutely believing her next breath was going to be her last, grasping at myself, my mother with clammy hands... although we know better - her delusions are her reality.

fact is, this is a lose/lose situation. joel, i would say, does not fit the criteria necessary to make what he did a conscious crime. the family of the victim, aggrieved at the loss of their son will, of course, find it difficult to forgive, and never forget. but i hope reason prevails, and whatever happens to him, account is taken of his mental state at the time.

punishing a madman is as pointless as posthumously hanging a suicide. the only practical course of action i can see is (hopefully humane) incarceration and treatment. but like i say - a happy ending for anyone in this story is unlikely.

must have been a shock for you. hope you're coping ok.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
23:15 / 07.12.02
Fuck. That's awful, man. I suppose it's easy to understand why the victim's family are so angry, so consumed with a desire for revenge-- they've lost someone they loved. But the way you tell it, Joel was obviously suffering from scizophrenia, or had some similar mental health needs.

Anyone can develop scizophrenia. Anyone. No matter who you are or what you do, you could wake up tomorrow suffering from this terrible condition. Most scizophrenics end up as the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. It's terribly, terribly sad that someone had to die before the severity of his condition was recognized; it would be a double tragedy if he was punished for being mentally ill.
 
 
Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero
15:43 / 08.12.02
Just so we're clear, what kind of chance does he have of going to jail for the rest of his life? Is it very likely that he will end up in a hospital of some kind? Is it likely that his mental condition won't be ignored? I don't know how these things work.
 
  
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