In practice, this statement becomes "but they can't be institutionalized until they kill at least one person."
One of my friends is a doctor's nurse and she told me that last week her doctor was called in to remove several paper clips and a plastic spoon from the stomach of a homeless man. this is the third time this guy has swallowed metal objects. He does not have insurance and she said he is probably doing it to obtain the pain medication, or maybe he is just crazy.
“In practice, this statement becomes “but they can’t be institutionalized until they kill at least one person.””
About 25 years ago there was a homeless man in Tampa named Billy Ferry. His family had begged civic authorities to get him help. He was violent and abusive. He’d committed numerous crimes but kept getting out. One day he got a gallon bucket, filled it with gasoline and walked into a crowded supermarket. He slung the gas over the waiting queues and lit it. If I recall about 20 people eventually died of their burns and I don’t know how many were scarred. Finally, they put Billy away.
His family had significant documentation showing he should have been committed long before he killed so many people and the family had kept track of the number of visits they’d made to various agencies seeking help. There were two issues; the liberal “it’s not the homeless’ fault” and the fact that it costs money to put people into the hospital systems.