Althouse: "I need a gun, many guns, and then I have the ride of my life."

August 2, 2012

"I need a gun, many guns, and then I have the ride of my life."

"I will give myself a wonderful ending and be with Claas very soon. I like this plan, finally a good idea."

14 comments:

wyo sis said...: Here's a case for putting someone away because of mental illness. There is very little question that he's a danger to himself and society. I hope he is locked up forever for the sake of the people he threatened.; 8/2/12, 11:38 AM
lemondog said...: Grief, depression, guilt all intertwined......; 8/2/12, 12:03 PM
Michael K said...: Does anyone else get that annoying LA Times overlay that won't let you read the article unless you subscribe ? All it has done is to end my inclusion of the LA Times in my daily review of newspaper sites.

Another brilliant LA Times marketing idea. They can't wait for Obama to require newspaper subscriptions for citizenship.; 8/2/12, 12:09 PM
Richard Dolan said...: "Here's a case for putting someone away because of mental illness."

Maybe, but there is little to show long-term mental illness, and quite a bit showing acute depression. Whether that will pass (the expression 'time heals ...' arose from sadness like this) remains to be seen.

The portrait of the arsonist (assuming he had the requisite mens rea) here and the Aurora killer is a study in contrasts, highlighting the problem for law enforcement in these cases. Is this guy to be (mostly) pitied or (mostly) condemned? Criminal law draws many distinctions based on intent and mental state; it will be hard for a jury to figure that out if it gets that far. If the guy was trying to set a fire near where his son committed suicide, but thre was no showing of maliciousness, and assuming the guy had no prior history of anything like that, I think the jury would look for a way to go gently on him.

The law has an especially hard time dealing with threats -- where the words, standing alone, are the crime. Here the DA hasn't charged a threat crime, and probably won't. The defendant wrote the email messages to himself and his wife. Proving the required elements of a 'true threat' - a term of art coined by the SCOTUS in Watts v. US -- would probably be difficult.; 8/2/12, 12:10 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: What's with all the violence in academia?; 8/2/12, 12:10 PM
Anonymous said...: What an incredibly sad and tragic story. Yes he needs to be admitted and treated. Long term commitment though, I don't think it would stand up in court.; 8/2/12, 12:25 PM
wyo sis said...: So, too bad for the people he threatened?

wv
thatsBs

Now I'm being contradicted by word verification. Time to stop commenting.; 8/2/12, 12:43 PM
edutcher said...: "I need many guns"??

Has this guy ever heard of reloading?

Way too many Ahnold movies.

More seriously, another narcissist - note he didn't care a whit about the 200 families he'd be devastating.; 8/2/12, 1:30 PM
BarryD said...: The tree doesn't fall far from the apple.; 8/2/12, 1:36 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Bummer. When I saw the man's face I thought I could probably fix that in Photoshop. I'd use

edit -->transform --> warp

It throws a grid over the whole image and you can tug here and there to pull portions this way and that. It's a wonderful function to behold and to use but it does tend to rip the image sometimes when you tug too far, so you have to tug back to patch the space left by too much tugging or have another image behind it to fill the crack or otherwise fix it, or not let that happen. At any rate, his face can be realigned for improved symmetry. At least that's something.

I haven't anything wise or transcendent to say about the tragic turn of events except bummer.; 8/2/12, 2:27 PM
Rusty said...: Have you ever been to UC Irvine? If any place was a waste of real estate..........; 8/2/12, 2:56 PM
Anonymous said...: You can skip the annoying foundation-supported LAT and read here: http://www.ocregister.com/news/school-366639-professor-emails.html

If you think he was not a danger to others or that this was mere grief...I don't know. That's why people like Holmes succeed.; 8/2/12, 4:01 PM
TennLion said...: Do you get the feeling that a probable risk factor to deranged mass murder is a connection with higher education (professor/student)? Should that be an item on the profile?; 8/2/12, 9:11 PM
JAL said...: Sad, very sad.

Glad they caught him.; 8/2/12, 11:17 PM