Despite the fact that the email on my Torch is still not working I've already emailed this in through a web-based email address but it hasn't appeared. There is an outside chance that it's being legitimately held up in the email system so I apologise if I repeat myself. However like the problem with the Blackberry email address this is most likely just someone trying to make my life difficult which is a shame because it means I can't tell you what I know about the charges in the Charles Haywood case.
Anyway. In the last few days the family of the late singer Micheal Jackson have been involved in some sort of family squabble. I've not been following in detail but yesterday it led to the adult son of Tito Jackson being granted temporary legal guardianship of Micheal Jackson's three children amid rumours that their existing guardian Katherine Jackson (Micheal's mother) is being held against her will to prevent her having contact with the children. This gives the story strong elements of grandmothers, deprivation of liberty and legal guardianship which is very similar to lasting powers of attorney. Therefore the scandal is a USA attempt to force my grandmother's case on to the Olympic agenda which is something of a wet dream for the Brits. On the plus side though at least it shows that African-Americans can share Anglo-Saxon values.
If you missed that story prior to starting his visit to Britain, Poland and Israel Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney told a meeting of veterans of foreign wars that Barack Obama didn't understand Anglo-Saxon values. That was a not so subtle way of nudging white Americans of a certain age in the ribs and whispering; "You see that Obama guy, he's black you know. Black."
The only good thing about that was it gave me the opportunity to read a really funny Tweet. Someone just said; "Romney's right, Obama doesn't understand Anglo-Saxon values. After-all he's been President for four years and not succumbed to Norman invasion once."
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Damn Torch!
It still won't let me set up my email. That's despite Blackberry sending me multiple network messages telling me how to do it. I follow them to the letter but still it refuses to connect. Fortunately I seem to have found an alternative route for now.
12:50 on 26/7/12
Phillips Idowu's Injury.
Despite the fact that the Olympics formally open tomorrow (27/7/12) most of Team GB's athletics squad are not even in the country let alone the Olympic village. Instead they're at a training camp in Portugal. Well all of them are except triple jumper Phillips Idowu who has stayed in the UK for treatment of a hip injury. As it's relatively well know that Idowu has a difficult relationship with the head of the Team GB athletics squad Charles von Commnenee this has led to much speculation over the legitimacy of Idowu's injury. In response Team GB have written to Idowu requesting his medical records and we are all awaiting the records to be sent before a decision can be made about whether or not Idowu will be able to take part in the games.
Obviously this is all a reference to me but the question is which of my injuries are we talking about? We could be talking about my foot injury which is being slow to heal due to my refusal the let it disrupt my training regime. While it's not the great fun to discuss arthritis related condition known as gout it certainly fits into that category of non-specific pain that is really big business in health care. Seriously doctors across the developed world spend large parts of their working lives saying things like; "Can you describe the pain?" before saying things like; "I'm sorry there's nothing I can do but have you tried one of the thousands of expensive pills and potions that are on the market?"
Alternatively it could be a reference to the long term mental health problems that have got me signed off sick. You see after Britain was awarded the 2012 Olympics and they set the Bristol Abuse Case (BAC) in motion back in 2006 the idea was that I would teach them everything I knew about causes and possible treatment for mental health problems. This would allow Britain to use the 2012 Olympics as an opportunity to unveil everything they'd been taught and present themselves as a world leader on the subject. Even though that hasn't happened Britain has promised so many people over say many years that there would be a big announcement they're pushing ahead with a sort of presentation anyway. This includes the Channel4 season of programs on mental health and a Parliamentary report that was published on Monday (23/7/12) about the state of mental health provision within the UK. One of the big areas of research in mental health problems is neuroscience which the alleged Aurora shooter was studying with a grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH). The US government/intelligence communities would have been well aware of Britain's plans and the NIH is sort of government/intelligence adjacent so the alleged Aurora shooter would have been in a position to hear the latest gossip. So while I think the conspiracy only existed in his head it might be worth bringing the issue up in questioning.
Also today (26/7/12) Britain's department of Business and Skills along with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) have opened Lancaster House in central London as Britain's business embassy for the duration of the Olympics. Although the Prime Minister gave the opening speech the embassy will primarily be the responsibility of the Business Minister, Vince Cable. Yesterday a jogger and member of a local athletics club was killed by an overhead power cable in Newport Essex. While I think this was just a freak accident it's certainly not a good omen.
