‘I’ll Shoot You’ Update

You might have seen the post I did over the weekend (“‘I Will Shoot You!’ I Said”) in which I talked about the crisis on my block involving a large mentally ill man whose abusive treatment of his mother has occasioned at least ten visits by the sheriff’s office over the past few months. On Saturday afternoon, I sheltered her in my garage as he stood in the street screaming at her and cursing her. I had to threaten him with gun violence if he stepped onto my property in an effort to get to his mother. The deputies arrived and took him to jail.

Well, bad news. I had reached out to my city council member (who happens to live in this neighborhood) asking for help. He researched the problem, and directed me to the city-parish coroner’s office, which handles cases of people who are mentally ill and a danger to themselves and others. I drove out to the office to file a request for “protective custody” — that is, asking the city-parish to take the mentally ill man into its immediate care, as he is a danger to himself or others. As someone who had witnessed his threatening behavior, I have legal standing to do this.

When I got there and saw the form, I knew it was hopeless. I didn’t have vital information on the man (e.g., his date of birth, his Social Security number). Besides, the fact that he is already in custody — I assume he’s still in jail — means that protective custody is useless.

I talked with office staffers about the situation. “The mental health situation in Louisiana is really bad,” said one, meaning that there is little assistance for the mentally ill and their caregivers.

There is a shortage of beds in treatment facilities, and almost anything available to him is only short-term care. I asked if the regional state mental hospital is still open. Yes, they said, but there’s a severe shortage of space there.

The man’s mother told me on Saturday, “I’m the only thing between him and homelessness.” It sounds like she’s right.

From the information I gathered today, here’s what’s likely to happen: eventually, the man is going to be released from jail, or from any treatment facility that will have him. I don’t think he can come home; according to the deputy on Saturday, a judge forbade him from living there after he came before the court on charges of assaulting his mother earlier this summer. The mother told the deputy that she was not aware of this restriction. I’m not sure that she was being honest, but in any case, she’s aware now, and so are we. If I see him there again, I’m calling the cops.

But where can he go? That’s just it: there’s nowhere. He needs to be in a facility where he can be compelled to take the medication that keeps him stable. He only has problems when he’s off his meds. He doesn’t want to be on them at home, and a 60-year-old woman cannot force a 6’5″ man in his twenties to take pills he does not want to take.

This is how we get homeless people.

What a disgrace. That woman is suffering terribly. There are things she could be doing to resolve the situation that she’s not doing — this, based on things she told me (I won’t go into them in this space) — but mostly, she has no good options. And she’s heartbroken. She told us what a good person he was when he was younger, before the bipolar disorder, which runs in their family, struck. I told her on Saturday that the pot he smokes is not helping things. I said, “You let him smoke pot.” She replied, “I don’t let him do anything” — meaning that she has no control over him.

I don’t accept that. She could threaten to call the police on him for using drugs (he offered to sell drugs to a neighbor) — but if she made good on that threat, her mentally ill son would go to jail.

My primary job is to protect my family from this guy. Still, I cannot stand to see that poor woman suffer like this. It’s why I invited her to take sanctuary in my garage, and put myself between her and her deranged son. I told her after the cops took him away that she is not required to endure that kind of abuse from him as his mother. That he is going to end up killing her if she continues like this. Putting myself in her position, though, there’s a lot I would suffer from one of my mentally ill children if the only option was them going to live under a bridge.

What a cruel society we are. Between deinstitutionalization (a progressive cause) and underfunding mental health treatment, we leave people like this woman and her mentally ill son with nothing. And we leave this neighborhood with no protection either from his rages. I am afraid that the end of this story is going to be the mother severely injured or dead, and the son going to prison for the rest of his life, or the son shot dead by police in an attempt to protect the mom should their arguments spill out into the street again.

 

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