Racial Disproportion Seen In Applying 'Kendra's Law'

[Mizmoon]

I've been doing some research on "Kendra's Law", a law named after a woman who was pushed in front of a subway car in 1999 by a schizophrenic man.

The law basically allows New York State to force patients to take psychiatric medication or be confined to a psychiatric hospital (this is on top of the other existing "if you are going to hurt yourself or someone else" committment laws).

What I discovered is an article from the New York Times that reads as follows:
----------
The group, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, concluded that blacks were nearly five times as likely as whites to be the subject of court orders stemming from Kendra's Law. Examining court orders for treatment that have been issued since the law took effect, the group found that 42 percent of the 3,958 orders for treatment were invoked against blacks, who make up 16 percent of the state's population, while 34 percent of the orders applied to whites, who make up 62 percent.

"It's important to know if our mental health policy is disproportionately taking away the freedom of groups of people who have historically been oppressed," said John A. Gresham, the senior litigation counsel for the group, a research and advocacy organization.
http://jintajungu.ghostchild.com/index.php/topic,373.new.html (copy of article is posted there)
------------

Seeing as how there is this big nationwide "test everyone" mental health screening going on, I thought this is something that we should be aware of and discuss.

I object to these laws that target mentally ill people. So called "sane" people do tragic and awful things to others every day, but when it makes the paper no one says, "There goes another one of those sane killers!"

From what I understand, the most likely indicator that a person will be violent is use of drugs and alcohol, mentally ill or not.

Any thoughts?

[beyurslf]

1. I;ve always thought someone has to be a little off kilter to kill another

person. Just look at Bush....