Speaking of freak accidents I should explain that Britain is currently going through the school summer holidays. This allows all school aged children to spend the next six weeks running around doing whatever you like. So every year we do naturally experience a number of incidents such as the boys who died whilst open water swimming in a river near Bristol on Tuesday (24/7/12) and the boy who died after falling into a water filled quarry yesterday (25/7/12.)
10:20 on 26/7/12.
Obviously this is all a reference to me but the question is which of my injuries are we talking about? We could be talking about my foot injury which is being slow to heal due to my refusal the let it disrupt my training regime. While it's not the great fun to discuss arthritis related condition known as gout it certainly fits into that category of non-specific pain that is really big business in health care. Seriously doctors across the developed world spend large parts of their working lives saying things like; "Can you describe the pain?" before saying things like; "I'm sorry there's nothing I can do but have you tried one of the thousands of expensive pills and potions that are on the market?"
Alternatively it could be a reference to the long term mental health problems that have got me signed off sick. You see after Britain was awarded the 2012 Olympics and they set the Bristol Abuse Case (BAC) in motion back in 2006 the idea was that I would teach them everything I knew about causes and possible treatment for mental health problems. This would allow Britain to use the 2012 Olympics as an opportunity to unveil everything they'd been taught and present themselves as a world leader on the subject. Even though that hasn't happened Britain has promised so many people over say many years that there would be a big announcement they're pushing ahead with a sort of presentation anyway. This includes the Channel4 season of programs on mental health and a Parliamentary report that was published on Monday (23/7/12) about the state of mental health provision within the UK. One of the big areas of research in mental health problems is neuroscience which the alleged Aurora shooter was studying with a grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH). The US government/intelligence communities would have been well aware of Britain's plans and the NIH is sort of government/intelligence adjacent so the alleged Aurora shooter would have been in a position to hear the latest gossip. So while I think the conspiracy only existed in his head it might be worth bringing the issue up in questioning.
Also today (26/7/12) Britain's department of Business and Skills along with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) have opened Lancaster House in central London as Britain's business embassy for the duration of the Olympics. Although the Prime Minister gave the opening speech the embassy will primarily be the responsibility of the Business Minister, Vince Cable. Yesterday a jogger and member of a local athletics club was killed by an overhead power cable in Newport Essex. While I think this was just a freak accident it's certainly not a good omen.
Speaking of freak accidents I should explain that Britain is currently going through the school summer holidays. This allows all school aged children to spend the next six weeks running around doing whatever you like. So every year we do naturally experience a number of incidents such as the boys who died whilst open water swimming in a river near Bristol on Tuesday (24/7/12) and the boy who died after falling into a water filled quarry yesterday (25/7/12.)
10:20 on 26/7/12.
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
North Korean Flag Scandal
Although the Olympic opening ceremony doesn't take place until Friday (27/7/12) the games actually began today (25/7/12) with the first women's football matches being played. There was drama at the fixture between North Korea V Columbia match when the South Korean flag was displayed before kick-off prompting the North Korean team to walk off the pitch.
This was clearly no mistake and seems to be a deliberate attempt by the hosts to provoke a reaction from the North Korean delegation. That's because there's been lots of interesting developments in North Korean recently with senior generals retiring on health grounds, threats to expand the nuclear weapons and today's announcement that Kim Jong-Un has got married. So Britain's rather keen to know what's going on.
20:00 on 25/7/12.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
This was clearly no mistake and seems to be a deliberate attempt by the hosts to provoke a reaction from the North Korean delegation. That's because there's been lots of interesting developments in North Korean recently with senior generals retiring on health grounds, threats to expand the nuclear weapons and today's announcement that Kim Jong-Un has got married. So Britain's rather keen to know what's going on.
20:00 on 25/7/12.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
The UK's Recession Continues.
Today (25/7/12) saw the release of the provisional GDP data for the British economy for Quarter 2 (Q2: April, May, June). These figures may be revised up or down but they show that the UK economy shrunk by 0.7% for the period. This shrinkage is much more significant then the Q1 fall of 0.2% and the 2011 Q4 drop of 0.3% meaning that the UK is experiencing it's worst double-dip recession since records began and the situation appears to be getting worse.
