What do we do about crazy people?
The recent murder of a local police officer and shooting of another by a person whose mental illness had allegedly been previously reported to law enforcement highlights the difficulty of responding to reports of mental illness.
On May 10, 2021, Edward Giron killed SLO Police Detective Luca Benedetti and wounded Detective Steve Orozco by lying in ambush as they executed a search warrant seeking stolen property. Detective Benedetti left a wife and two young children. Detective Orozco is expected to recover.
In comments to this paper’s sister publication, New Times, Giron’s mother indicated that he had been in a “declining mental state,” including displaying paranoia (“Deceased shooter who killed SLO police officer had a mental health crisis, his mother said,” May 13). She reported that she had fruitlessly contacted authorities numerous times advising them of his deterioration, and had even requested that he be placed in a 5150 mental health hold, which the authorities declined to do.
What should have been done? Of course, in hindsight it is obvious that Giron was dangerously deranged and should have been locked up. Still, Giron’s criminal record was reportedly limited to “nonviolent drug, alcohol, and property offenses,” and no threats of violence were reported. Giron’s criminal record was similar to that of many of our local homeless and other residents, and recent laws and edicts have ordered the release of many such offenders. Many of our more extreme political partisans are paranoid. Behavior is difficult to predict. Who do we lock up?
If we knew the answer to that question, Detective Benedetti would still be alive.
In the absence of serious criminal acts or threats, law enforcement is prohibited from intervening and placing anyone into care, unless they can show that they are an “imminent danger to others or themselves.” In practice, this is a difficult standard to meet. Even then, the “hold” is for a very limited time. Otherwise, no one can be forced to get treatment, and many of the mentally ill refuse it.
These limitations are the result of our society’s ambivalence and conflicting demands. We want to be safe, and we want the ill to be helped, but we also respect a person’s autonomy and right to choose their own lifestyle. Much of the problem comes from the fact that mental illness is subjective. We often celebrate eccentric and quirky behavior.
We no longer want to be judgmental. A person engaged in a loud and angry argument with themselves is no longer a raving lunatic, but instead is a “nontraditional conversationalist” or merely “inwardly referential.” What is more judgmental than calling someone crazy?
So we have defaulted to a standard requiring that a person must be about to kill someone else, or be perched on a ledge ready to jump, to enable the law to intervene. We have chosen to wait until an individual actually commits or threatens violent crimes before we act.
The question of official policy on mental health interventions also is a central part of other issues. Should the authorities be able to force treatment on the addicted and mentally ill homeless? Should an unproven allegation of domestic violence be enough to seize someone’s guns under a red flag law?
Intervention comes down to a very difficult choice between public safety and our personal freedoms. Before you quickly respond with some glib, ideologically driven proposal, please conduct an experiment: First, read Detective Benedetti’s obituary, and consider the loss to his widow and children, and the countless others who have lost loved ones to the criminally insane. And then go on down to the DMV and decide if you would entrust the government to determine the state of your mental health.
John Donegan is a retired attorney in Pismo Beach who knows that he is sane because his parents had him tested. Send comments for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 10-17, 2021.
