Posted on 05/21/2019 6:58:29 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Civil commitment is a delicate issue for families and authorities. The way it works now is that when someone threatens a family member or runs through traffic screaming at cars, police can place a hold on them. A county judge then decides whether they’re “a danger to self or others.”
But that legal standard has not been defined by the courts.
The process is justifiably difficult. But many think it’s become so difficult that people only end up getting help after they break the law and are criminally committed. So Oregon is thinking about changing the way people with mental illnesses are civilly committed.
Civil commitments have been appealed so many times that the legal standard has gradually become harder and harder to meet. For example, one threat of suicide is no longer enough to prove a danger, according to the courts. And any perceived danger has to be “highly probable,” not just likely.
“We’ve reached a point where the bar is so high, that really the only way to enter the Oregon State Hospital, for example, is to be arrested. And we find that to be unacceptable,” Bouneff said.
He said Senate Bill 763...would define “dangerous to self or others” as “likely” to inflict serious harm within the next 30 days.
The bill also dictates that one threat of suicide can now be considered by a judge.
(Excerpt) Read more at opb.org ...
Is there really much difference between “highly probable” and “likely”?
Clear indications of “potential danger” to society:
Owning a gun.
Paying taxes.
Protesting paying taxes.
Voting for Trump.
Attending church.
Saying something in public against: Homosexuals, illegal aliens, any “favored” religious branch.
Wearing a MAGA hat in public.
Writing about democrats, racism, or performance.
You know, like the way MLK behaved.
Maybe. Possibly.
Do they actually still commit mentally ill people?
Seems like the truly mentally ill are overlooked, in the haste to capture and isolate from society the merely grouchy and crotchety curmudgeons, considered to be “mentally ill” by the Progressive attitudes of so many in authority. The truly mentally ill are allowed to take to the streets and live off handouts, as “homeless” people.
Rarely, and you can thank democrats, frightened republicans and the ACLU for that. And I bet the ACLU keeps it's mouth shut on this until or unless it starts to affect more than just conservative gun owners.
***“We’ve reached a point where the bar is so high, that really the only way to enter the Oregon State Hospital,***
Blame the movies TITICUT FOLLIES and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST. These caused the liberals, in the early 1970s, to demand the closure of mental institutions, and dumped the patients on the streets where they have been a problem since that time.
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