The government has blamed the fall on the extra Jubilee bank holiday and the bad weather leaving it up to the opposition Labour Party to start the Olympic debate over Britain's economic policy. However a closer look at the figures show that the overall fall has been mainly driven by a 5.2% fall in the building/construction sector. This sector is largely driven by large scale property developers which are more dependent then most on the credit markets such as the London Inter Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) market. Worries over the Eurozone crisis and fears of a second banking collapse mean that the credit markets are incredibly tight at the moment making it very difficult for the building/construction sector to do business. Therefore the government has something of a point when it argues that the latest downturn owes more to market conditions in Europe then anything that's happening in Britain.
Market conditions in Europe have been particularly tough over the last week. Spanish borrowing costs have risen to around the 7.5% mark which triggered EU bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The Spanish stockmarket was forced to introduce a ban on short-selling as markets across Europe tumbled on the news. Also the Eurozone's strongest economies such as Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have either lost their AAA credit ratings or been put on negative outlook by some of the credit ratings agencies such as Moodys. The loss of these AAA credit ratings will make it much more expensive for the European Stability Fund (ESF) - which is meant to help nations like Greece, Spain and Italy - to borrow money. What seems to have caused this latest round of volatility was the announcement over the weekend that the Eurogroup is to go ahead with the E100bn bailout of Spanish banks. This has angered the financial sector because they wanted the Eurogroup to press ahead with plans that would have seen bailout money go straight to the banks rather then national governments and plans for further Eurogroup integration such as the introduction of Eurobonds or the European Central Bank (ECB) buying up troubled nations bonds. As they didn't get what they wanted the markets are now lashing out in order to put more pressure on the political leaders of the Eurogroup to give in and give the markets what they demand.
These problems in the Eurozone also seem to be a significant factor in today's decision by the Greek Olympic Team to send home triple jumper Voula Papachristou for making racist comments about African migrants and voicing support for the fascist Golden Dawn Party on Twitter. Although I don't know enough about Ms Papachristou to say definitively that she's not racist the whole incident does seem a little planned. The idea was first to warn official visitors to the London Olympics that they should be careful what they saw whether it's over electronic communications such as Twitter or not. Secondly it seems to be an attempt by Greece to get an even sweeter bailout deal by raising the spectre of the rise of the extreme-right in response to the nations economic problems. Thirdly it seems to be an attempt to promote a discussion about African migrants which is a big issue within the EU and even stretches as far as Libya, Niger and Chad which are all major stop-off points for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa as the try and make their way into the EU.
Obligatory time and date stamp: 15:50 on 25/7/12.
The government has blamed the fall on the extra Jubilee bank holiday and the bad weather leaving it up to the opposition Labour Party to start the Olympic debate over Britain's economic policy. However a closer look at the figures show that the overall fall has been mainly driven by a 5.2% fall in the building/construction sector. This sector is largely driven by large scale property developers which are more dependent then most on the credit markets such as the London Inter Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) market. Worries over the Eurozone crisis and fears of a second banking collapse mean that the credit markets are incredibly tight at the moment making it very difficult for the building/construction sector to do business. Therefore the government has something of a point when it argues that the latest downturn owes more to market conditions in Europe then anything that's happening in Britain.
Market conditions in Europe have been particularly tough over the last week. Spanish borrowing costs have risen to around the 7.5% mark which triggered EU bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The Spanish stockmarket was forced to introduce a ban on short-selling as markets across Europe tumbled on the news. Also the Eurozone's strongest economies such as Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have either lost their AAA credit ratings or been put on negative outlook by some of the credit ratings agencies such as Moodys. The loss of these AAA credit ratings will make it much more expensive for the European Stability Fund (ESF) - which is meant to help nations like Greece, Spain and Italy - to borrow money. What seems to have caused this latest round of volatility was the announcement over the weekend that the Eurogroup is to go ahead with the E100bn bailout of Spanish banks. This has angered the financial sector because they wanted the Eurogroup to press ahead with plans that would have seen bailout money go straight to the banks rather then national governments and plans for further Eurogroup integration such as the introduction of Eurobonds or the European Central Bank (ECB) buying up troubled nations bonds. As they didn't get what they wanted the markets are now lashing out in order to put more pressure on the political leaders of the Eurogroup to give in and give the markets what they demand.
These problems in the Eurozone also seem to be a significant factor in today's decision by the Greek Olympic Team to send home triple jumper Voula Papachristou for making racist comments about African migrants and voicing support for the fascist Golden Dawn Party on Twitter. Although I don't know enough about Ms Papachristou to say definitively that she's not racist the whole incident does seem a little planned. The idea was first to warn official visitors to the London Olympics that they should be careful what they saw whether it's over electronic communications such as Twitter or not. Secondly it seems to be an attempt by Greece to get an even sweeter bailout deal by raising the spectre of the rise of the extreme-right in response to the nations economic problems. Thirdly it seems to be an attempt to promote a discussion about African migrants which is a big issue within the EU and even stretches as far as Libya, Niger and Chad which are all major stop-off points for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa as the try and make their way into the EU.
Obligatory time and date stamp: 15:50 on 25/7/12.
Stoaway Boy.
Today (25/7/12) it has emerged that yesterday (24/7/12) an 11 year old British boy was able to board a Jet2 flight from Manchester airport to Rome without a parent, a passport or a ticket. He was discovered in Rome and returned to Manchester that same evening. For the Olympics this Britain once again expressing it's annoyance that I am still able to operate across international borders not only without their permission but after they've taken steps to stop me such as refusing me a passport.
It of course also draws attention to the border controls at Britain's airports which are going to be a major issue throughout the Olympics. At mid-day (11:00) today the government will be going to the High Court to apply for an injunction preventing border staff in the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union striking to tomorrow (26/7/12). The government will be granted this injunction because if you remember the injunctions that were granted against Unite the Union over the British Airways cabin crew strikes of which this brings up memories you will understand that the purpose of British Courts is to prevent trade unions taking strike action. When you're talking about the sort of people who make up the Olympic family having the tightest anti-trade union laws outside of places like North Korea and Burma is actually considered a great advert for Britain.
Obligatory time and date stamp: 09:55 on 25/7/12.
It of course also draws attention to the border controls at Britain's airports which are going to be a major issue throughout the Olympics. At mid-day (11:00) today the government will be going to the High Court to apply for an injunction preventing border staff in the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union striking to tomorrow (26/7/12). The government will be granted this injunction because if you remember the injunctions that were granted against Unite the Union over the British Airways cabin crew strikes of which this brings up memories you will understand that the purpose of British Courts is to prevent trade unions taking strike action. When you're talking about the sort of people who make up the Olympic family having the tightest anti-trade union laws outside of places like North Korea and Burma is actually considered a great advert for Britain.
Obligatory time and date stamp: 09:55 on 25/7/12.
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Bullet Control: Part 2.
OK I'll admit I should have done a bit of research before I made my big presentation about how the USA could bring in money laundering style alert system to prevent future mass shootings like the one seen in Aurora, Colorado last Friday (21/7/12). However judging by the comments made by the gun club owner who refused the alleged shooter membership I might just have accidentally stumbled onto a good idea. In fact provided it's done right along with not leaving loaded firearms lying around it should just become part of the responsible gun ownership that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is always talking about. The only question though is how to do it right.
Due to the way that ammunition and everything else is increasingly sold over the Internet and shipped across state lines these days I think it will have to be a federal system involving an agency like the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Assuming that people who routinely sell guns and ammunition already have to be registered with the ATF it should be as simple as the ATF laying down a set of criteria such as say the sale of more the 3000 rounds of ammunition that they have to be informed about. Once this channel of communication has been opened between vendors and the ATF worried vendors should then be able to voluntarily report things that aren't on the list but give them cause for concern. There is absolutely no suggestion that a report should cancel the transaction or stop the purchaser receiving their goods. However once the ATF receive an alert I think there are really two options for what they do with those alerts.
What I think is the least intrusive option would be for the ATF to simply pass the alert onto to a dedicated team in the purchasers local law enforcement department. In large metropolitan areas such as New York this will have to be an entire department. However in smaller, rural areas it could easily be just one police officer who deals with the one or two alerts they receive a year. Once local law enforcement get the alert they then simply go around to the purchaser's house and talk to them. Obviously they purchaser should be under absolutely no obligation to talk to the police or allow them on to their property. However as a general rule if someone has brought a lot of ammunition because they do a lot of hunting they will be more then happy to talk to the police and show off their collection while the person who starts ranting about how the government is out to get them before slamming the door in the police officer's face is really the sort of person you'd be worried about having a large stockpile of weapons. If after the visit the trained and experienced police officer is still concerned about the purchaser's behaviour they should then bring in a trained mental health professional who should then visit the purchaser. If both the police officer and the mental health professional are still concerned about the purchaser's behaviour they should then be able to use existing procedures to compel the purchaser to undergo a full psychiatric assessment or temporarily confiscate their weapons. Something that I believe police in most states are already allowed to do. Obviously if things get to this point there will need to be lots of safeguards such as lots of paperwork and the right to appeal to a judge or tribunal in order to protect the purchaser's rights.
The other option involves behavioural analysis which although not an exact science is getting better every day. This involves collecting data about a person such as their credit card history, Internet search history, arrest record, employment history, medical records etc and feeding it into a computer algorithm which collates this data and calculates the risk someone poses of carrying out something like a mass killing. This approach is much more invasive and raises all sorts of civil rights questions. However as we move more and more of our lives on-line the amount of publicly available information about us has grown dramatically. For example if you buy something on-line then your Internet Service Provider (ISP) along with your credit card company and the company you brought it from will all have a record of exactly what you brought and when. All of these company's databases are vulnerable to computer hacking and they are allowed to sell most of this information on to third parties anyway. Therefore it is possible to make an argument that by allowing law enforcement access to this information all you're doing is allowing them to catch up with what everybody else is already doing. In fact thanks to the Patriot Act I think you'll find the FBI, ATF and DHS are already doing this even if they don't like to talk about it.
If behavioural analysis was used in the alert system it would allow the ATF to filter the alerts before passing some of them onto local law enforcement. For example this would allow the ATF to quickly find out that someone who had brought 3000 rounds of ammunition is also the president of the local chapter of the NRA and regularly hosts safe and legal shooting parties on their farmland. As this person obviously poses no threat to public safety the ATF could simply mark the alert about them for no further action rather then passing it on to local law enforcement. This is actually pretty much how the money laundering alert system works. If you've ever brought a house the chances are that you've had an alert issued about you but because someone was quickly able to tell that all that had happened is that you'd brought a house with money you'd borrowed from a bank no further action was taken so you never found out about it.
While I'm here talking about the Aurora shootings for what I hope will be the last time I need to talk about the booby-trapping of the suspect's apartment. The police said that this was done in order to kill either first responders or neighbours while destroying any evidence in order to increase the mythology about the crime. I said that the booby-trapping was done in order to keep the crime in the spotlight for as long as possible. In saying this I did not mean to imply that the booby-trapping should not be considered an attempt to kill. Instead I do most certainly think that the suspect should be charged to the full extent of the law over the booby-trapping along with any traffic violations he may have committed on the way to the theatre. I actually think that in setting the explosives the suspect was trying to do both. That is to say that his plan A was to kill first responders and destroy evidence but failing that his plan B was for the police to spend ages trying to diffuse them. When he was arrested after his gun jammed and it became obvious that plan A hadn't worked he decided to move to plan B by telling the police about the explosives.
I wouldn't worry too much about trying to figure out his motive though because I think it is fair to say that his brain wasn't working properly at the time. So if you can't understand what he was thinking it's normally a good sign that your brain is working properly. However that is not to say that the suspect cannot be held criminally responsible for his actions. For example here in Britain Channel4 is currently doing a big season of programs about mental health. Apart from the obvious tie in with the Olympics this is an attempt to manufacture public support for government welfare reforms that have already seen a number of people passed fit for work shortly before they died of their illnesses. The statistic that keeps coming out of these programs though is that 1 in 4 UK adults will suffer from some sort of mental illness during their lives. Based on my experience is broadly true but obviously we can't have 25% of the population running around breaking whatever law they like whenever they like otherwise they would be no point having laws. So in order to determine insanity in the legal sense we use what is known as the M'Naghten rules.
The M'Naghten rules were drawn up in the UK in 1843 during the trial of Daniel M'Naghten for the attempted murder of Sir Robert Peel and the murder of his secretary. Obviously this test has been updated over the years as our knowledge of mental illness has grown and different nations have slightly different versions but the over-riding principle remains the same. The M'Naughten rules state that someone can only use a defence of insanity if at the time of the offence they were (a) suffering from a defect of reason or (b) a disease of the mind to such an extent that they were not aware of their actions or that their actions were wrong. An example of a defect of reason would be a psychotic episode. This is hard to explain but it is similar to an alcohol induced blackout. Basically one moment you're sitting in you home watching TV then suddenly it's three days later and you're sitting in a strange room surrounded by strange people and you've got no idea how you go there. Psychotic episodes are so similar to drink/drug blackouts that if a suspect has voluntarily and knowingly taken drink or drugs close to the time of the episode it is considered concurrent operation and they can't plead insanity. An example of a disease of the mind would be a delusional schizophrenic I once knew who was absolutely convinced that the film "Star Wars" was really happening in a galaxy far, far away and members of the Rebel Alliance and the Evil Empire were being sent to this galaxy to do battle here on earth. Although he was probably the most harmless person you would ever meet if one day he did kill someone because he thought that they were one of these undercover Evil Empire stormtroopers who were trying to kill him you wouldn't convict him of murder because even though he was wrong in his head he totally believed he was simply defending himself. You would lock him up until those delusions had gone though.
The disease of the mind part of the M'Naghten test is the most difficult because it all comes down to of a matter of degree. For example the Norwegian court that is currently trying Anders Behring Breivik could well rule that his diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is severe enough to constitute a disease of the mind and find him insane rather then guilty. However in order to make that sort of decision you really need an experienced and qualified mental health professional who has been able to examine the accused individual at great length. Clearly in both the Norway or Aurora case I am not that person so my opinion should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Also to the list of symptoms I would expect survivors of the Aurora shootings to be experiencing such as; sadness, anger, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, restlessness or mild paranoia I should add numbness because strangely a lot of people leave these things feeling nothing at all. Like I said these are all perfectly normal human responses to this sort of trauma. However if symptoms persist feel free to consult an actual proper qualified doctor.
Due to the way that ammunition and everything else is increasingly sold over the Internet and shipped across state lines these days I think it will have to be a federal system involving an agency like the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Assuming that people who routinely sell guns and ammunition already have to be registered with the ATF it should be as simple as the ATF laying down a set of criteria such as say the sale of more the 3000 rounds of ammunition that they have to be informed about. Once this channel of communication has been opened between vendors and the ATF worried vendors should then be able to voluntarily report things that aren't on the list but give them cause for concern. There is absolutely no suggestion that a report should cancel the transaction or stop the purchaser receiving their goods. However once the ATF receive an alert I think there are really two options for what they do with those alerts.
What I think is the least intrusive option would be for the ATF to simply pass the alert onto to a dedicated team in the purchasers local law enforcement department. In large metropolitan areas such as New York this will have to be an entire department. However in smaller, rural areas it could easily be just one police officer who deals with the one or two alerts they receive a year. Once local law enforcement get the alert they then simply go around to the purchaser's house and talk to them. Obviously they purchaser should be under absolutely no obligation to talk to the police or allow them on to their property. However as a general rule if someone has brought a lot of ammunition because they do a lot of hunting they will be more then happy to talk to the police and show off their collection while the person who starts ranting about how the government is out to get them before slamming the door in the police officer's face is really the sort of person you'd be worried about having a large stockpile of weapons. If after the visit the trained and experienced police officer is still concerned about the purchaser's behaviour they should then bring in a trained mental health professional who should then visit the purchaser. If both the police officer and the mental health professional are still concerned about the purchaser's behaviour they should then be able to use existing procedures to compel the purchaser to undergo a full psychiatric assessment or temporarily confiscate their weapons. Something that I believe police in most states are already allowed to do. Obviously if things get to this point there will need to be lots of safeguards such as lots of paperwork and the right to appeal to a judge or tribunal in order to protect the purchaser's rights.
The other option involves behavioural analysis which although not an exact science is getting better every day. This involves collecting data about a person such as their credit card history, Internet search history, arrest record, employment history, medical records etc and feeding it into a computer algorithm which collates this data and calculates the risk someone poses of carrying out something like a mass killing. This approach is much more invasive and raises all sorts of civil rights questions. However as we move more and more of our lives on-line the amount of publicly available information about us has grown dramatically. For example if you buy something on-line then your Internet Service Provider (ISP) along with your credit card company and the company you brought it from will all have a record of exactly what you brought and when. All of these company's databases are vulnerable to computer hacking and they are allowed to sell most of this information on to third parties anyway. Therefore it is possible to make an argument that by allowing law enforcement access to this information all you're doing is allowing them to catch up with what everybody else is already doing. In fact thanks to the Patriot Act I think you'll find the FBI, ATF and DHS are already doing this even if they don't like to talk about it.
If behavioural analysis was used in the alert system it would allow the ATF to filter the alerts before passing some of them onto local law enforcement. For example this would allow the ATF to quickly find out that someone who had brought 3000 rounds of ammunition is also the president of the local chapter of the NRA and regularly hosts safe and legal shooting parties on their farmland. As this person obviously poses no threat to public safety the ATF could simply mark the alert about them for no further action rather then passing it on to local law enforcement. This is actually pretty much how the money laundering alert system works. If you've ever brought a house the chances are that you've had an alert issued about you but because someone was quickly able to tell that all that had happened is that you'd brought a house with money you'd borrowed from a bank no further action was taken so you never found out about it.
While I'm here talking about the Aurora shootings for what I hope will be the last time I need to talk about the booby-trapping of the suspect's apartment. The police said that this was done in order to kill either first responders or neighbours while destroying any evidence in order to increase the mythology about the crime. I said that the booby-trapping was done in order to keep the crime in the spotlight for as long as possible. In saying this I did not mean to imply that the booby-trapping should not be considered an attempt to kill. Instead I do most certainly think that the suspect should be charged to the full extent of the law over the booby-trapping along with any traffic violations he may have committed on the way to the theatre. I actually think that in setting the explosives the suspect was trying to do both. That is to say that his plan A was to kill first responders and destroy evidence but failing that his plan B was for the police to spend ages trying to diffuse them. When he was arrested after his gun jammed and it became obvious that plan A hadn't worked he decided to move to plan B by telling the police about the explosives.
I wouldn't worry too much about trying to figure out his motive though because I think it is fair to say that his brain wasn't working properly at the time. So if you can't understand what he was thinking it's normally a good sign that your brain is working properly. However that is not to say that the suspect cannot be held criminally responsible for his actions. For example here in Britain Channel4 is currently doing a big season of programs about mental health. Apart from the obvious tie in with the Olympics this is an attempt to manufacture public support for government welfare reforms that have already seen a number of people passed fit for work shortly before they died of their illnesses. The statistic that keeps coming out of these programs though is that 1 in 4 UK adults will suffer from some sort of mental illness during their lives. Based on my experience is broadly true but obviously we can't have 25% of the population running around breaking whatever law they like whenever they like otherwise they would be no point having laws. So in order to determine insanity in the legal sense we use what is known as the M'Naghten rules.
The M'Naghten rules were drawn up in the UK in 1843 during the trial of Daniel M'Naghten for the attempted murder of Sir Robert Peel and the murder of his secretary. Obviously this test has been updated over the years as our knowledge of mental illness has grown and different nations have slightly different versions but the over-riding principle remains the same. The M'Naughten rules state that someone can only use a defence of insanity if at the time of the offence they were (a) suffering from a defect of reason or (b) a disease of the mind to such an extent that they were not aware of their actions or that their actions were wrong. An example of a defect of reason would be a psychotic episode. This is hard to explain but it is similar to an alcohol induced blackout. Basically one moment you're sitting in you home watching TV then suddenly it's three days later and you're sitting in a strange room surrounded by strange people and you've got no idea how you go there. Psychotic episodes are so similar to drink/drug blackouts that if a suspect has voluntarily and knowingly taken drink or drugs close to the time of the episode it is considered concurrent operation and they can't plead insanity. An example of a disease of the mind would be a delusional schizophrenic I once knew who was absolutely convinced that the film "Star Wars" was really happening in a galaxy far, far away and members of the Rebel Alliance and the Evil Empire were being sent to this galaxy to do battle here on earth. Although he was probably the most harmless person you would ever meet if one day he did kill someone because he thought that they were one of these undercover Evil Empire stormtroopers who were trying to kill him you wouldn't convict him of murder because even though he was wrong in his head he totally believed he was simply defending himself. You would lock him up until those delusions had gone though.
The disease of the mind part of the M'Naghten test is the most difficult because it all comes down to of a matter of degree. For example the Norwegian court that is currently trying Anders Behring Breivik could well rule that his diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is severe enough to constitute a disease of the mind and find him insane rather then guilty. However in order to make that sort of decision you really need an experienced and qualified mental health professional who has been able to examine the accused individual at great length. Clearly in both the Norway or Aurora case I am not that person so my opinion should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Also to the list of symptoms I would expect survivors of the Aurora shootings to be experiencing such as; sadness, anger, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, restlessness or mild paranoia I should add numbness because strangely a lot of people leave these things feeling nothing at all. Like I said these are all perfectly normal human responses to this sort of trauma. However if symptoms persist feel free to consult an actual proper qualified doctor.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)